While her father originally stands firm on these issues (quote from chapter 3: “‘You and I had an agreement,J.P.,’ he said firmly.

In Chapter 9, Stevie becomes angry about “how they planned to market Susan Carol as America’s newest sweetheart/sex symbol.” Does this kind of marketing belittle an athlete? How does she feel about this? Is this a problem? Issues of both sexuality and sexism come up in the book. As she becomes more well known, there are a lot suggestions that Susan Carol is popular because of her looks, not her swimming ability.She couldn’t begin to think of how to spend that money… All the things she’d imagined for her life were suddenly chaning - it was hard to keep up.” How might this affect her life? Quote from Chapter 3: “Just the thought of it staggered Susan Carol. As an Olympic athlete, she suddenly has a lot more options, including the potential to earn a lot of money. Susan Carol loves to swim and has enjoyed swimming competitively for her high school.Then follow up with cross-curricular activities: Read the book aloud or assign chapters to students for independent reading. Her friend Stevie is reporting on the Olympics, and his experience as a writer and a journalist is explored along with the experiences of the athletes.

She learns firsthand, as she prepares for the competition, that it’s easy for a competitor to become a commodity. The main character, Susan Carol Anderson, is a competitive swimmer. Rush for the Gold: Mystery at the Olympics by John Feinstein is a young adult novel set at the London Olympics and the run-up to them.

Rush for the gold john feinstein