Making Waves: My Journey to Winning Olympic Gold and Defeating the East German Doping Program

by Shirley Babashoff, Chris Epting, Donna de Varona (Foreword by), Mark Spitz (Preface by)

Overview

In her extraordinary swimming career, Shirley Babashoff set thirty-nine national records and eleven world records. Prior to the 1990s, she was the most successful U.S. female Olympian and, in her prime, was widely considered to be the greatest female swimmer in the world.

Heading into the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, Babashoff was pictured on the cover of Sports Illustrated and followed closely by the media. Hopes were high that she would become “the female Mark Spitz.”

All of that changed once Babashoff questioned the shocking masculinity of the swimmers on the East German women’s team. Once celebrated as America’s golden girl, Babashoff was accused of poor sportsmanship and vilified by the press with a new nickname: “Surly Shirley.”

Making Waves displays the remarkable strength and resilience that made Babashoff such a dynamic champion. From her difficult childhood and beginnings as a determined young athlete growing up in Southern California in the 1960s, through her triumphs as the greatest female amateur swimmer in the world, Babashoff tells her story in the same unflinching manner that made her both the most dominant female swimmer of her time and one of the most controversial athletes in Olympic history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781595800879
Publisher:	Santa Monica Press
Publication date:	07/12/2016
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Shirley Babashoff is an American Olympic champion swimmer. In her extraordinary career, she set six world records and thirty-seven national records and earned a total of eight individual Olympic medals. She won a gold medal in the 400-meter freestyle relay in both the 1972 and 1976 Olympics, and four silver medals in the 4 x 100 meter medley relay and the 200-meter, 400-meter and 800-meter freestyle. She also won the 1975 world championship in both the 200-meter and 400-meter freestyle. Prior to the 1990s, she was the most successful U.S. female Olympian and, in her prime, was widely considered to be the greatest female swimmer on the planet. Babashoff is perhaps best remembered for swimming the anchor leg on the gold-medal winning 4×100-meter freestyle relay team in its victory over the steroid-plagued 1976 East German women, in what is widely acknowledged to be the single greatest race in the history of women's swimming. She was inducted to the International Swimming Hall of Fame as an "Honor Swimmer" in 1982. Babashoff lives in Fountain Valley, California, where she has been a letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service for nearly thirty years.

Chris Epting is the author of 25 travel/history books, including James Dean Died Here, Roadside Baseball, and Led Zeppelin Crashed Here. He is also an award-winning travel writer and has contributed articles for such publications as the Los Angeles Times, Westways, and Travel + Lesiure magazine, and writes a weekly newspaper column for the Huntington Beach Independent. Originally from New York, Chris now lives in Huntington Beach, California with his wife and their two children.

Donna de Varona is an American Olympic swimmer who set eighteen world records and won multiple gold medals during her career. In 1964, the Associated Press and United Press International voted de Varona the “Most Outstanding Woman Athlete in the World.” After retiring from swimming, de Varona became a sports broadcaster. At the age of 17, she appeared on ABC’s Wide World of Sports, becoming the youngest and one of the first women sportscasters for a national network. Her groundbreaking career has earned her an Emmy, two Gracies, and the opportunity to cover seventeen winter and summer Olympic games. She was inducted to the International Swimming Hall of Fame as an "Honor Swimmer" in 1969.

