Athletes have always been seen as role models, as heroes, as gifted individuals who can entertain and inspire their fans with acts of grace, strength, agility, and skill. From ice hockey to track and field, from tennis to boxing, African Americans have excelled in every major sport. From the late 19th century through the present day, many of the most respected and well-known personalities in professional and amateur sports have been African Americans.
Women's basketball is more popular now than ever, and the number of girls playing youth basketball is at an all-time high. At the same time, the competition on the court has become stiffer than ever before. "Winning Basketball for Girls, Fourth Edition" covers all the elements of the game, from the basics to the most advanced moves and plays. Drills and exercises give athletes the tools they need to learn new techniques and fine-tune their existing ones.
Each issue of Muscle & Body contains multitudes: specific recommendations on sports supplementation with dosages and timing; effective makeovers with real readers; easy-to-understand explanations of complex sports-nutrition products and training systems; profiles of top athletes who share their secrets of success; and inspirational stories that will motivate you to be your best.
This biographical encyclopedia covers athletes as far back as tennis pioneer Mary Outerbridge (b. 1852) and as recent as Sarah Hughes (b. 1985), the figure skater whose stunning come-from-behind win at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City captured viewers' hearts worldwide. Edelson, a former sports columnist and reporter, has chosen 153 athletes based on three criteria: "greatest athletes," "most significant trailblazers," and "diversity" (of sport, race, and time period).
It is difficult to imagine a time when African Americans were not part of professional sports in the United States. So many admired and beloved African-American athletes are national heroes today: Michael Jordan, Venus and Serena Williams, Tiger Woods, Florence Griffin-Joyner, Shaquille O'Neal, Muhammad Ali, to name a few. No such celebrity athletes appeared on magazine covers when Jesse Owens was a boy in the 1920s, no African American stars for him to hope to emulate.
