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What makes a great team?Sports journalist Peggy Shinn answers this question in her enthralling account of the dramatic rise of the U.S. women's cross-country ski team, winners of eight medals at three world championships over the past five years.Shinn's story - based on dozens of interviews with athletes, coaches, parents, spouses, and friends - paints a vivid picture of the obstacles that America's female athletes must overcome not just to ski with the world's best, but to beat them.In a sport where U.S. women have toiled for decades, mostly in the middle or the back of the pack, the development of a world-class team attests to the heady combination of a transformational leader, a coach who connects with his athletes, the super-fast individual skiers who are also conscientious teammates - and a bit of good luck.
About the Author
Peggy Shinn is a full-time freelance writer and senior contributor to TeamUSA.org, the U.S. Olympic Committee's website. Her work has also appeared in Skiing, SKI, Ski Racing, Ski Press, MSNBC.com, and Vermont Life, as well as the Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal, Rutland Herald, and Burlington Free Press. She is a four-time winner of the Harold Hirsch Award for best feature writing, presented annually by the North American Snowspnorts Journalists Association, and she has covered four Olympic Games.World Class: The Making of the U.S. Women's Cross-Country Ski Team is her second book. Her first book, Deluge: Tropical Storm Irene, Vermont's Flash Floods, and How One Small State Saved Itself, was published by the University Press of New England in 2013.She graduated from Amherst College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in geology. She also has a Masters degree in environmental science and engineering (Colorado School of Mines) and a Master of Arts in Teaching (Colorado College) . A former bicycle racer (both mountain and road) , she won the open class of the Leadville 100 back before it was the cool thing to do. And she has climbed most of Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks. She now lives in Rutland, Vermont, with her husband, daughter, and no remaining cats. For more information, visit her website: www.pegmcshinn.com.
