Petria Thomas

Swimming Against the Tide

De: Petria Thomas, Andy Shea

Narrado por: Kate Hosking, Jim Daly

Australian swimmer Petria Thomas won the hearts of millions around the world with her triple gold-medal-winning triumph at the Athens Olympic Games in 2004. Having overcome the pain and anguish of three shoulder reconstructions and two ankle reconstructions over the length of her glittering 12-year career, Petria is admired and respected for her grit, determination, and steely will to win.

But there's more to the Queen of Butterfly than meets the eye, and here for the first time is the full and authorised story of Australian swimming's golden girl: her battle against severe depression, her cries for help that almost ended her life, and the extraordinary determination that overcame these physical and emotional pressures to reach the pinnacle of her career.

©2005 Petria Thomas and Andy Shea (P)2005 Bolinda Publishing Pty. Ltd.

Inspiring

The content of this book and the narrator were both excellent. Her story is simply amazing and gives hope to people who have battled depression and injury. The book alternates between a male narrator and a woman reading the diary entries that Thomas wrote. This was a very helpful way of handling the book. I highly recommend this book, especially to anyone engaged in amateur racing.

Hard to Get Used to....

This is a great story of an Australian Olympic swimmer who overcomes many obstacles to win gold in Athens. The story itself is inspiring.

However, the story is told in two voices, one is the first person voice of a woman (representing Petria) and the other a male voice giving a third person point of view, as well as speaking for the many other people in her life (her sister, mother, coaches, therapists, husband, etc). I personally found it distracting to have the narration jump between the two voices and many viewpoints. I was probably 3 - 4 hours into the book before I grew used to this. I suppose this technique was meant to give us a more complete picture of Petria, but in an audio book I found it distracting.

Amazing story

A very moving and real story. Although it is about a world champion, it is so close to our lives which make it real.

Awesome

This was a very good book. She is an amazing woman and an amazing swimmer. Having had 5 shoulder operations myself, it was difficult listening to parts of this. I think this will help thousands of athletes that suffer from depression understand that they are not alone and that they should not suffer alone. Seek help. It is available.

very good to listen as a swimmer and coach both !

topic and the material inside the book is solid good material for athletes and coaches. nothing too special but good to hear the story from a top swimmer and her team and family etc.