Golden Girl (PBC)

The book provides a rare behind-the-scenes look at what it is like to be a national-level coach and swimmer, as well as some of the downsides of the sport. The book was an enjoyable read, written in an engaging storytelling style. I love swimming, and I found it all fascinating. I wish there were more books out there about competitive swimming.However, the book was falsely billed, perhaps in an effort to boost sales, as a Natalie Coughlin biography. What it really was about was the Cal swimming program and Coach Teri Keever -- a topic that is well worth the ink, but it's not what buyers of the book were led to expect. A true Natalie Coughlin biography would have included interviews from her parents, siblings, boyfriend and former coaches. There were some quotes from her teammates, but even those were too few. It would have been nice to have more on-the-scene reporting from practices and meets rather than after-the-fact summaries.On the plus side, Mr. Silver covered the important issue of overtraining in young swimmers, as well as pressures for young female swimmers to stay thin. He shows why so many swimmers burn out by the time they get to college, and discusses some alternative training methods that are yielding great success.I wish that he or someone would write a more ambitious book about the world of elite competitive swimming. It's a great sport, and there is much more to be said. Whether the book is about an Olympian, a successful and inspiring coach such as Ms. Keever, or about training techniques, bring it on. I would like to read a book that takes a deeper dive into one of these topics.

As a former collegiate All-American swimmer, I found Silver's book to be illuminating in many ways. While the writing style is a bit forced at times (for drama's sake), it is overall an interesting read and an honest look into the inner workings of competitive swimming.I found the willingness to criticize established swimming tenets (and people) refreshingly honest, and to the Silver's and Coughlin's credit, they never try to pass of any of the asseratations as fact but always as opinion. Certainly, this has irked many online reviewers who are naturally protective of their coach and/or training style, but this is one of the few books which actually say publically what many of us in the sport have felt for decades -- we are overtraining and burning out our swimmers, particularly our sprinters.Will this be an interesting book to a non-swimmer? Probably so, and mostly for the controversy mentioned above.In particular, I find the Natalie-bashers' strategy confusing. If you disagree with her opinions, fine. If you feel it's so off-based, then why worry about it?

satisfies my all the desires by this give a great expressions tome

It's hard to fill a biography when your subject hasn't reached the quarter century mark, so I'm not surprised to find a lot of filler in this tome. You would think Silver - a former Sports Illustrated writer who has co-authored books with Dennis Rodman and Jerry Rice - was getting paid by the word, with the amount of space he dedicates to Natalie's coaches (past and present), teammates, rivals and family. Yes, those things should be present since they're part of Natalie's world and shape her outlook. However, when I repeatedly get several pages about Teri McKeever's recruiting methods, and the individual dramas the Golden Bear swimmers are experiencing I begin to think the title should be pluralized. We're no longer reading about a person or even a swimmer/coach pair; we're getting the life story of the entire aquatic congregation.Natalie becomes a supporting character in what is supposed to be her book, with the notable exceptions of when Silver expresses a somewhat creepy fascination for her (whenever they meet for lattes), or when he's explaining why Natalie is ALWAYS right: Natalie chooses a school her parents don't like: she's right; Natalie feels she was over trained at Terrapins: she's right; Natalie blows up at McKeever over swimming the 200 back; she's right. Natalie breaks the rules and physically strikes out at her teammates during a training exercise: she's right; Natalie nearly gets the team disqualified because of a superstition: she's right. I dare say that if Natalie committed a felony, Silver would detail why she was right.So therein is the problem: the book doesn't focus on Natalie nearly enough, and when it does, it's so worshipful of everything she does it's off-putting. As a reader, I felt I was drowning in her superiority.I regret reading Golden Girl because the things I like about Natalie - she is eco-conscious, she participated in "Project Believe" (an anti-doping initiative), she competed on Dancing with the Stars - are now overshadowed by Silver's smug portrayal of her. If you are and want to remain a fan of Natalie, I would recommend her twitter feed and facebook posts before I would recommend this book.

I ordered this book for my daughter as she needed to do a biography on someone she looks up to. She loved seeing all that Natalie had to overcome. Natalie is a good role model for someone who would like to make it to the Olympics!!

When I purchased this book I misread the title and thought it would be more of Natalie Couglin and an autobiography. Instead it is spread amongst many issues, including Natalie's upbringing as well as some other major swimmers she encounters and the coaches as well. As a former swimmer I usually read through these books in a day, this one took me a couple of plane rides where I was forced to read something. It wasn't available at my public library which is why I bought it. I wouldn't suggest buying it though. But it did give some good insight into several different aspects into Natalie and her swimming career just not as specific as I thought it would be, such as in Amanda Beard's memoir.

I believe, Coughlin deserves a better written biography. Her coaches may have been mentioned more than Coughlin, in the book. No childhood and many details of life lacking unfortunately. I hope this very bright woman writes her own autobiography in the future.