Title/Author:
“Golden Glow: How
Kaitlin Sandeno Achieved Gold in the Pool and in Life” by Dan D’Addona with Kaitlin
Sandeno
Tags:
Swimming, Olympics, biography,
women
Publish date:
July 2, 2019
Length:
160 pages
Rating:
4 of 5 stars (very
good)
Review:
Kaitlin Sandeno proved to be one of
the most versatile female swimmers in recent Olympic history by being part of a
world-record setting relay team for the United States and medaling in three other
strokes in the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics – the first one coming when she
was just 17 years old. Now she is the national
spokeswoman for the Jessie Rees Foundation addressing childhood cancer, and has
also been a youth swimming coach. Her swimming
career and life outside the pool is captured in this short but very good book
by Dan D’Addona, a noted writer on the sport.
The most notable aspect of this book
that I found interesting was the format – instead of following the chronological
order most biographies or memoirs do, the book started with one of Kaitlin’s
visits to a children’s hospital, her work with the Jessie Rees Foundation and,
in one of the most touching moments in the book, how she met Jessie and the
inspiration she gave Sandeno. This was a
good way to introduce the reader to Kaitlin to describe what a positive and
upbeat person that she is.
While Sandeno’s work for the
foundation is inspiring, so is the story of her career. The youngest of three sisters, Kaitlin seemed
to be born to live in a pool as she became a swimming prodigy very quickly. When she qualified for the 2000 Olympics as a
high school swimmer, that was when she started gaining world-wide attention and
by medaling, she didn’t disappoint. Her
swimming continued at USC, where she won her events in the 2003 NCAA tourney,
then capped it off with medals in the 2004 Olympics, including being the anchor
on the world-record performance by the United States team in the 4x200
freestyle relay. Any swimming fan,
casual or serious, will enjoy reading about the rise of the friendly, outgoing
Sandeno.
The writing overall is quite good –
the only problem was an editing matter, in that quotation marks were either
missing or put in the incorrect place, making it hard to determine who was
providing the quote. This will most
likely be corrected in the final version.
There are other passages that seem to be incomplete. One example – when Sandeno was struggling with
her swimming at USC because she was living a very active social life, it was
noted that later she curbed that by having a “long distance relationship” but
there is no explanation of how that helped.
These are far and few, however, and the reader will get to learn how
happy and outgoing a person Kaitlin is, in both her marriage and her life after
her swimming career. Any reader who is a swimming fan is encouraged to pick up
this book.
I wish to thank Rowman and
Littlefield for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an
honest review.
Book Format Read:
E-book (Kindle)
Buying Links:
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