The one book you should definitely buy this year is One Foot On The Podium, by Don Elgin (with Kevin Moloney). Don Elgin: One Foot On The Podium is not just the rags-to-riches story of a poor disabled boy who becomes an elite athlete.
Then I walked into the dining hall, and I was just gobsmacked. I'd never seen anything like it. There was no massive queue, just endless counters of food ... and free McDonald's! I couldn't believe it. I was in heaven.
She is also a multiple IPC World and European champion. This book is an honest account of the struggles and dark times of her illness, and yet is inspirational in her subsequent battle to go on and achieve so many of her goals regardless.
Fair Play?: Sport and Social Disadvantage in Ireland
Barney plunged into a depression many thought he wouldn't emerge from. Then he met Kada, a beautiful girl from a country town who dreamed of becoming a singer. Kada had moved to the coast to escape her own troubled life.
In this gripping first-person account, former Olympian Eric LeMarque recounts a harrowing tale of survival—of eight days in the frozen wilderness, of losing his legs to frostbite, and coming face-to-face with death.
What makes his success even more remarkable is that he has limited vision and cerebral palsy. This is the story of Lachlan's rise to the top of world wheelchair racing, told from his father's perspective.
At the age of 15, Rick Hansen suffered an accident and was confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
Relates the story of activist Rick Hansen, who suffered a spinal cord injury at the age of fifteen but didn't let his circumstances prevent him from becoming a Paralympic athlete and spokesperson for spinal cord research.
"Help for Heroes Endorsed Product"--Cover.