PW: The Luster of Olympic Gold

Bob Summer |

Jul 10, 2000

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The Luster of Olympic Gold
Bob Summer -- 7/10/00

The author with his subject,
Olympic hopeful Marion Jones.

Algonquin Books hoped the publicity around the Olympic trials, which begin this weekend, would make a winner out of its biography of Marion Jones, the runner CNN said is a "threat" to win five Olympic medals this summer in Australia. But the Chapel Hill, N.C.-based division of Workman didn't expect See How She Runs: Marion Jones and the Making of a Champion, by Chicago Sun-Times sports columnist and NPR contributor Ron Rapoport, to do so well right out of the gate.
Within a week of the book's June 9 pub date, demand had reduced the 20,000 first printing to the point where 7,500 more copies were ordered for swift delivery. Although Jones trains nearby in Raleigh and has been a "Tar Heel" celebrity ever since she starred on the University of North Carolina women's basketball team that won the 1994 NCCA championship, Algonquin editor Duncan Murrell told PW that the press had assumed that most Americans, like hoops-obsessed Carolinians, only pay attention to track and field athletes for Olympic events. "We thought the book wouldn't take off until mid-July," he added.

But See How She Runs looks like it is already setting some fast track publicity records. So far, Rapoport's Jones bio has been selected by both Teen People magazine and Black Expressions book clubs. Sports insiders are already predicting Jones will be "the next great sports superstar," and the media have certainly taken notice. By Algonquin's launch party last month at Manhattan's Niketown, People had included Jones in its annual "Most Beautiful People" issue and her Nike TV commercials had begun to air nationally.

Adding to the media blitz, while Jones and Rapoport were in Chicago for a joint signing at BEA, they taped a satellite tour that will run in tandem with a barrage of magazine and other media coverage over the summer. According to publicist Katharine Walton, Jones has been featured in Vogue and ESPN magazine, and has appeared on David Letterman. Even O: The Oprah Magazine has expressed interest in running a story about or by Jones.

Rapoport attributes Jones's role-model status to a swelling interest in women's sports, although, he said, his fascination with her athletic ability began earlier. "If you're in sports," he noted, "you began paying attention when she was in high school, because even then she had an extraordinary quality." While apparently a fan, he assured PW that his book is a biography and not a "puff job." He said,"It covers all aspects of her life, the controversy at UNC when she gave up basketball for track, family problems, and so forth."

Certainly the columnist can be credited with serendipitous timing. "When I began the book three years ago, I thought she was going to be a big part of the 2000 Olympics story," he said. "As it turns out, I didn't know how big. Five gold medals! If Marion indeed wins that many in Sydney, she will become the first track athlete--male or female--in Olympics history to do so."

Finally, to take advantage of the publicity about the Olympic trials beginning in Sacramento on Friday,Tower Books will showcase See How She Runs both in its stores and at an on-site booth, where Jones will sign books on the three days she's not competing.
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A version of this article appeared in the 07/10/2000 issue of Publishers Weekly under the headline: