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“Good for a Girl: My Life Running in a Man’s World” – the memoir of US athlete/coach Lauren Fleshman has won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award (#SBOTY2023).
Fleshman becomes the 36th winner of the William Hill SBOTY prize, recognised as the highest accolade for sports writing in English literature.
“The announcement makes history as it is the first book about women in sport, authored by a woman, to receive the world’s most prestigious sports writing prize,” William Hill proclaimed.
‘Good for a Girl‘ sees Fleshman recount her professional journey in the US track-and-field programme. Her book is described as “part memoir, part manifesto” providing her account of “falling in love with running as a girl, battling devastating injuries and self-doubt, and daring to fight for a better way for female athletes”.
SBOTY judges recognised that “Fleshman gives voice to the often-silent experience of the female athlete and argues that the time has come to rebuild our systems of competitive sport to allow women to perform at their best.”
Fleshman is praised for her “heartfelt narrative” and “compelling writing”, as detailed by Alyson Rudd, Chair of the Judging Panel. “‘Good for a Girl’ is not only a must-read book on the challenges that women face in sport but a moving and informative memoir that will grip those who are not athletics fans.
“I hope the win helps break the barriers surrounding the struggles of women in sport systems and institutions built around men, and raise the bar for how women are coached, triggering a shift in cultural thinking and societal perspectives, to both protect and empower girls to thrive in sport.”
Receiving the William Hill SBOTY award and £30,000 cash prize, Fleshman said: “It’s a huge honour to receive recognition for my book which lives in the nexus of two male-dominated fields: sports and sports writing.
“We are still in the early stages of women telling their own stories, and books written by women in all genres are still widely put in a cultural box of ‘women’s books’, making it difficult for them to get more widely platformed.”
“I hope the win helps break the barriers surrounding the struggles of women in sport systems and institutions built around men, and raise the bar for how women are coached, triggering a shift in cultural thinking and societal perspectives, to both protect and empower girls to thrive in sport.”
