Fast Girl

The former Olympic runner and high-end escort reveals her battle with mental illness, and how mania affected her professional and personal lives.

A New York Times Bestseller

During the 1990s, three-time Olympian Suzy Favor Hamilton was an American track and field darling. An outstanding runner, a major sports apparel spokesperson, and a happily married wife, she was the model for an active, healthy, and wholesome life. But her perfect facade masked a dark truth: manic depression and bipolar disorder that drove her obsession to perform and win. For years after leaving the track, Suzy wrestled with her condition, as well as the loss of a close friend, conflicted feelings about motherhood and her marriage, and lingering shame about her athletic career. After a misdiagnosis and a recommendation for medication that only exacerbated her mania and made her hypersexual, Suzy embarked on a new path and assumed a new identity. Fueled by a newfound confidence, a feeling of strength and independence and a desire she couldn’t tamp down, she became a high-priced escort in Las Vegas, working as “Kelly.” But when Suzy''s double life was exposed, she became suicidal. With the help of her devoted husband, Suzy got the proper medical help she needed.

In this startling frank memoir, she recounts the journey to outrun her demons, revealing how a woman used to physically controlling her body learned to come to terms with her unstable mind. It is the story of a how a supreme competitor scored her most important victory of all—reclaiming her life from the ravages of an untreated mental illness. Today, thanks to diagnosis and therapy, Kelly has stepped into the shadows, but Suzy is building a better life, one day at a time.