Petria Thomas Audiobook By Petria Thomas, Andy Shea cover art

Petria Thomas

Swimming Against the Tide

 Preview
Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Petria Thomas

By: Petria Thomas, Andy Shea
Narrated by: Kate Hosking, Jim Daly
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $19.49

Buy for $19.49

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

 Australian swimmer Petria Thomas won the hearts of millions around the world with her triple gold-medal-winning triumph at the Athens Olympic Games in 2004. Having overcome the pain and anguish of three shoulder reconstructions and two ankle reconstructions over the length of her glittering 12-year career, Petria is admired and respected for her grit, determination, and steely will to win.

But there's more to the Queen of Butterfly than meets the eye, and here for the first time is the full and authorised story of Australian swimming's golden girl: her battle against severe depression, her cries for help that almost ended her life, and the extraordinary determination that overcame these physical and emotional pressures to reach the pinnacle of her career.

©2005 Petria Thomas and Andy Shea (P)2005 Bolinda Publishing Pty. Ltd. Heartfelt Inspiring Olympic Swimming
adbl_web_global_use_to_activate_T1_webcro805_stickypopup

Editorial reviews

Australian swimming great Petria Thomas opens her heart, and reveals the debilitating physical and mental secrets of what she had to overcome in order to achieve her Olympic dream. Kate Hoskings and Jim Daly share the storytelling, with the former taking Thomas’ voice, and the latter providing the context in which she excelled. A context, it should be noted, that included three shoulder and two ankle reconstructions, as well as a constant battle against pressure and expectations for a three-time Olympian and World Championship titlist. Thomas’ grit, determination and steely will to win are highlighted in the ultimately uplifting autobiography of one of the greatest butterflyers of all time.
All stars
Most relevant  
The content of this book and the narrator were both excellent. Her story is simply amazing and gives hope to people who have battled depression and injury. The book alternates between a male narrator and a woman reading the diary entries that Thomas wrote. This was a very helpful way of handling the book. I highly recommend this book, especially to anyone engaged in amateur racing.

Inspiring

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is a great story of an Australian Olympic swimmer who overcomes many obstacles to win gold in Athens. The story itself is inspiring.

However, the story is told in two voices, one is the first person voice of a woman (representing Petria) and the other a male voice giving a third person point of view, as well as speaking for the many other people in her life (her sister, mother, coaches, therapists, husband, etc). I personally found it distracting to have the narration jump between the two voices and many viewpoints. I was probably 3 - 4 hours into the book before I grew used to this. I suppose this technique was meant to give us a more complete picture of Petria, but in an audio book I found it distracting.

Hard to Get Used to....

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A very moving and real story. Although it is about a world champion, it is so close to our lives which make it real.

Amazing story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This was a very good book. She is an amazing woman and an amazing swimmer. Having had 5 shoulder operations myself, it was difficult listening to parts of this. I think this will help thousands of athletes that suffer from depression understand that they are not alone and that they should not suffer alone. Seek help. It is available.

Awesome

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
topic and the material inside the book is solid good material for athletes and coaches. nothing too special but good to hear the story from a top swimmer and her team and family etc.

very good to listen as a swimmer and coach both !

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.