Books to Read Before the Summer Olympics

Book Summary

Go-getter Olivia just graduated from university and has her eyes set on a dream job – working for the 2024 Summer Games in Athens. Zeke is a runner focused on securing his title of fastest man in the world. But he’s also a dreamy heart-throb who just had a well-publicized breakup with a gymnast.

On the first day of training, Olivia and Zeke literally collide and instantly connect. But it’s not just a fun summer for these two. Olivia’s dream internship isn’t what she expected, and the competition begins to stir up uncomfortable memories for Zeke. Can they still achieve their individual dreams while pursuing a new romance?

Book Summary

Zoe and Kate are both world-class athletes who have been friends and rivals since they began Elite cycling training in England. Despite their very different personalities (Zoe is adventurous while Kate is more cautious and reliable), they become best friends and see each other through many ups and downs.

Although they’ve always been competitors, they’ve managed to limit their rivalry to cycling and not let it seep into their friendship. At least that was the plan…

We are first introduced to the women in 2004 at the time of the Athens Olympics, and then the story picks up as the 2012 Olympics in London approaches. It will be the final Olympics for both women, and they know they’ll be pushed to their physical and emotional limits.

Book Summary

At age 82, Sydney is dying and finally ready to tell her son about her trip to the 1932 Olympics in Berlin as a member of the US Swim team. Over the course of the novel, which is told in alternating 1936 + 2004 timelines, we learn how Sydney ended up in Berlin. In the 2004 timeline, Sydney is watching the Athens Olympics with her son as she reveals her past.

Real people are mentioned throughout the book, including athletes like Eleanor Holm, and Leni Riefenstahl, who was in attendence to documented the Olympics for Hitler. However, readers say that this isn’t a war novel or even a sports novel. Instead, it’s a slow-burn, character-driven read focused on family secrets.

Book Summary

Cozy mystery fans will love this trip to the 1928 Games in Holland with the characters Ginger, Scout, and Basil. While the trio is on holiday to watch the games, Scout takes a job helping with the horses in the stable.

Female athletes are only allowed to participate in a handful of events, so it’s extra surprising when a competing British woman turns up dead in one of Amsterdam’s canals. Basil & Ginger must step in to help the Amsterdam police get to the bottom of the case.

Book Summary

In the 1928 Olympics, Betty was part of the first women’s track and field team. She came home as America’s Golden Girl, but a near-fatal plane crash changed her future.

Louise is one of the few Black girls in her Massachusetts town, and she sees competing in track & field as a way to prove her worth on a level playing field. She risks everything to join the Olympic team.

Helen is an awkward and poor tomboy in Missouri, but dreams of escaping the hardships on the farm through her athleticism. It seems like a pipe dream until a chance encounter changes everything.

With the world creeping closer to war, Betty, Louise, and Helen fight for their chance to compete at the 1936 games in Berlin. All three main characters are based on the lives of real trailblazing women who were a part of the first integrated women’s Olympic team.

Book Summary

In this memoir, which was named the 2020 William Hill Sports Book of the Year, and which tells the full story behind the 2017 Oscar Award-winning film, Icarus, the author details how he was the mastermind behind, and then the whistleblower that brought down, Russia’s secret doping empire.

This story charts Rodchenkov’s childhood growing up behind the Iron Curtain, his first encounter with doping as a student-athlete at Moscow State University, and his career working for the Soviet Olympic Committee.

In 2015, Russia’s Anti-Doping Centre was suspended by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) following revelations of an elaborate state-sponsored doping program at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. The doping program involved a nearly undetectable steroid delivery system known as ‘Duchesse cocktail’ and tampering with and switching of urine samples in a complex state-sanctioned cover-up.

Book Summary

Written by a native of Brazil and a prize-winning journalist, this engaging non-fiction looks back at a city filled with unfortunate poverty and corruption as it prepared to host huge international events – the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics. 

While the book robustly covers the problems that plagued the city and the background that set the stage for them, it also focuses on the wide range of people dedicated to helping Rio de Janeiro achieve its potential. 

Book Summary

During the summer of 1936, Germany began once again to rise in power. In denial about the threat of war, the English aristocracy looked to heal relations with Germany via the age-old institution of marriage. Debutantes flocked to Berlin – among them was Viviane Alden. But unlike the women looking for romantic matches, Viviane has a different purpose. 

With camera in hand, she looks like just another pretty young tourist taking holiday photos during the summer Olympics, but in reality, she’s seeking photographic evidence that Germany is rearming. To assist her mission, she’s paired with a journalist who is closely guarding his heart.

Viviane expected to encounter hatred and injustice in Germany, but with the eyes of the world on Berlin, the country was on its best behavior. As they graciously welcome tourists with a celebratory atmosphere of goodwill, Viviane is determined to uncover the truth.

Book Summary

Avery has spent her entire life training as an Olympic gymnast. But then a disastrous performance ends her career. Her best friend, Jasmine, went on to become an Olympic champion and then married their emotionally abusive coach, which sent Avery reeling.