Table of Contents

Preface Mark Spitz 7

Foreword Donna de Varona 9

Introduction 13

Chapter 1 Growing Up 19

Chapter 2 And So It Begins… 29

Chapter 3 My First Adventure 43

Chapter 4 A New Coach 55

Chapter 5 Munich 61

Chapter 6 Feeling Like a Celebrity 77

Chapter 7 What Happened to the East Germans? 85

Chapter 8 Skinsuits and a Mysterious Vaccine 95

Chapter 9 Swimming with the College Boys 101

Chapter 10 My Personal Best 111

Chapter 11 Training for '76 123

Chapter 12 The Montreal Games 133

Chapter 13 Forming a Strategy 143

Chapter 14 The Final Race 153

Chapter 15 A National Disgrace 169

Chapter 16 Marriage 183

Chapter 17 The Charade Continues 191

Chapter 18 New Beginnings 199

Chapter 19 The Cheaters 211

Chapter 20 The Olympic Order 219

Chapter 21 The Truth Comes Out 229

Chapter 22 My Future Is Now 239

Shirley Babashoff's Individual World and American Records 245

An Open Letter to Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee 247

What the 1976 Olympic Records Would Look Like If They Were Revised 249

Notes from Coaches Jim Montrella and Mark Schubert 255

About the Authors 261

Acknowledgments 263

Index 265

Photo Credits 272

Editorial Reviews

08/29/2016
In light of the recent Russian doping scandal, Babashoff, a former Olympic medal–winning swimmer, reveals in her timely memoir how the East German government turned their female swimmers into elite athletes with an experimental drug program. Her narrative deftly recounts her humble California beginnings, with her strict parents pushing her to triumph in a series of amateur meets and Olympic trials. Babashoff, assisted by veteran writer Epting, covers some painful terrain about her father molesting her for years, a crime he was eventually arrested for after similarly assaulting several neighborhood girls. Once the acclaimed swimmer gets on the big Olympic stage in 1972 and 1976, she witnesses the horror of the Munich massacre, the glory of gold medal–winner Mark Spitz, and the evolution of the muscular East German female swimmers, who were groomed in the lab to smash world records. "It's like swimming against aliens," Babashoff tells skeptical reporters, who doubt that the women's new Charles Atlas bodies are the result of doping. Unforgettable and brave, Babashoff's whistle-blowing memoir poses a host of disturbing questions about Olympic regulations, performance-enhancing drugs, anti-doping agencies, media arrogance, winning cleanly, and life after competition. (July)

Publishers Weekly

“Making Waves is a stunningly honest look at the life and career of an elite Olympic athlete. Shirley Babashoff has always been an inspiration to me and countless others, and certainly belongs on top of the Mount Olympus of history’s greatest swimmers. Combine that with someone who stood up for what she believed was the truth and you have a true champion. Thank you, Shirley.” —Janet Evans, five-time medalist at the 1988 and 1992 Olympics

“In 1976, Olympic swimmer Shirley Babashoff had the ability to equal Mark Spitz’s legendary seven gold medals, had she been competing on an even playing field. Sadly, the competition was not fair and the media chose to ignore the truth, and Shirley’s inability to conceal her disappointment made her the biggest victim of those Games. In Making Waves, she gets to balance those scales with a poignant and revealing memoir. Shirley deserves this hearing and, through her insights and observations, you’ll learn more about this remarkable heroine than has ever been revealed before.”—John Naber, five-time medalist at the 1976 Olympics

“She should have been celebrated and honored, a role model for young girls and women everywhere. Maybe now Shirley Babashoff will be recognized for what she has been all along—an American hero. In Making Waves, she speaks her truth, and though much of it is tragic and painful, she speaks it anyway. This is a gutsy book about a gutsy woman.”—Mary Carillo, sportscaster

“In hindsight, the coaches should have been the ones speaking out, but it was considered ‘unsportsmanlike.’ Shirley paid the price for having the courage to tell the truth. . . . She’ll be remembered as the victim of cheating who never got the timely recognition that she deserved. I believe the records should be adjusted, as there is definitive proof of systematic East German cheating.”—Mark Schubert, Babashoff’s legendary coach and former head coach and general manager of USA Swimming’s national team

“Shirley Babashoff was visibly robbed of Olympic gold medals in 1976 and publicly humiliated in the media. She was the first athlete to accuse the East Germans of doping, but the world was not ready listen. Forty years later, Chris Epting finally tells the truth for the world to hear.”—Brent Rutemiller, publisher of Swimming World

“Shirley Babashoff was our star going into those Games, possibly the greatest female American swimmer ever. . . . She was as competitive, talented, and relentless an athlete as America has ever produced. She received one gold medal (a relay), five silvers, a thousand taunts and insults, and many death threats.”—Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle

‘‘Shirley should have the gold medals—she’s one of America’s greatest athletes ever and she had a lot of guts. Even today, athletes won’t speak up for fear of being called a sore loser, but that didn’t stop Shirley.’’—Jill Sterkel, part of the storied 1976 relay team that defeated the East Germans, now coordinator of athletics at the Universityof Texas

“I totally applaud what Shirley Babashoff did. It was the right thing at the right time, and looking back, it had a tremendous effect.”—John Carlos, U.S. sprinter who along with Tommie Smith raised a black-power salute on the medal podium at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City

"In light of the recent Russian doping scandal, Babashoff, a former Olympic medal–winning swimmer, reveals in her timely memoir how the East German government turned their female swimmers into elite athletes with an experimental drug program. Her narrative deftly recounts her humble California beginnings, with her strict parents pushing her to triumph in a series of amateur meets and Olympic trials. Babashoff, assisted by veteran writer Epting, covers some painful terrain about her father molesting her for years, a crime he was eventually arrested for after similarly assaulting several neighborhood girls. Once the acclaimed swimmer gets on the big Olympic stage in 1972 and 1976, she witnesses the horror of the Munich massacre, the glory of gold medal–winner Mark Spitz, and the evolution of the muscular East German female swimmers, who were groomed in the lab to smash world records. “It’s like swimming against aliens,” Babashoff tells skeptical reporters, who doubt that the women’s new Charles Atlas bodies are the result of doping. Unforgettable and brave, Babashoff’s whistle-blowing memoir poses a host of disturbing questions about Olympic regulations, performance-enhancing drugs, anti-doping agencies, media arrogance, winning cleanly, and life after competition."—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher