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The Book That Got Me Interested in a Sport I Thought Was a Snooze Fest
Some athletes say, “Pain Is Temporary, Pride Is Forever” — and they’re not gymnasts, runners, or swimmers
A great book can make you care about a subject that sounds like a no-fail sleep aid.
Take Four Days to Glory. There could hardly be a less promising topic for a sports book than Iowa high school wrestling obsessives, a quirky subculture of athletes and fans little known outside the Midwest. Yet the journalist Mark Kreidler invests his subject with the drama of a balance beam final in Olympic gymnastics.
Four Days to Glory tells the story of two high school seniors, Jay Borschel and Dan LeClere, both three-time state champions who aim to join the elite who have won a fourth title. Kreidler includes the boys’ families, coaches, and teammates, so that his book is always about more than wrestling: It’s about the gut-wrenching impact of the quest on everybody involved. It’s also about the complexities of Iowa, a place where tickets to the state high school wrestling final sell out months in advance, yet nobody scalps tickets because, as one father said, “It would be unsportsmanlike to scalp at an event like this.”