After breaking up with her boyfriend, who was also a star athlete, Avery returns home to Massachusetts. Ryan, a new coach, asks for Avery’s help with a promising young gymnast with Olympic aspirations. Although her return to the gym is reluctant, sparks begin to fly with Ryan. But then, everything changes again when a gymnastic scandal breaks, impacting both Avery & Jasmine.

Book Summary

In 1937, a teacher on the island of Maui in Hawaii challenged a group of children to learn to swim. Their families were poverty-stricken sugar plantation workers, and they faced virulent anti-Japanese sentiments because of their heritage. Their community had no pool, so these children, malnourished and barefoot, trained by swimming upstream in the dirty irrigation ditches that snaked down the mountains into the sugarcane fields.

Their teacher himself could barely tread water, but in spite of everything they had working against them, within the first year, they began outracing Olympic athletes twice their size. In the second year, they became international champs and made headlines worldwide.

The dawning of WWII and the cancellation of the 1940 and 1944 Olympics were a major setback, but they’d have one last chance for Olympic glory in 1948.

Book Summary

This book tells the story of the soldiers, sailors, and marines who were paralyzed on the battlefields and in the POW camps of WWII. The returned home to a world that wasn’t used to dealing with their injuries and to doctors that saw little hope for them.

But many of the servicemen, some of them former athletes, refused to be written off. Determined to create a life without limits, they formed the first wheelchair basketball teams. Their British counterparts then joined them in creating the Paralympic Games.

This book draws upon the veterans’ own words, stories, and memories about this era.

Book Summary

This novel tells the story of a gifted Rwandan runner named Jean Patrick Nkuba. Born a Tutsi (one the the three main ethnic groups in Rwanda), everything about his life is complicated by the politics of his homeland. Take his running coach, for example – a Hutu (another of the ethnic groups) who was secretly training the very soldiers that would hunt down Tutsi families.

In spite of all the challenges of simply surviving, Jean Patric dreams of becoming Rwanda’s first Olympic medal contender in track. He hopes that achieving this feat might help to deliver his people from violence. But when the killing begins, Jean Patrick is forced to flee, leaving behind the woman, the family, and the country he loves. Finding them again will be the race of his life.

Book Summary

In this memoir, Katie Ledecky shares her journey from Bethesda, Maryland where she fell in love with the pool, to her world championships, seven gold Olympic medals, and the incredible record of winning more Olympic races than any other female swimmer.

She’s often asked what it takes to compete successfully at an elite level, and her book shows the endless work she put in, the support of her family, and the wisdom of her coaches along the way.

Book Summary

Jim Thorpe, a member of the Sac and Fox Nation, excelled at every sport he played. At the Carlisle Indian School, he was praised as an All-American football player. But off the field, he dealt with the racist assimilationist philosophy “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.”

Despite this, he went on to win gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, become the star of the first class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and play major league baseball.

His later life included trouble with alcohol, marriages, and money. This 2022 biography explores the entire life of this incredible athlete.

Book Summary

In this Own Voices YA novel, Camila is an Argentinian teenager with a passion for soccer and the talent and skill to go far in the sport, but her parents don’t know anything about it. At home, Camila lives in the shadow of her rising soccer star brother and constantly strives to be a model daughter. She does her best to meet her mother’s expectations and avoid upsetting her abusive and short-tempered father.

When her team qualifies for a major South American soccer tournament, Camila dreams her talents will earn a scholarship to a North American university. But her parents wouldn’t knowingly allow a girl to play fútbol, and she can’t play in the tournament without their permission. Then, to complicate things, the boy Camila once loved (who has become an international soccer player in Italy) is back in town.

Camila will be forced to face her secrets as she tries to make her way in a world that doesn’t value her dreams and ambitions.

Book Summary

This non-fiction tells the true story of a women’s basketball team that overcame all odds and brought something positive to a struggling community.

In the early 1930s, Sam Babb traveled from farm to farm near the tiny Oklahoma college where he coached. The growing Dust Bowl conditions were devastating farming families, but Coach Babb offered hope. 

At a time when women’s sports were largely considered unhealthy and unladylike, Coach Babb recruited young women and offered them a chance at a better life. He promised them a free college education in exchange for joining his basketball team. 

As the women discovered a passion for the game, the team began to win. And they just kept winning. Their improbable journey took them all the way to the national championship game.

Book Summary

In the spring of 1971, after two decades of hostility, tensions eased a bit, and the balance of power was realigned between China and the United States. The progress was not achieved by politicians, though, but rather by ping-pong players. The media dubbed it “Ping-Pong Diplomacy,” but there’s much more to it than you might have heard reported in the news.

This non-fiction book takes a deep dive into the back story and the ways in which China manipulated the game of ping pong at the highest levels in order to focus attention where they wanted it (and where they didn’t). The book introduces an eclectic cast of real-life characters, from spies to hippies to ping-pong-obsessed military generals.