"A deep reflection on the nature of self wrapped up in a thrilling edge-of-your-seat account of heartbreak and triumph at the 1960 Olympic games, I finished this book last week and I still can’t put it down! The drama of Wood’s incredible pursuit of a spot on the Olympic swim team, her grueling workouts, her intensity and drive, is interspersed with reflective chapters detailing her hike along the Camino de Santiago in 2012. Wood deftly works back and forth between these two extraordinary stories, keeping the reader with her, walking a line between noise and silence, drive and release. This book is a pleasure to read."
Goodreads, Reader review
Goodreads, Reader review
"This book was a complete joy to read from start to finish. Carolyn is funny, open, honest, and so, so strong. Her time as a teenage swimmer at the 1960 Olympics interweaves with memories of walking the Camino in Spain in 2012. Both events serve as a reckoning with her own grit: she details the tough training in the years leading up to her gold medal as well as internal struggles with what would later become her lesbian identity. On the Camino, she walks with her own grief over the breakup of a longtime partnership and her process gives the rest of us a blueprint for how to deal better with pain and challenge. This story is inspiring! Highly recommended."
Powell's Bookstore, Reader review
Powell's Bookstore, Reader review
"This is a memoir worth reading. It is engages the reader by telling parallel tales of Carolyn's road to the Olympics and her pilgrimage on the Camino a Santiago de Compostela. Both required her to persevere when she found herself struggling, usually due to two more journeys within the book: Carolyn's path to healing after losing her life partner and her path to recognizing/accepting her sexuality. I can highly recommend this book. It is reads like poetry in some sections. It is entirely thoughtful and honest."
Amazon, Reader review
"Wood's debut memoir is a surprising page-turner. I loved diving into the life of a young Olympian with an intense drive to be the best and a workout regime unimaginable for most adults. There's lots of drama and excitement in the quest for gold. At the same time I was entertained by the stories of the young rebel bent on tormenting authority figures in ways both imaginative and timeless. Into this story Wood weaves her adult tale of loss and endurance, and provides a satisfying reflection on what makes a tough girl press on through pain and loss and disappointment, all the way to triumph."
Amazon, Reader review
"Carolyn Wood writes carefully and succinctly as a child devoted to Olympic success and an adult looking honestly and fearlessly at her life. Her book is a story of love and loss but also the story of a woman reclaiming her life, rediscovering her strengths and her joys and learning to go forward. This book has been an important reminder for me to do the same. It is an important addition to LGBT literature and a very satisfying and deeply memorable read."
Amazon, Reader review
Amazon, Reader review
"Wood's debut memoir is a surprising page-turner. I loved diving into the life of a young Olympian with an intense drive to be the best and a workout regime unimaginable for most adults. There's lots of drama and excitement in the quest for gold. At the same time I was entertained by the stories of the young rebel bent on tormenting authority figures in ways both imaginative and timeless. Into this story Wood weaves her adult tale of loss and endurance, and provides a satisfying reflection on what makes a tough girl press on through pain and loss and disappointment, all the way to triumph."
Amazon, Reader review
"Carolyn Wood writes carefully and succinctly as a child devoted to Olympic success and an adult looking honestly and fearlessly at her life. Her book is a story of love and loss but also the story of a woman reclaiming her life, rediscovering her strengths and her joys and learning to go forward. This book has been an important reminder for me to do the same. It is an important addition to LGBT literature and a very satisfying and deeply memorable read."
Amazon, Reader review
In “Tough Girl: An Olympian’s Journey,” Carolyn Wood, a retired Beaverton school teacher, takes to the trails of Camino de Santiago, Spain, to walk off the grief of the ending of a long relationship and looks to rediscover the gutsy girl of her youth. The young Wood transcended problems at home and struggles with her identity by taking it out on the water: “All summer I pushed past the voice in my head that complained, I can’t do it. I can’t go anymore. I kept going, encouraging myself with another voice that said, Come on, Push. Come on, until the wall finally found me, the set ended, the practice was over. When those moments arrived and I hadn’t surrendered to the I can’t do it, I felt calm and sure and sweet in my fatigue.” She powered her way to junior records and a spot on the 1960 U.S. Olympic team, and the medal stand — at age 14!
I’m loving Wood’s healing recollections of the 1950s-era MAC — the Multnomah Athletic Club — and training at the outdoor pool next to the hulking wooden roller coaster at Oregon’s own Coney Island, the Jantzen Beach Amusement Park. And I’m particularly enamored by that 14-year-old girl who huffed and cursed and worked herself into a champion and found that place where she could be comfortable in her own skin.
I’m looking forward to watching her burst out of the depths of her 2016 self and finding her land legs by the end of the trail. I’m pretty sure this “Tough Girl” won’t be denied.
Brian Juenemann, Executive Director of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association and a contributing editor for NWBookLovers.org
If you liked Cheryl Strayed’s Wild, you will love Carolyn Wood’s memoir Tough Girl. While Strayed walked the Pacific Coast Trail to find herself, Wood journeyed on El Camino de Santiago in Spain to reclaim the fourteen-year old tough girl of her youth who competed in the Olympics in 1960. Wood’s story of coming out, of finding and losing love, of healing herself on a lonely pilgrimage is the story of courage in the face of heartbreak. One that many of us need again and again.
