Nike is a Goddess: The History of Women in Sports by Lisa Smith (New York: Atlantic Monthly Pr., 1998) ISBN 0-87113-726-7 $29.95

As any female athlete would agree, the issue of women in sports has been a longstanding political and cultural controversy. Comparisons have long been made between male and female sports and athletics, comparisons connected intimately with feminine identity and the role of women in society. Some women question "how can I be stronger, be more courageous" while others seek shelter from the backlash of masculinity and become preoccupied with trying to keep their feminine appeal intact. This book can be seen as a tool to aid women in celebrating their sports histories and in investigating the effect of women in sport on society. Through this volume, Smith provides us with a vehicle in which to travel from the age of bloomers and corsets to our present preoccupation with blood, sweat and tears.

Nike is a Goddess is a collection of thirteen narrative essays on different sport disciplines. Each chapter is an intense and detailed description of the cultural and historical issues affecting women in particular sports disciplines, contributed by female sportswriters intimately familiar with the field under discussion. While this volume can be considered a motivator and source of pride for some, the American emphasis marginalizes achievements made by women worldwide.

In the introduction, Mariah Burton Nelson names the ambivalence female athletes feel toward feminism, many of whom, uncomfortable operating outside the prescribed feminine role, feel the need to placate an anxious patriarchy through the adoption of anti-feminist rhetoric. She calls this a "survival strategy." Nelson is right on the mark in identifying the connection between feminism and sport: sport empowers women, and if feminism does not motivate participation, it is often the result of participation.

Track and field, baseball, tennis, golf, boating sports, skiing, figure skating, swimming, equestrian sports, gymnastics, soccer, ice hockey, and basketball are the sport disciplines covered. The sportswriting background shared by the contributors ensures fluid flow from topic to topic and an accessibility which appeals to the everyday reader. The familiarity which pervades the essays reminds the reader that athletics is not just about the athlete as subject, a removed being undertaking a physical task, but also includes the spectator as player, one who feels the muscles of her body moving in synchronicity with the athlete, the memory of movement, of activity.

This book is an valuable contribution to the history of women in sports, a reminder of the paths taken in the struggle for the freedom to move our bodies when we want to, how we want to.

M.S.and M.M