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How to Be Like Women Athletes of Influence: 32 Women at the Top of Their Game and How You Can Get There Too (How to Be Like Series) Paperback – January 1, 2007
These women have got game . . . and you can get yours, too!
With 32 never-before-heard interviews and stories about some of the world's most contemporary top athletes and sports pioneers, How to Be Like Women Athletes of Influence celebrates the exciting growth of women's sports . . . and the fearless, multitalented women who are making it happen.
From the locker rooms to the board rooms to the training rooms, Orlando Magic Senior Vice President Pat Williams and sports writer Dana Pennett O'Neil have interviewed many top athletes in every major sportplus their rivals, coaches, and contemporariesto give insights, advice, and inspiration to any budding athlete.
· Serena and Venus Williams • · Michelle Kwan • · Annika Sorenstam · Steffi Graf • · Dorothy Hamill • · Mia Hamm • · Jackie Joyner Kersee · Michelle Akers • · Bonnie Blair • · Nadia Comaneci • · Gail Devers · Babe Didrikson • · Chris Evert • · Lisa Fernandez • · Peggy Fleming · Althea Gibson • · Billie Jean King • · Julie Krone • · Lisa Leslie · Nancy Lopez • · Shannon Miller • · Martina Navratilova • · Dot Richardson · Mary Lou Retton • · Wilma Rudolph • · Joan Benoit Samuelson · Dawn Staley • · Pat Summitt •
· Jenny Thompson
- Print length319 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHci
- Publication dateJanuary 1, 2007
- Dimensions6 x 0.75 x 9 inches
- ISBN-100757306772
- ISBN-13978-0757306778
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About the Author
After more than fifteen years in sports writing, Dana O'Neil (Philadelphia, PA) has covered virtually every major sporting event, including the Super Bowl, several World Series, men's and women's Final Four, World Cup, and Grand Slam tennis. A member of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association, the U.S. Baseball Writers Association, and the Association for Women in Sports Media, she also serves on the advisory board for the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State, her alma mater. A winner of several local, state, and national awards, O'Neil has spent the last eight years as a reporter at The Philadelphia Daily News.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Excerpts from How to Be Like Women Athletes of Influence
LIFE LESSONS FROM SERENA AND VENUS WILLIAMS
EMBRACE CHALLENGES
Their practice courts were manned by drug dealers. Their sport was dominated by white people with money. Their father knew nothing about tennis. What's amazing about the Williams sisters isn't that they came so far, it's that they ever got started. But along with their tennis talent, the young women were blessed with courage. They welcomed obstacles, knowing that overcoming them would only make them stronger. 'To overcome any hurdle you have to be and think positive,' Serena said. 'God will never give you more than you can handle, keep this in mind. It will help anyone get through plenty.'
REMEMBER YOUR VALUES
Bad behavior runs through society like a rampant disease. Athletes who could make a difference in the world by showing young people how to behave instead corner the market on boorish behavior. For all of the complaints people have misguidedly lodged at the Williams sisters, no one can ever argue that the young women have failed to live up to their charge. They are role models, young women who have avoided scandal and embarrassment, all while toting the burden of opening their sport to an entire race. 'Winning, losing, money, riches, or fame don't make you happy,' Venus said. 'For my tennis career, it's great, but as far as me being Venus, it doesn't really make a huge difference.'
NEVER UNDERESTIMATE YOUR WILL
It is easy to get bogged down in the negative. If enough people say you can't do something it's hard to remember why you think you can. The little voice deep inside, though, is the one to trust. Fed well it can overcome even the harshest critics. Before she stunned the tennis world by winning the 2007 Australian Open, Serena Williams could have filled a phone book with the people saying she was out of shape, lacking the discipline and the dedication to win. But she believed in herself and ended up with her eighth Grand Slam trophy. 'More than anything, what I love, besides obviously winning, is proving people wrong,' she said afterward.
IT'S OK TO ENJOY YOUR SUCCESS
Humility certainly is an admirable trait, but hard work rewarded ought to be celebrated. The only way to reach for the next goal is to enjoy the first one. When Venus and Serena Williams one their first Grand Slam tournaments, they were rightfully elated, relishing their places in history and their moments in time. Once they tasted that feeling, it only made them hungrier for more. Asked how she felt after an early exit from her initial Wimbledon appearance, Venus replied, 'It's my first Wimbledon . There will be many more.'
