The Women's Sports Encyclopedia - Hardcover

This clear and complete history of women's sports exudes a fan's enthusiasm and an anthropologist's attention to detail. With a foreword penned by Billie Jean King, the scope of this book is enormous, including hundreds of biographies, a complete listing of the latest world records, and a chronological time line of women's sports from 500 B.C. to the present. Hall of Famers like Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Cheryl Miller, and Olga Korbut are, of course, prominently featured, but what makes this book such fun are the stories of obscure and little-known women athletes who compete for the love of the game.

Announced as "the first popular comprehensive reference of female athletes, their achievements, and their sports," this book contains performance records, major events, governing bodies, and other data on some 31 sports in which women compete. They range from the expected (basketball, tennis, and gymnastics) to the less familiar (luge and judo). The accompanying biographies of female athletes are more succint than those in A.J. Johnson's Great Women in Sports (Visible Ink, 1996), but entries that were compared contained the same information. The editors (including Markel, who developed, edited, and published The Baseball Encyclopedia, now published by Macmillan) do not consider mountain climbing a competitive sport but list two women climbers in their "Miscellaneous" section, along with flier Amelia Earhart and drag-racer Shirley Muldowney. Sidebars define specialized terms used in volleyball, explain why pole-vaulting may be a new women's sport, and discuss fashion and tennis clothing, while a chronology of "Fantastic Firsts" reports on Pocahantas's gymnastic ability. A useful reference that also offers pleasure to browsers, this is a desirable purchase wherever interest in women's sports is strong. (Index not seen.)?Paula M. Strain, Rockville, Md.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.