Tough Girl

“An intimate memoir…The life of Carolyn Wood has been a remarkable journey. It began with a fear of water and transformed into an uplifting road to becoming an Olympic swimmer — not just an Olympic swimmer, but a gold medalist…The journey continued as Wood realized she was gay, tried to push that away, married a man, started a family, lost custody of a young child, then even later watched as her 30-year marriage crumbled. It was something she pondered when she walked the 500-mile Camino de Santiago trail in Europe…Wood allows the reader into the intimate details of her entire life, sparing no emotions.”—Swimming World magazine

​Carolyn Wood, born and raised in Portland, Oregon, still lives in her original family home. She is a retired English teacher who spent more than thirty years encouraging students to write and is now taking her own advice, although often she’d rather be practicing yoga, outdoors tending her bees and garden, or hiking backroads and mountain trails. Ms. Wood’s work has appeared in Teachers as Writers and Elohi Gadugi Journal. This is her first book.