As Good As Gold

By Kathryn Bertine

Book Overview

Imagine George Plimpton. Except with 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. Just as her personal and professional dreams begin to crumble in the summer of 2006, ESPN stakes her to a dream: Take two years to make the 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing. As Good As Gold is the heroic, hilarious 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 floundering relationships, repeated rejection to road rash. But, as time is 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, often laugh-out-loud episodes of triumph and humiliation, Bertine takes short "Water Breaks" to contemplate the ins-and-outs of fan mail, failure, rehydration, nasal reconstruction, and how best to punish steroid users.

Kathryn Bertine swims, runs, and rides-and writes-like a champion. 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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1735901458
• ISBN13: 9781735901459
• Release Date: May 2021
• Publisher: New Shelf Press
• Length: 330 Pages
• Weight: 0.97 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Stephen M.

Kathryn's account of her quest to make the 2008 Summer Olympics is both inspiring and funny. She is open and truthful about her story - the good, the bad, and the ugly. Her writing brings inside the pain, suffering, and ultimately joy of this amazing journey. This is a book about following your dreams; sports is simply the vehicle. Kathryn's unwillingness to compromise her belief in her athletic dreams, and herself, is to be applauded. The quiet subtext of the book is that you can be a strong, powerful, driven woman and still achieve your dreams without compromise. This is story that all young girls - and boys - should read.

enjoyed the writing

I enjoyed following the quest on ESPN, but this is a great account of the trials and tribulations in detail.

Inspiring

Thank you for giving voice to the dreams within us all. Share this with every young woman you know.

Inspiring and funny

Kathryn Bertine has written an amazing story here. The experience from the rink to the shell to the pool to the bike is great. Now, I want to book a flight to St. Kits and Nevis, and am rooting for her to succeed in London! If you like sports, if you are an athlete, if you have ever been on a bike, or if you even like to laugh, this is the perfect book for you. This book arrived in the mail for me on Sat, and I read it in one sitting, going back and forth between inspired to follow my own dreams, and cackling on my couch at the hilarious aspects of the story. Please, PLEASE give this book a try. I promise that you won't regret it!