Munich To Montreal Women's Olympic Swimming In A Tarnished Golden Era [Paperback]

Munich to Montreal: Womens Olympic Swimming in a Tarnished Golden Era It has been called the greatest untold story of the Olympic Games. Its a true tale of athletics as Cold War proxy battle, systematic steroid doping and an improbable comeback. After decades of dominance stretching back to the 1920s, the USA womens Olympic swim team entered the 1976 Games in Montreal as underdogs. The overnight ascendance of the female swimmers from the nation of East Germany had set the worlds most successful swimming nation back on its heals. What no one in America or the world could imagine at the time was that East German officials considered their athletes sport soldiers, pitting the communist regime against the west on the battlefield of international sport. And it would not be revealed until decades later that East Germany, a nation obsessed with gaining Olympic glory for the State, had implemented a systematic program of steroid doping its international athletes. The results of the doping in Montreal were stunning. East Germany, a nation that had previously never won an Olympic swimming event, arrived at the final race in Montreal with 11 gold medals. Munich to Montreal is a deeper look at one of the most revolutionary and tumultuous periods in Olympic Swimming history. The interval between the 72 Munich Games and the 76 Montreal Games saw the introduction of the first technical swimsuits for women and the overnight transformation of swim training brought about by the introduction of simple, functional swim goggles. During this period, Americas top women swimmers struggled to remain competitive with the East Germans before the widespread implementation of Title IX provided them scholarships, professional coaching and the opportunity to continue their careers in college. With one event left on the swimming program in Montreal the USA remained shut-out of the gold medals. Shirley Babashoff, Americas most prominent swimmer of the 1970s, would anchor thel£I