An Olympics Reading List

Get ready for the 2024 Summer Olympics

The countdown has begun for the 2024 Summer Olympics starting on July 26! It's such a thrilling time all across the globe as people come together to cheer as their country's most accomplished athletes compete for gold. What makes it even better? The right reading material to keep you occupied as you wait for your favorite events. From compelling historical accounts to memoirs from Olympic athletes to sporty novels, here's a roundup of Olympics-worthy literature. 

Olympics IRL

Get the real-life stories behind the heroic, powerful performances we see during the world's most celebrated athletic competition.

Total Olympics: Every Obscure, Hilarious, Dramatic, and Inspiring Tale Worth Knowing
This glorious, photo-filled volume is packed with legendary characters, forgotten records, crazy accomplishments, unbelievable feats, wacky contests, controversial moments, and more. Sports Illustrated's Jeremy Fuchs offers up this tapestry of highly entertaining trivia drawn from the Olympics history books.

Running for My Life
Kidnapped at the age of six, Lopez Lomong became one of the Lost Boys of Sudan. After his miraculous escape from a prison camp, he arrived in the U.S. through the Unaccompanied Refugee Minor program. This book chronicles his inspiring ascent from a barefoot lost boy to a U.S. Olympic team captain.

Letters to a Young Gymnast
With grit and determination, Nadia Comaneci ushered in a new era for women's sports, one where young girls could vault into the arena of superstardom. Her memoir shares her journey from the young girl that Bela Karolyi discovered in a Romanian elementary school to an Olympics legend known around the world.

No Limits: The Will to Succeed
Swimming phenom Michael Phelps shares remarkable anecdotes about his life and his legendary career. Highlighting memorable races and valuable lessons he has learned, Phelps offers candid insight into the mind and experiences of a world champion, inspiring readers to follow their passion straight to the finish line.

A Kind of Grace
With six Olympics under her belt and a dozen gold medals to show for it, Jackie Joyner-Kersee ranks among the all-time greats in the heptathlon and long jump. In this entertaining and inspiring autobiography, she tells her story, discussing the struggles and obstacles she had to overcome to rise to the top.

Open: An Autobiography
Groomed from birth to be a tennis champion by his demanding father, Andre Agassi writes candidly about his life in the spotlight, including his uncomfortable relationship with fame; his marriage to Brooke Shields; his growing interest in philanthropy; and the highs and lows of his celebrated career.

The Boys in the Boat
Now a hit film, Daniel James Brown's book tells the thrilling story of the American rowing triumph at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Amidst the depths of the Depression, nine working-class boys from the American West beat the odds and shocked the world when they took gold. A Young Readers Edition is available.

Olympic Pride, American Prejudice
For another powerful account from the 1936 Olympics, Deborah Riley Draper and Travis Thrasher share the astonishing, inspirational, and largely unknown account of the eighteen African American athletes who defied the racism of both Nazi Germany and the Jim Crow South to compete—and change the world.

Misty: My Journey Through Volleyball and Life
Destined for beach volleyball superstardom, having been raised on famed Muscle Beach in Santa Monica, California, Misty May-Treanor rose to fame when she won gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. This is the passionate, poignant, and triumphant story of her life and remarkable athletic career.

My Life
In this candid autobiography, Earvin "Magic" Johnson shares an exuberant, inspirational account of his life from his boyhood in Michigan to his stratospheric basketball career to his battle with HIV. It's all here: the glory and the pain; the character, charisma, and courage of the hero called Magic.

One Life
Soccer superstar Megan Rapinoe invites readers along on her journey, pulling back the curtain on events we know only from the headlines. Throughout, she ponders the question that has driven both her success and her activism: What can we do with our one precious life? There's also a Young Readers Edition! 

The Naked Olympics
Ancient Greece was full of wonders, but none quite compared to the Olympic Games. And yet, despite the modern Olympic revival, our understanding of the ancient Greek Games is mired in sentimentality and myth. In this vividly illustrated book, Tony Perottet brings the thrilling festival back to life.

Novel athletics

Just for kicks, here are some fun sporty reads for anyone looking for some fictional literary entertainment.

Furia by Yamile Saied Méndez
Argentinian teen Camila Hassan lives a double life. At home, she is a careful daughter adhering to the strict rules of her parents. But on the field, she's La Furia, a powerhouse. Her parents don't know about her talent for fútbol. Will she risk everything—even her blooming love—to follow her dreams?

The Flip Side by Shawn Johnson
Inspired by her own experiences as an elite teenage gymnast, Johnson, a gold medal winner, authored this entertaining YA novel about Charlie Ryland, a high school sophomore chasing her dream to become one of the best gymnasts in the world and compete on the Olympic stage.

Once a Runner by John L. Parker Jr.
The undisputed classic of running novels, this 1978 book tells the story of Quenton Cassidy, a competitive runner whose lifelong dream is to run a four-minute mile. He is less than a second away when the turmoil of the Vietnam War intrudes into the staid recesses of his college's athletic department.

A Matter of Heart by Amy Fellner Dominy
Sixteen-year-old Abby Lipman is on track to win the state swim championships and qualify for the Olympic trials when a fainting incident at a swim meet leads to the diagnosis of a deadly heart condition. Now Abby is forced to discover who she is without the one thing that's defined her entire life.

Gold by Chris Cleave
If your dreams pull you in one direction and your heart in another, which should you follow? This is the question that haunts Kate Meadows, a world champion cyclist whose young daughter Sophie is battling leukemia just as Kate is about to compete for her last chance at an Olympic gold medal.

Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
After setting a world record of twenty Grand Slam titles, Carrie Soto retired from the sport. But six years later, when Nicki Chan matches her record, she makes the controversial decision to come out of retirement at the age of thirty-seven. With her coach father at her side, she comes back for one epic final season.

Let the games begin! Get a head start on the Olympic excitement with these action-packed reads.

You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram for daily book recommendations, literary tidbits, and more.

Read more by Ashly Moore Sheldon