Examining the Olympics

"Wyomia Tyus may not be as well known as Wilma Rudolph or Billie Jean King, but her athletic accomplishments and life story are equally captivating, as related in this remarkable and inspiring memoir...This deeply moving book by one of our greatest athletes makes indelible statements about integrity, growing up black in the South, social activism, gender equality, and inclusion." --Booklist, STARRED review "A half-century after her triumph, a record-setting Olympic champion recieves her due...[Tyus] has lived a life of accomplishment and meaning. An inspirational story that deserves to be told." --Kirkus Reviews "[Dave] Zirin's Edge of Sports imprint at Akashic is publishingTigerbelle (Sept.), a memoir from two-time Olympic gold medalist sprinter Wyomia Tyus. The daughter of a tenant farmer in rural Georgia, she won top honors at the 1964 and 1968 Olympics. In the book, coauthored by Elizabeth Terzakis, she recalls her turbulent path to the top and her struggle to find recognition afterward." --Publishers Weekly, Sports Preview "Tigerbelle offers a fresh perspective on the history of women's sports in the United States. From her one-of-a-kind accomplishments on the track to her contributions to equal pay and publicity for women through the Women's Sports Foundation, Wyomia Tyus has earned her place in the pantheon of American sports sheroes and heroes." --Billie Jean King "Wyomia Tyus's story is truly an American story. It is one of profound loss and quiet courage, illustrating the contradictions of race and gender in this country and an unrelenting commitment to growth in spite of life's obstacles. From a dairy farm in Griffin, Georgia, to the annals of American sports history, Tyus inspires and teaches us all about 'getting out of the blocks' with humility, grace, and power. Her story gives true meaning to the phrase Black Girl Magic!" --Eddie S. Glaude Jr., chair of the Center for African American Studies at Princeton University "Wyomia Tyus has been an eyewitness to the cutting edge of history. Along with her Tigerbelle teammates, she pioneered sporting opportunities for women. As a great Olympic champion, she became the first person to successfully defend an Olympic hundred-meter-dash title. As a black woman, she saw how America treated her heroes, and how quickly they were cast aside. Wyomia's perspective is observant, thoughtful, and full of hope--a voice of her generation that needs to be heard." --John Naber, five-time Olympic medalist swimmer In 1968, Wyomia Tyus became the first person ever to win gold medals in the 100-meter sprint in two consecutive Olympic Games, a feat that would not be repeated for twenty years or exceeded for almost fifty.Tigerbelle chronicles Tyus's journey from her childhood as the daughter of a tenant dairy farmer through her Olympic triumphs to her post-competition struggles to make a way for herself and other female athletes. TheHidden Figuresof sport,Tigerbelle helps to fill the gap currently occupying Black women's place in American history, providing insight not only on what it takes to be a champion but also on what it means to stake out an identity in an often hostile world. Tyus's exciting and uplifting story offers inspiration to readers from all walks of life. With a foreword by MSNBC host Joy Reid, and an afterword by sportswriter Dave Zirin.

Provides a history of athletics at Tennessee State University, where Ed Temple coached decades of "Tigerbelles," TSU's womens' track team. This volume covers several teams; part three is devoted to the The Tigerbelles.

Wilma Rudolph was born black in Jim Crow Tennessee. The twentieth of 22 children, she spent most of her childhood in bed suffering from whooping cough, scarlet fever, and pneumonia. She lost the use of her left leg due to polio and wore leg braces. With dedication and hard work, she became a gifted runner, earning a track and field scholarship to Tennessee State. In 1960, she became the first American woman to win three gold medals in a single Olympic Games. Her underdog story made her into a media darling, and she was the subject of countless articles, a television movie, children's books, biographies, and she even featured on a U.S. postage stamp. In this work, Smith and Liberti consider not only Rudolph's achievements, but also the ways in which those achievements are interpreted and presented as historical fact. Theories of gender, race, class, and disability collide in the story of Wilma Rudolph, and Smith and Liberti examine this collision in an effort to more fully understand how history is shaped by the cultural concerns of the present. In doing so, the authors engage with the metanarratives which define the American experience and encourage more complex and nuanced interrogations of contemporary heroic legacy.

The hardening of racial lines during the first half of the twentieth century eliminated almost all African Americans from white organized sports, forcing black athletes to form their own teams, organizations, and events. This separate sporting culture, explored in the twelve essays included here, comprised much more than athletic competition; these "separate games" provided examples of black enterprise and black self-help and showed the importance of agency and the quest for racial uplift in a country fraught with racialist thinking and discrimination. The significance of this sporting culture is vividly showcased in the stories of the Cuban Giants baseball team, basketball's New York Renaissance Five, the Tennessee State Tigerbelles track-and-field team, black college football's Turkey Bowl Classic, car racing's Gold and Glory Sweepstakes, Negro League Baseball's East-West All-Star game, and many more. These teams, organizations, and events made up a vibrant national sporting complex that remained in existence until the integration of sports beginning in the late 1940s. Separate Games explores the fascinating ways sports helped bind the black community and illuminate race pride, business acumen, and organizational abilities.

Chapter four features a section on the Tennessee State University Tigerbelles,. A unique combination of history, biography, bibliography, and statistics, the widely acclaimed first edition of Outstanding Women Athletes has now been updated to reflect the many significant changes that have taken place in women's sports in America in recent years. Now added are the biographies of 26 sports figures who have recently emerged as role models in traditional women's sports such as tennis and figure skating as well as in sports that historically excluded women such as mountain climbing, bullfighting, and boxing. Also new is a chapter profiling 10 women's championship teams, including each organization's history, brief biographies of 200 selected team members, and major team achievements.

From the New York Times-bestselling author of Clemente and When Pride Still Mattered comes the blockbuster story of the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome--17 days that helped define the modern world.