Todd Smith – författare

Travel with Olympic gold medalist Jessie Diggins on her compelling journey from America’s heartland to international sports history, navigating challenges and triumphs with rugged grit and a splash of glitter  Pyeongchang, February 21, 2018. In the nerve-racking final seconds of the women’s team sprint freestyle race, Jessie Diggins dug deep. Blowing past two of the best sprinters in the world, she stretched her ski boot across the finish line and lunged straight into Olympic immortality: the first ever cross-country skiing gold medal for the United States at the Winter Games. The 26-year-old Diggins, a four-time World Championship medalist, was literally a world away from the small town of Afton, Minnesota, where she first strapped on skis. Yet, for all her history-making achievements, she had never strayed far from the scrappy 12-year-old who had insisted on portaging her own canoe through the wilderness, yelling happily under the unwieldy weight on her shoulders: “Look! I’m doing it!”           In Brave Enough, Jessie Diggins reveals the true story of her journey from the American Midwest into sports history. With candid charm and characteristic grit, she connects the dots from her free-spirited upbringing in the woods of Minnesota to racing in the bright spotlights of the Olympics. Going far beyond stories of races and ribbons, she describes the challenges and frustrations of becoming a serious athlete; learning how to push through and beyond physical and psychological limits; and the intense pressure of competing at the highest levels. She openly shares her harrowing struggle with bulimia, recounting both the adversity and how she healed from it in order to bring hope and understanding to others experiencing eating disorders. Between thrilling accounts of moments of triumph, Diggins shows the determination it takes to get there-the struggles and disappointments, the fun and the hard work, and the importance of listening to that small, fierce voice: I can do it. I am brave enough.

Covers the most important background developments beginning in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century to the present that gave rise to what the author believes has been a century of arts renewal in the church.

Travel with Olympic gold medalist Jessie Diggins on her compelling journey from America’s heartland to international sports history, navigating challenges and triumphs with rugged grit and a splash of glitter  Pyeongchang, February 21, 2018. In the nerve-racking final seconds of the women’s team sprint freestyle race, Jessie Diggins dug deep. Blowing past two of the best sprinters in the world, she stretched her ski boot across the finish line and lunged straight into Olympic immortality: the first ever cross-country skiing gold medal for the United States at the Winter Games. The 26-year-old Diggins, a four-time World Championship medalist, was literally a world away from the small town of Afton, Minnesota, where she first strapped on skis. Yet, for all her history-making achievements, she had never strayed far from the scrappy 12-year-old who had insisted on portaging her own canoe through the wilderness, yelling happily under the unwieldy weight on her shoulders: “Look! I’m doing it!”           In Brave Enough, Jessie Diggins reveals the true story of her journey from the American Midwest into sports history. With candid charm and characteristic grit, she connects the dots from her free-spirited upbringing in the woods of Minnesota to racing in the bright spotlights of the Olympics. Going far beyond stories of races and ribbons, she describes the challenges and frustrations of becoming a serious athlete; learning how to push through and beyond physical and psychological limits; and the intense pressure of competing at the highest levels. She openly shares her harrowing struggle with bulimia, recounting both the adversity and how she healed from it in order to bring hope and understanding to others experiencing eating disorders. Between thrilling accounts of moments of triumph, Diggins shows the determination it takes to get there-the struggles and disappointments, the fun and the hard work, and the importance of listening to that small, fierce voice: I can do it. I am brave enough.

For fans of Ted Lasso and Welcome to Wrexham, this rollicking travel memoir by a middle-aged Midwesterner is a hilarious and heartfelt journey through the United Kingdom, its football clubs, and the rich traditions of English football culture.Relegation, the devastating consequence English football teams face when they underperform, is something Todd Smith kept seeing in his own life. He grew up surrounded by soccer: his father was the head athletic trainer for the Minnesota Kicks of the 70s-era North American Soccer League, and Todd played into college. But while his family life was happy after that, his professional life didn’t go the way of his dreams. He spent two decades working tirelessly in blue-collar jobs while trying to break through as a writer. He often felt discouraged, like he’d never really made it, like he himself had been demoted to a lower league. In Relegated, Todd embarks on a trip of personal and professional discovery. Looking for a change and a chance to write about something that really matters to him, he takes off for a multi-month, immersive expedition through the world and culture of English football. He visits not only the best clubs but also the most out of the way and forgotten ones. In these places, like the Old Spotted Dog Ground in East London, the port town of Grimsby (once voted the worst city in England), and Arbroath on the north coast of Scotland, he begins to understand what it means to be a “true” supporter of this historic and cherished game. He meets pub owners, groundskeepers, fan club organizers, and professional and amateur players who show him a deeper love of the sport. He learns how communities rally around a club, how much joy and suffering they can take, and how football clubs—even the lesser-known ones—can bond people together in memories that last a lifetime. A heartwarming account featuring pints, meat pies, a rainbow of team scarves and banners, and some very colorful slang, Relegated is the story of a man looking to transform himself while discovering the true meaning of English football.