The ultimate sports reading list: Olympians and Paralympians share the books that made them into champions
Have a bit of free time to read some books over the holidays? These recommendations will not only keep you entertained but possibly also set you on the path to victory.
How does one get to the highest level of sport? Lots of training, planning and mental work, of course, and… a good book.
Be that advice from an insightful non-fiction volume or an inspiring story from a fiction novel, there are books that have the power to transform athletes into champions. We asked a handful of Olympians, Youth Olympians and Paralympians to share their all-time favourite picks to inspire you for some potentially life-changing reading this festive season.
Julien Alfred (Saint Lucia), athletics
"The Inner Game of Tennis" by W. Timothy Gallwey
"After losing the NCAA [fifth place in 60m at the 2022 NCAA Division I Indoor Championships after setting a collegiate record in the preliminary heats], I read that book and it just shows that putting so much pressure on yourself to do one specific thing, it may not always turn out the way you want to. But if you practise and continue to just execute what you've been practising, I think that has meant the most to me, just using what was taught in that book.
"I've used that to my advantage of not going on the line and repeating to myself what needs to be done, but rather just going out there and executing whatever my coach taught me to do."
Jessie Diggins (USA), cross-country skiing
"Bravey" by Alexi Pappas
"I love reading fiction, but one that I really felt moved by that I loved and read twice was Bravey by Alexi Pappas. I just love her, and I thought she spoke with such honesty and courage about things that are really challenging and struggles that you don't always see on the outside. I really admire her."
David Popovici (Romania), swimming
"The White Tiger" by Aravind Adiga
"When I left home (for the Olympic Games Paris 2024), I didn't know what book to take with me. I had a lot of books in my room. I didn't know which one to take. So I asked my mom to give me one. She said, 'Here, take this'.
"This is one book which I have glued to my hands every afternoon I have off or every night before sleep and I actually finished it (during Paris 2024). I don't usually read that fast because I don't have a lot of time, but this one was glued to my hands."
Arly Velasquez (Mexico), Para alpine skiing
"The Myth of Normal" by Gabor Mate
"He is a doctor and it's pretty much about how we operate, always trying to achieve the "standard", the cannon, the role model that we always see repetitively in the movies and in the social media. And he says there's no normal. In this case the normal is the diversity and so many different things that we have with eight billion people living on this earth. We encounter so many different things that are very particular to ourselves. That one really moved me and changed me in a lot of ways to see the way that I read my own story. It allowed me to really leave those beliefs that don't serve me anymore and build a more compassionate way with my own self."
Arly Velasquez has represented Mexico at four Paralympic Games.
Imogen Grant (Great Britain), rowing and Maddie Mastro (USA), snowboard
"Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow" by Gabrielle Zevin
Grant: "I loved reading it because it wasn't focussed on romantic love. It was focussed on love between friends, and I think that you can really apply it to a sporting context as well."
Mastro: "It started off slow, but once you're in it, you were in it. It took me three days to get through. The way that the author was able to make you care about the characters so deeply, it made it feel like watching a movie in the best way. You were so entranced in it, in the characters. You just get so invested in the characters and you are rooting for them in different ways. That's why I love that book so much."
Oksana Chusovitina (Uzbekistan), artistic gymnastics
“The Story of a Real Man” by Boris Polevoy
“I read it twice. I read it in my youth and then later, just for myself. It proved to me once again that a person is a capable of a lot in their life if they have a goal, if they are striving for something, if they are loved and feel supported. This book made a great impression on me when I read it, to see that people like that exist. I was both proud and impressed.”
David Smith (Great Britain), boccia
"The Millionaire Training" by Larry Thompson
"He's talking about building a network marketing business but there's a lot of life lessons in there around getting things done and forcing yourself to make situations better, taking responsibility, all that sort of stuff. And some of his stories are quite cool in the book. That was the one that I read quite a lot during lockdown, taking inspiration from the stories that were perhaps a couple of decades old but still have relevance even in today's world."
Manon Apithy-Brunet (France), fencing
"Respire" by Maud Ankaoua
"There's a book that helped me quite a lot, not necessarily to win, but more to tell myself that I need to feel good about myself first if I'm also going to feel good about my fencing. It's a book by Maud Ankaoua called 'Respire'. When I read it, I said to myself that the most important thing, whether you win or lose, is to be happy. It also helped me a bit not to de-stress – because I'm not going to lie, I've been under a lot of stress – but to put things into perspective. If I lose, my life isn't going to end and I'm the one who can create my own happiness."
Minerva Fabienne Hase (Germany), figure skating
"Let Me Tell You a Story" by Jorge Bucay
"It's about a psychologist who was working together with a person and it's small little stories about life. I love to read that one. That gave me some nice advice for life, so that's one of my favourite books."
Zach Miller (USA), Para snowboard
"With Winning in Mind" by Lanny Bassham
"He talks about the right psychological techniques to help you find your flow state, but also help you find the right kind of confidence that you need as a high-performance athlete.
"He talked to so many different athletes, interviewed hundreds of them, to then basically write this book about what is a winning mindset and how do you compete with winning in mind? How do you go about your life with winning in mind? And it doesn't even need to apply to athletes. That's one of the first things he says in the book is you don't have to be an athlete to benefit from what's in here. It's about visualising success in any aspect of your life."
Zach Miller is a Paralympian, two-time world champion, and winner of the ESPY “Best Athlete with a Disability” Award.
Alex Yee (Great Britain), triathlon
"Letter To My Younger Self" edited by Jane Graham
"I was given a book by another competitor called Vince Luis, called 'Letter to My Younger Self', which I did read, and that was really quite interesting to be given that by a senior athlete who's unfortunately retired as well and was one of my big inspirations. That was very special that he gave it to me and I did take the time to read that and learned some good things."
Shimada Mao (Japan), figure skating
"Don't Worry: 48 Lessons on Relieving Anxiety" by Masuno Shunmyo
"Winning more and more, it gets more difficult mentally.
"At first, I could enjoy competitions by imagining what the competition would be like, but once I got used to it, I had more expectations about what I should do in certain cases, which made me nervous. To overcome that, I’m reading books such as “90 per cent of your worries won’t come true” [published in English as 'Don't Worry: 48 Lessons on Relieving Anxiety']. We all worry about something at competitions, but I feel relaxed if I think those things won’t happen."
Sophie Capewell (Great Britain), track cycling
"The Expectation Effect" by David Robson
"I read a book called 'The Expectation Effect', which is about the power of the mind and how your brain works and how much you can convince yourself with positivity and information to go down a different path. I think that's really helped because you got control over what direction you want to go in and it's just how you think about it and what your outlook is on life or on your challenges."
Kevin Aymoz (France), figure skating
"The Song of Achilles" by Madeline Miller
"It made me cry. It made me think a lot. And I was like, 'Oh my God, how I can like express this story by a book, but on the ice?' There was so much thinking after.
"When I read it, I was touched and I was like, 'I have to tell the story of this book on the ice'. And the only music came to my mind was the Gladiator song (Now We Are Free) from the movie. Two different mythologies, but for me, the song matched because the song was beautiful, the energy and everything. And I was like, 'I have to skate to this music'. I was really telling the story on the ice because I felt my story was matching the story and, oh my God, that was so powerful."
Dani Aravich (USA), Para Nordic skiing
"How Bad Do You Want It?" by Matt Fitzgerald
"As an endurance athlete, it's super interesting to think about that concept of physical discomfort and the wall that you hit physically and then what your mind allows you to do. As I've gotten more into the sport, particularly Nordic, I'm leaning on sports psych and all that a lot more because you're out there in the woods alone for most of the race. It's really just you and yourself, and so I'm thinking about how you frame things in your own brain.
"This was a book that I found to be very fascinating about this concept of how do you perceive pain physically and then how as endurance athletes can you try to push that a little bit further."
Dani Aravich (second from right) was at Paris 2024 as part of the winning Salt Lake City-Utah 2034 bid delegation.
Lara Vadlau (Austria), sailing
"How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie
"It sounds a bit cheesy, the title, but it's a really nice book. It's 'How to Make Friends'. It's a really impressive book about how to get the best out of your environment of people, how to influence them in a way you can work well together and make the best out of it."
Lara Vadlau and Lukas Maehr won gold in the mixed dinghy 470 class at Paris 2024.
Lilah Fear (Great Britain), figure skating
"Discipline is Destiny" and "Courage is Calling" by Ryan Holiday
"I love books. Right now I'm super into stoicism so I'm reading all of Ryan Holiday's books, and right now 'Discipline is Destiny'. And then also 'Courage is Calling'. Highly recommend but not a light read necessarily."
Avery Skinner (USA), volleyball
“Atomic Habits” by James Clear
“That was something that really changed my perspective on a lot of things. I feel like it was just a good way for me to get back to the basics of, what are these habits that I have? What are some new habits that I can incorporate into my life that will help me get to my ultimate goal of becoming my best self? I really enjoyed that one and I keep it because I want to be able to refer back to it, and have referred it to friends too.”
Katy Marchant and Emma Finucane (Great Britain), track cycling
"How To Be Confident" by James Smith
Marchant: "I read that since coming back after having Arthur [son born in 2022] and feeling like a new person and feeling like I needed to learn the sport a little bit again and learn a bit more about myself. That definitely taught me to be a stronger person and to be more confident."
Finucane: "My teammate Kate got me a book that says how to be more confident. I've been in and out of reading it, and for me that's really helped me because being an elite athlete and being more confident and being in front of cameras, it's really had a perspective on my life."
Nikita Volodin (Germany), figure skating
"Hell Week" by Erik Bertrand Larssen
"It's such good motivation to do something. Sometimes the emotions go down and you need some energy. You can take it from a book, and I read this book three times and it's always helped me to go up and rock it."