Women Who Risk: Profiles of Women in Extreme Sports

Frostbite. Undertow. Avalanche. Collision. For women in extreme sports, these are all par for the grueling course. If you want to know how they do it—and what on earth possessed them to start—look in Marilyn Olsen1s book,

Whether in 20-foot swells in the Hawaiian tropics or 24,000-foot mountains in the Alaskan wilderness, sports like surfing, mountaineering, wakeboarding and skydiving are designed to test the limits of human endurance. The women who seek out these challenges are a rare breed indeed—and they are among the most formidable athletes in the world. Women Who Risk provides in-depth profiles of eleven female athletes, each of whom has risen to the top of her sport. Among them:

• Lynn Hill, rock climber, who is the only person—male or female—ever to free climb The Nose in Yosemite Park in one 24-hour period.
• Sarah Fisher, auto racer, who became at 19 the youngest driver ever to compete in the Indianapolis 500.
• DeeDee Jonrowe, musher, who has been competing for 20 years in the Iditarod, a dogsled race across 1,100 miles of frozen Alaska.
• Kim McKnight, Arctic Man competitor, who speed-skis down 1,200 vertical feet to the finish line after being dragged along a canyon by a snowmobile going 85 miles an hour.

In Women Who Risk, you'll learn not only what extraordinary feats its eleven heroines have achieved, but also what got them there. You1ll learn what they eat, what equipment they use, and how they train. You1ll learn what frustrates them, and how they maintain the courageous mindset necessary to face giant mountains, 9,000-foot parachute drops, and grueling all-day triathlons.

You'll also learn that, in each and every case, what drives women to compete in extreme sports is a desire to do what they love. Every story in Women Who Risk is the story of a woman who works hard and risks her life in order to follow her dream. The women in this book will inspire both men and women to work harder, live better, and know when it's time to leave fear behind.

Marilyn Olsen has covered female athletes at the Eco-Challenge and many other extreme sporting events. She is an acknowledged expert on the life and times of the gangster John Dillinger and the author of Gangsters, Gunfire and Political Intrigue: The Story of the Indiana State Police. She resides with her husband and children in Indianapolis.