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Making Waves: My Journey to Winning Olympic Gold and Defeating the East German Doping Program
Making Waves My Journey to Winning Olympic Gold and Defeating the East German Doping Program Author:Shirley Babashoff, Chris Epting During Shirley Babashoff?s extraordinary swimming career, she set 37 national records and six world records. Prior to the 1990s, she was the most successful U.S. female Olympian and, in her prime, was widely considered to be the greatest female swimmer on the planet. — Heading into the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, Canada, Babashoff was picture... more »d on the cover of Sports Illustrated; hopes were high that she would become the ?female Mark Spitz??the American swimmer who returns home with a collection of gold medals.
All of that changed once Babashoff questioned the shocking masculinity of the East German women swimmers. It was clear to her that the East Germans were doping, and so she spoke out. However, for voicing her opinion against those who cheated, Babashoff was punished. The media vilified her as ?Surly Shirley.?
Babashoff would go on to win four silver medals in individual events in the 1976 Olympics, as well as a gold medal as the anchor swimmer on the 4 x 100 freestyle relay?considered one of the greatest upsets in Olympic history, ranking right up there with the U.S. Hockey team?s ?Miracle on Ice? victory over the Soviets in 1980.
From her difficult childhood growing up with an abusive father in Southern California in the 1960s, through her triumphs as the greatest female amateur swimmer in the world, to her first Olympic experience at the 1972 Munich Games, to the heartbreak of the 1976 Games and her subsequent retirement from competitive swimming, Making Waves displays all of the characteristics that made Babashoff both the greatest female swimmer of her time and the most controversial?unflinching, honest, and forthright, it is a story that is, unfortunately, more relevant today than at any other time in the history of competitive sports.« less