HAVE AN INTENSE DESIRE TO WIN
Winning certainly isn't everything, but champions crave winning like children crave sweets. As Serena Williams once described it, winning creates an 'insatiable' appetite. Chastised for always dreaming so big, the Williams sisters knew they could achieve their goal because they knew the hunger inside of them wouldn't allow them to settle for anything else. 'There's nothing like being hungry for the sport of tennis,' Serena Williams said after her surprising 2007 Australian Open title. 'I love winning. I don't care if it's Uno or running a race. I love winning.'
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©2007. Pat Williams & Dana O'Neil. All rights reserved. Reprinted from How to Be Like Women Athletes of Influence: 31 Women at the Top of Their Game and How You Can Get There Too. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the written permission of the publisher. Publisher: Health Communications, Inc., 3201 SW 15th Street , Deerfield Beach , FL 33442.
Product details
- Publisher : Hci (January 1, 2007)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 319 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0757306772
- ISBN-13 : 978-0757306778
- Item Weight : 1.13 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 0.75 x 9 inches
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
Pat Williams is a basketball Hall-of-Famer, currently serving as co-founder and senior vice president of the NBA’s Orlando Magic. As one of America’s top motivational speakers, he has addressed thousands of executives in organizations ranging from Fortune 500 companies and national associations to universities and nonprofits. Clients include AllState, American Express, Cisco, Coca-Cola, Disney, Honeywell, IBM, ING, Lockheed Martin, Nike, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Tyson Foods to name a few. Pat is also the author of 100 books, his most recent title highlighting the secrets to peak performance in HUMILITY.
Since 1968, Pat has been in the NBA as general manager for teams in Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia—including the 1983 World Champion 76ers—and now the Orlando Magic, which he co-founded in 1987 and helped lead to the NBA finals in 1995 and 2009. In 1996, Pat was named as one of the 50 most influential people in NBA history by Beckett’s, a national publication. In 2012, Pat received the John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Pat has been an integral part of NBA history, including bringing the NBA to Orlando. He has traded Pete Maravich as well as traded for Julius Erving, Moses Malone, and Penny Hardaway. He has won four NBA draft lotteries, including back-to-back winners in 1992 and 1993. He also drafted Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Maurice Cheeks, Andrew Toney and Darryl Dawkins. He signed Billy Cunningham, Chuck Daly, and Matt Guokas to their first professional coaching contracts. Nineteen of his former players have become NBA head coaches, nine have become college head coaches while seven have become assistant NBA coaches.
Additionally, Pat served for seven years in the United States Army, spent seven years in the Philadelphia Phillies organization—two as a minor league catcher and five in the front office—and has also spent three years in the Minnesota Twins organization.
Pat and his wife, Ruth, are the parents of 19 children, including 14 adopted from four nations, ranging in age from 28 to 42. For one year, 16 of his children were all teenagers at the same time. Currently, Pat has 14 grandchildren and counting. Pat and his family have been featured in Sports Illustrated, Readers Digest, Good Housekeeping, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Focus on the Family as well as all of the major network and cable television news channels.
Pat was diagnosed in February of 2011 with Multiple Myeloma. After several rounds of chemo treatments, Pat received a bone marrow transplant where the doctors injected him with almost 5 million of his own stem cells. Pat’s recovery from the stem cell transplant has been remarkable and the doctors are extremely pleased. While Multiple Myeloma is incurable the goal is to get the cancer into remission (Pat’s personal slogan has been “The Mission is Remission”); Pat’s doctors have told him that they are unable to detect any myeloma in his body and have given him a clean bill of health. Pat has accepted positions on several boards for different cancer groups, including an appointment on the Board of Directors for the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation. Pat spends many hours each week responding to emails and phone calls of others affected by cancer, offering hope and words of encouragement.
Pat teaches an adult Sunday school class at First Baptist Church of Orlando and hosts three weekly radio shows. In the last 15 years, he has completed 58 marathons—most recently, the 2011 Walt Disney World Marathon—and also climbed Mt. Rainier. He is a weightlifter, Civil War buff and serious baseball fan. Every winter he plays in Major League Fantasy Camps and has caught Hall of Famers Bob Feller, Bob Gibson, Fergie Jenkins, Rollie Fingers, Gaylord Perry, Phil Niekro, Tom Seaver and Goose Gossage.
Pat was raised in Wilmington, Delaware, earned his bachelor’s degree at Wake Forest University, and his master’s degree at Indiana University. He is a member of the Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame after catching for the Deacon baseball team, including the 1962 Atlantic Coast Conference Championship team. He is also a member of six other hall of fames around the country.
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