Women in Sport: Fifty Fearless Athletes Who Played to Win by Rachel Ignotofsky

Women in Sport is coming to us just before the Winter Olympics in South Korea in February 2018. It celebrates a century and a half of the development of women's sport by looking at fifty of its highest achievers, covering sports as diverse as swimming, fencing, riding, skating, and much more. Think of a sport and a pioneering women succeeding at it is probably in this book somewhere. Each entry is a double page spread with a brief biography and a striking portrait.

Some of my favourite panels are about women you will have heard of - Serena Williams, who was playing professional tennis aged just 14 and who is depicted in full flight, reaching for a killer shot; Nicola Adams, British boxing gold medallist, who is shown with a six pack and her mohawk, ready to square up to anyone. But perhaps the real joy is to be found in reading about women you don't know - Tiny Broadwick who, in 1913, became the first female parachutist; Keiko Fukuda who was the first woman to achieve a 19th dan in judo. And then there are some general information panels - a timeline of significant events; an illustration of pay and media coverage disparities; some influential women's sport teams.

UK readers will be glad to know that Rachel Ignotofsky has created some special content just for them. So you'll find an entry for national treasure Clare Balding, iconic disabled athlete Tanni Grey-Thompson and the redoubtable Katherine Grainger. If I'd had a nitpick for Ignotofsky's previous book about women in STEM, it would have been that it was a trifle too US-centric for a UK audience, so I'm really grateful for these additions for us here in Britain. We have plenty of sporting heroines too!

It's a gorgeous book, full of top notch production values. The text is clear and concise but full of interesting details. The illustrations are bold and impactful and bright and busy and, above all, exciting. All the women look wonderfully powerful. Such care has been taken that Women in Sport is a book you'll return to over and over again. I hope it inspires a whole new generation of girls to take up sport and succeed in it.

Ignotofsky's earlier book, Women in Science, is just as fantastic. And Rebel Voices by Louise Kay Stewart and Eve Lloyd Knight, which charts the rise of women's suffrage around the world, is another inspirational work of art.

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You can read more book reviews or buy Women in Sport: Fifty Fearless Athletes Who Played to Win by Rachel Ignotofsky at Amazon.com.

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