Book Blurb:
In the 1928 Olympics, Chicago’s Betty Robinson competes as a member of the first-ever women’s delegation in track and field. Destined for further glory, she returns home feted as America’s Golden Girl until a nearly-fatal airplane crash threatens to end everything.
Outside of Boston, Louise Stokes, one of the few black girls in her town, sees competing as an opportunity to overcome the limitations placed on her. Eager to prove that she has what it takes to be a champion, she risks everything to join the Olympic team.
From Missouri, Helen Stephens, awkward, tomboyish, and poor, is considered an outcast by her schoolmates, but she dreams of escaping the hardships of her farm life through athletic success. Her aspirations appear impossible until a chance encounter changes her life.
These three athletes will join with others to defy society’s expectations of what women can achieve. As tensions bring the United States and Europe closer and closer to the brink of war, Betty, Louise, and Helen must fight for the chance to compete as the fastest women in the world amidst the pomp and pageantry of the Nazi-sponsored 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
My Review: 4 stars
Fast Girls took me back in time and taught me so much about the first Women’s Olympic Team in track and field. There was an insane amount of controversy about each of the women highlighted in this story and what’s better than discord in a novel?
Hooper celebrated each of these women’s lives and showed us their resolve and spirit. For each of them, running gave them something to fight for. Whether it was to escape a hometown, to win scholarship funding or to follow a dream, these young women were determined. Betty Robinson, Louise Stokes and Helen Stephens fought incredible gender bias, racial discrimination, physical pain, long recoveries and more.
It was not easy being in Nazi occupied Berlin at the Olympics as it put the women athletes at considerable risk. Add that anxiety to their training, nerves and overall performance had to be extremely difficult. Many other historical athletes were introduced at the Olympics and the author dropped in a lot of unknown fun facts about them. I’m certain much research went into bringing the people, the time and the place to life with such vivid detail. Well done.
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