Jesse Owens' gold-medal winning feats at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin struck a mighty propaganda blow against Adolf Hitler. The Nazi leader had planned to use the German games as a showcase of supposed Aryan superiority. Instead, there was American black athlete Owens on the podium being photographed by Hitler's personal photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann. In addition, Owens would figure prominently in the groundbreaking film Olympia by Hitler's favorite...

Jesse Owens' mother frequently told him, "Put your best foot forward." So Jesse followed her advice, worked hard, and made his dreams come true as one of the greatest Olympic champions of all time. But it wasn't easy, as Jesse had to overcome many obstacles. Even though World War II hadn't started yet, Adolf Hitler controlled Germany during the 1936 Olympics. He wanted to prove during the games that Germans were a superior "race" to other people of...

When fourteen-year-old Leggie LaGrande, star runner on the Bricklin Middle School track team, suffers a hamstring injury at the very start of the season, he figures his shot at the Junior Olympics is over--but his coach insists that even if he cannot run he can still compete in some other track and field event, so he finds himself working out at the shot put, competing with a new student whom he dislikes.

A biography of the African-American woman who overcame crippling polio as a child to become the first woman to win three gold medals in track in a single Olympics.

Sunny tries to shine despite his troubled past in this third novel in the critically acclaimed Track series from National Book Award finalist Jason Reynolds. Ghost. Patina. Sunny. Lu. Four kids from wildly different backgrounds, with personalities that are explosive when they clash. But they are also four kids chosen for an elite middle school track team--a team that could qualify them for the Junior Olympics. They all have a lot to lose, but they...

It is 1970 in Red Grove, Alabama, and at Lu Olivera's school the white kids and black kids sit on different sides of the classroom. Six-grader Lu just wants to get along with everyone, but growing racial tensions will not let Lu stay neutral about the racial divide in school. Her old friends have been changing lately--acting boy crazy and making snide remarks about Lu's newfound talent for running track. Lu's secret hope for a new friend is fellow...

This is a story about outrunning the devil and achieving the impossible with faith, diligence, and the desire to give back. Lomong chronicles his inspiring ascent from a barefoot lost boy of the Sudanese Civil War to a Nike-sponsored athlete on the US Olympic Team. He shares his commitment to keep moving forward and find God in each step.

"Imagine denying your core and soul. Then add to it the most impossible expectations that people have for you because you are the personification of The American Male Athlete." Bruce Jenner, the celebrated Olympic icon and later the patriarch of one of the most famous families in the world, seemed to be living a dream life of success, fame, and prosperity. But the all-American image and million-dollar smile belied a lifelong struggle with gender dysphoria,...

"Throughout his life, there was nothing Kyle Garlett hated more than losing, and he knew early on that four diagnoses of cancer could not match his spirit of competition. His appetite for victory and success and his love of life pushed him past his health hurdles-including a bone marrow transplant, hip replacement, and a heart transplant-and into the greatest challenge of his life: the Ironman Triathlon World Championship. Kyle tells his amazing life...