“Imagine George Plimpton. Except he’s got real athletic ability. And he’s a woman. And she’s taken on a challenge that makes Paper Lion look like a brisk game of Go Fish.
Meet Kathryn Bertine, elite triathlete, former professional figure skater, and starving artist. In the summer of 2006, Bertine was out of a job, a home, and a general sense of direction when ESPN staked her to a dream: she was given two years to make the 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing–by any means possible. As Good As Gold is the hilarious, heroic account of Bertine’s serial exertions in the realms of triathlon, modern pentathlon, team handball, track cycling, road cycling, rowing, open water swimming, racewalking, and–fasten your seatbelts–luge.
On her journey, the obstacles range from jet lag to jellyfish, flat tires to dating disasters, knuckle bashings to road rash. But, as time starts running out, Bertine doesn’t sweat the small stuff, only the large—like scouring the globe for a tiny nation to adopt her, and pushing her body and mind as far as it will go. Maybe all the way to China.
Between harrowing, but laugh-out-loud episodes of triumph and humiliation, Bertine takes short “Water Breaks” to contemplate the ins-and-outs of fan mail, failure, re-hydration, nasal reconstruction, and what it really means to be an athlete.
Kathryn Bertine swims, runs, and rides like a champion—and her writing is victorious; mining literary pleasures from her physical pain and her spiritual tenacity. In As Good As Gold, Bertine proves she has something more valuable than an Olympic medal. She’s got Olympic mettle. When it comes to the human heart, she takes the gold.”
Buy the book on Amazon:
So You Wanna Be an Olympian?: One Woman, Twenty-six Sports, and 800 Days to Fulfill a Lifelong Dream
