Friday Flashback: Olympics Edition

I love the Olympics and will happily watch hours of heats and semi-finals and medal rounds, in all kinds of sports: rowing, track and field, canoe slalom, gymnastics - I love all the inherent drama of sport. Summer McIntosh just won her third gold medal (go Canada!) in swimming, as I walked past my bookshelves today and saw Alex Archer staring back at me.

It seemed like a good time to revisit this Olympic - and YA - champion first published in 1987 by NZ author Tessa Duder as Alex, but issued in North America in 1989 under the title “In Lane Three, Alex Archer”.  I was living in NZ when it was published, and remember vividly diving into Alex’s world, the competitive sport world I would never be a part of.

Duder herself had been a champion swimmer in the Commonwealth Games for NZ before turning to journalism and then children’s books. The Alex Quartet titles won many prizes including Children’s Book of the Year, and on rereading, it’s easy to see why. Alex is bold and forthright, especially for a girl in late 50’s NZ, and in the face of critics calling her too manly, too muscly and with too big of shoulders. The main plot centers around the rivalry - inflated by the press - with a fellow NZ swimmer and cuts to the heart of what really gets me about the Olympics: the way you battle and fight against the person in the next lane to edge them out any way you can, and the second the race is over, clap hands, congratulate and hug each other. Hopeful scenes in this time. Perhaps because it was already historical fiction when published, it holds up well and Alex comes across just as brash, complicated and determined as the first time I encountered her. Recommend!

[Did you know there is an Olympic World Library in  Lausanne, Switzerland? Alex is not just in my collection but theirs. The Olympic achievement of writing!]