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Scope and Coverage

Virtually every athlete and every sport readers might reasonably expect to find can be found here. Although there is an emphasis on sports that are popular in North America, there is considerable coverage on sports and athletes from other parts of the world. Most North Americans have at least some familiarity with such sports as baseball, basketball, football, golf, ice hockey, and tennis. They are likely to have had less exposure to badminton, cycling, and soccer and even less exposure to sports such as cricket, fencing, and Tae Kwon Do. No matter what the sport, however, readers of Great Athletes will learn that out-standing athletes from all parts of the world and all cultures have in common histories of hard work, rigid discipline, goalsetting, and sacrifice--points that Olympic decathlon champion Rafer Johnson discusses in his Introduction to this set.

Organization and Format

Averaging three to four pages in length, articles are written in clear language and presented in a uniform, easily readable format. Each article is divided into four sections that cover the athlete's life and achievements chronologically. "Early Life" covers the athlete's family background, early education, introduction to sports, and other formative experiences. "The Road to Excellence" discusses the athlete's first serious involvement in sports and the experiences and influences that propelled the athlete toward greatness. "The Emerging Champion" section follows the athlete from the threshold of stardom to higher levels, and "Continuing the Story" tracks the athlete's subsequent athletic career and later life. Finally, each article concludes with a "Summary" recapitulating theathlete's achievements and legacy. A photograph of the athlete accompanies each essay, and every article is accompanied by at least one table, shadowed for easy reference. With their content varying greatly among different sports, these tables summarize the career statistics, honors and awards, records, and other milestones that set each great athlete apart.

Special Features

Each subset has its own indexes and appendixes, and a separate volume, free with purchase of any Great Athletes title, will contain indexes and appendixes pertaining to all the other volumes. In addition to the standard indexes, several subsets on team sports will have indexes listing athletes by their college and professional teams and their positions.