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The Last River is a thrilling adventure in one of our planet's wildest and most alluring places.Running through the southwest corner of Tibet, the Tsangpo River is the last and most dangerous uncharted whitewater passage. It is also a place of extraordinary beauty, coursing through snow capped mountain ranges and ripping through verdant jungle. It is no wonder that local legend has this place as the sacred site of Shangri-La. And according to kayaking legend, the Tsanpo Gorge is the Holy Grail of rafting. In October 1998, a team sponsored by National Geographic set out to conquer it. En Route, they found that NG had also sponsored another team whose descent was timed just after their own. The chance of success was slim, but the race was officially on... This is a breathtaking story of trial and tragedy, which simultaneously gives inspiring insight into the self-illumination and growth experienced by people who match their skill, strength, stamina and inner resources against the most formidable of obstacles. 'With his riveting account of the trip, Balf has supplied a smart introduction to the daredevil lifestyle of river runners' Fortune
His story begins as cliché: an aging jock with nagging lower-back pain. For the better part of a year, he ignores it, convinced he has a slipped or herniated disk. It’s only when he can no longer ride a bike, a lifelong passion, that he makes the doctor appointment. The problem isn’t a disk; it’s a tumor on his spine the size of a softball. In the summer of 2014, Todd Balf, author of the acclaimed adventure tales The Darkest Jungle and The Last River, was diagnosed with a rare spinal cancer called chordoma. Only three hundred cases are diagnosed in the United States each year, meaning that Balf was literally one in a million. During two long and risky surgeries, a team of specialists ...
For fans of The Boys in the Boat, and marking the 100th anniversary of the Paris Olympics, the never-before-told story of three athletes who defied the odds to usher in a golden age of sports Even today, it’s considered one of the most thrilling races in Olympic history. The hundred-meter sprint final at the 1924 Paris Games, featuring three of the world’s fastest swimmers—American legends Duke Kahanamoku and Johnny Weissmuller, and Japanese upstart Katsuo Takaishi—had the cultural impact of other milestone moments in Olympic history: Jesse Owens’s podiums in Berlin and John Carlos’s raised, black-gloved fist in Mexico City. Never before had an Olympic swimming final prominently ...
The story of a man who transcended the handicaps of race to become America’s first African American mega sports celebrity At the turn of the 20th century, hundreds of lightning-fast racers won the hearts and minds of a bicycling-crazed public. Scientists studied them, newspapers glorified them, and millions of dollars in purse money were awarded to them. Major Taylor aimed to be the fastest of them all. Taylor’s most formidable and ruthless opponent-a man nicknamed the "Human Engine" was Floyd McFarland. One man was white, one black; one from a storied Virginia family, the other descended from Kentucky slaves; one celebrated as a hero, one trying to secure his spot in a sport he dominated. The only thing they had in common was the desire to be named the fastest man alive. Finally, in 1904, both men headed to Australia for a much-anticipated title match to decide who would claim the coveted title. Major is the story of a superstar nobody saw coming, the account of a fierce rivalry that would become an archetypal tale of white versus black in the 20th century, and, most of all, the tale of our nation’s first black sports celebrity.
In 1854, Leiutenant Isaac G Strain, an ambitious American explorer and U S Naval officer, was given command of Cyane, the first ship to voyage to the Darien Gap. Strain was a natural born leader, a wild-haired, wiry-strong frontiersman who had travelled extensively throughout the Southern Hemisphere. Greatly admired, Strain was expected to successfully cross the ithsmus of Central America through the Darien Gap. However, the expedition would prove to be perilous. Armed with fraudulent information about the areas rugged terrain, phony maps and only a small supply of food, Strain and his team of 29 men ventured far from their ship and became lost in this mountainous, steep-banked jungle, full ...
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A harrowing adventure that follows a group of Westerners on a paddling trip down the Bashkaus River in Siberia. Ultimately, they find that the river creates a common bond regardless of race, religion, or nationality--a bond in which a group of strangers truly come together as brothers.
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"In the tradition of The Boys in the Boat and Seabiscuit, a fascinating portrait of a groundbreaking but forgotten figure--the remarkable Major Taylor, the black man who broke racial barriers by becoming the world's fastest and most famous bicyclist at the height of the Jim Crow era"--
Contents -- Preface -- 1 The Black Body at War -- 2 The Pride of True Manhood -- 3 Biology and Destiny -- 4 Medical Care -- 5 Region, Disease, and the Vulnerable Recruit -- 6 Louisiana -- 7 Death on the Rio Grande -- 8 Telling the Story -- Epilogue -- Notes -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y