Strong Like a Woman

100 GAME-CHANGING FEMALE ATHLETES

LAKEN LITMAN FOREWORD BY BILLIE JEAN KING INTRODUCTION BY STEPHEN CANNELLA

IN ASSOCIATION WITH SPORTS ILLUSTRATED PROCEEDS TO BENEFIT THE WOMEN’S SPORTS FOUNDATION

The definitive, illustrated celebration of 100 of the most important women in sports as covered by Sports Illustrated since its founding in 1954.

Marking the 50th anniversary of Title IX, this is an inspiring celebration of 100 women who are still paving the way for future generations of female athletes. This important and groundbreaking volume chronicles both the breadth and rich diversity of sports and the athletes who compete in them: from the global stage of the Olympics and the Paralympics and the Women’s World Cup, to collegiate athletics, to Gen-X sports. From Janet Guthrie to Megan Rapinoe, and Billie Jean King to Aly Raisman, this is the ideal gift book for anyone involved with girls in athletics, whether as an athlete or coach, parent, daughter, sister, niece, or granddaughter.

Laken Litman has written for various publications, including Sports Illustrated and USA TODAY, covering events like the Super Bowl, the Olympics, and the Women’s World Cup. As one of the twentieth century’s most respected and influential people, tennis legend Billie Jean King has long been a champion for social change and equality. King founded the Women’s Sports Foundation in 1974, creating future leaders by providing girls with access to sports. Stephen Cannella is co-editor in chief of Sports Illustrated. Sports Illustrated is the undisputed leader in sports journalism, showcasing the greatest moments in sports history.

SPORTS

256 pages, 8 x 10” 200 color photographs HC: 978-0-7893-4119-8 $32.50 Can: $43.95 UK: £22.50 April 5, 2022 Rights: World UNIVERSE

STRONG WOMAN LIKE A

100Game-Changing Female Athletes

Laken Litman

Foreword by Billie Jean King Introduction by Stephen Cannella

US Soccer’s Alex Morgan

UNIVERSE

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PLAY LIKE A GIRL

We may never see someone like this again. There are a lot of great athletes in history who have accomplished spectacular things, but Simone Biles is in another dimension.

The 4'8" gymnast has won every meet she’s entered since the 2013 national championships. She won five medals at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, four of them gold. She has more world titles than any other gymnast in history, male or female. After the Rio Games, Biles took a year off, during which she stood up for herself, her teammates and other survivors of sexual assault in speaking out against former USA Gymnastics national team physician Larry Nassar.

Later in 2018, Biles won five individual medals, including gold in the all around, at the world championships in Doha, Qatar . . . while suffering through a kidney stone. It’s no wonder Sports Illustrated once ran a story about her with the headline “Legend in her prime.” Because Biles, 24, is still transforming the sport while transfixing all of us.

At the 2019 world championships in Stuttgart, Germany, Biles won five gold medals, which gave her 25 world championship medals to pass the USSR’s Vitaly Scherbo (23) for the most ever. She also debuted two new moves. One was a double-double dismount off the balance beam, which consists of two twists and two backflips and is now known as the “Biles.” And the other was a triple-double, composed of a double backflip with three twists in her floor routine, which is now called the “Biles II.”

While Biles is so transcendent inside the gym, she might be more inspirational outside of it by the way she has courageously used her voice. In January 2018, Biles penned an Instagram post announcing that she, too, had been sexually abused by Nassar.

“After hearing the brave stories of my friends and other survivors, I know that this horrific experience does not define me,” Biles wrote. “I am much more than this. I am unique, smart, talented, motivated and passionate. I have promised myself that my story will be much greater than this and I promise all of you that I will never give up. I will compete with all my heart and soul every time I step into the gym. I love this sport too much and have never been a quitter. I won’t let one man, and the others that enabled him, to steal my love and joy.”

Biles’ words helped prompt USA Gymnastics to shut down the mighty Karolyi Ranch and move to a new training facility. Additionally, Biles’ criticism of former interim USAG CEO and president Mary Bono’s social media posts helped force her resignation four days after being hired. Bono had tweeted and then deleted a photo of herself drawing over a Nike swoosh on her shoe days after the company announced an ad campaign featuring Colin Kaepernick, the former NFL quarterback who famously knelt during the national anthem to protest racial inequality and police killings of black people.

She’s also become an advocate for education and foster kids, because she grew up in foster care. Biles’ birth mother suffered from drug addiction, and when she was three years old, she and her siblings were removed from their mother’s custody and were later formally adopted by their grandparents. In 2018, Biles launched a scholarship fund at the University of the People to assist with covering costs associated with kids earning their degrees.

Yes, Biles will go down as the greatest gymnast of all time, and one of the greatest athletes of all time. She’s firmly in that prestigious GOAT group with Michael Jordan, Serena Williams, Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps. She has no peer in her sport and her second act post-gymnastics could be even more impactful.

ABOVE: Stretching with coach Aimee Boorman during training session photo shoot at the World Champions Centre. RIGHT: 2016 Summer Olympics: Team USA gymnast Simone Biles posing with 4 Gold medals and 1 Bronze medal.

Simone

BILES

gymnastics

NOTES:

https://vault.si.com/vault/2018/12/17/best-bar-none https://vault.si.com/vault/2016/08/22/flipping-awesome https://www.simonebiles.com/bio https://www.uopeople.edu/tuition-free/our-scholarships/simone-bileslegacy-scholarship-fund/ https://www.instagram.com/p/Bd_C55cHWUQ/?hl=en

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PLAY LIKE A GIRL 25

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