Linda Christensen, Director Oregon Writing Project, Lewis and Clark College
Carolyn Wood is living a life worth reading about. An Olympic swimming champion at age 14 and a slowly emerging gay person in an earlier, less understanding era, she has been resolutely the “Tough Girl” of her book title. Beautifully written, the book artfully weaves her life story around the tale of her long walk on the Camino de Santiago, an effort to understand and accept the end of a decades-long marriage. This memoir could easily become a favorite of American literature teachers and their students.
George Vogt, Retired Executive Director, Oregon Historical Society
I’m loving Wood’s healing recollections of the 1950s-era MAC — the Multnomah Athletic Club — and training at the outdoor pool next to the hulking wooden roller coaster at Oregon’s own Coney Island, the Jantzen Beach Amusement Park. And I’m particularly enamored by that 14-year-old girl who huffed and cursed and worked herself into a champion and found that place where she could be comfortable in her own skin.
I’m looking forward to watching her burst out of the depths of her 2016 self and finding her land legs by the end of the trail. I’m pretty sure this “Tough Girl” won’t be denied.
Brian Juenemann, Executive Director of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association and a contributing editor for NWBookLovers.org
If you liked Cheryl Strayed’s Wild, you will love Carolyn Wood’s memoir Tough Girl. While Strayed walked the Pacific Coast Trail to find herself, Wood journeyed on El Camino de Santiago in Spain to reclaim the fourteen-year old tough girl of her youth who competed in the Olympics in 1960. Wood’s story of coming out, of finding and losing love, of healing herself on a lonely pilgrimage is the story of courage in the face of heartbreak. One that many of us need again and again.
Linda Christensen, Director Oregon Writing Project, Lewis and Clark College
Carolyn Wood is living a life worth reading about. An Olympic swimming champion at age 14 and a slowly emerging gay person in an earlier, less understanding era, she has been resolutely the “Tough Girl” of her book title. Beautifully written, the book artfully weaves her life story around the tale of her long walk on the Camino de Santiago, an effort to understand and accept the end of a decades-long marriage. This memoir could easily become a favorite of American literature teachers and their students.
George Vogt, Retired Executive Director, Oregon Historical Society
Published Interviews, Reviews and Articles
"Accumulating wisdom: from teen Olympian to gay pioneer to new discoveries at 67" – Jan Robbins, San Francisco Senior Beat, October 10, 2018
"New Book by Gold Medal Olympian Carolyn Wood Illustrates her Tough Journey to the Top" – New Day Northwest KING5, September 19, 2018
"Tough Girl by Carolyn Wood" – Womenwords.org
"Tough Girl Brings Carolyn Wood's Swimming Heroics, Life to New Light" – Swimming World Magazine, August 29, 2018
"This Lesbian Got Her Groove Back on a 500-Mile Hike" – The Advocate
"Too Old for Long distance Hiking" – REI Coop Journal August 20, 2018
"An Olympian's Memoir" – KGW Portland Today August 15, 2018
"Tough Girl" Author – KATU Afternoon Live August 15, 2018
"Local Olympian, Carolyn Wood, Shares "Tough Girl" Memoir" – KATU AM NW August 10, 2018
"Portland's Carolyn Wood, Olympic swimmer at 14, pens revealing memoir" - The Oregonian
"Olympic athlete dives into K, submerged and vivid" - The Portland Tribune
"Local Olympian and "Tough Girl" author, Carolyn Wood" - KATU2
"Olympian's journey to reclaim her inner Tough Girl" - King5 News
"Olympic gold medalist pens memoir" - The Bulletin, Bend
"carolyn wood: 70+ year-old olympian faces triumphs and trials with the determination of youth" - Focus Mid South
"Accumulating wisdom: from teen Olympian to gay pioneer to new discoveries at 67" – Jan Robbins, San Francisco Senior Beat, October 10, 2018
"New Book by Gold Medal Olympian Carolyn Wood Illustrates her Tough Journey to the Top" – New Day Northwest KING5, September 19, 2018
"Tough Girl by Carolyn Wood" – Womenwords.org
"Tough Girl Brings Carolyn Wood's Swimming Heroics, Life to New Light" – Swimming World Magazine, August 29, 2018
"This Lesbian Got Her Groove Back on a 500-Mile Hike" – The Advocate
"Too Old for Long distance Hiking" – REI Coop Journal August 20, 2018
"An Olympian's Memoir" – KGW Portland Today August 15, 2018
"Tough Girl" Author – KATU Afternoon Live August 15, 2018
"Local Olympian, Carolyn Wood, Shares "Tough Girl" Memoir" – KATU AM NW August 10, 2018
"Portland's Carolyn Wood, Olympic swimmer at 14, pens revealing memoir" - The Oregonian
"Olympic athlete dives into K, submerged and vivid" - The Portland Tribune
"Local Olympian and "Tough Girl" author, Carolyn Wood" - KATU2
"Olympian's journey to reclaim her inner Tough Girl" - King5 News
"Olympic gold medalist pens memoir" - The Bulletin, Bend
"carolyn wood: 70+ year-old olympian faces triumphs and trials with the determination of youth" - Focus Mid South
