Take the Lead
Hanging On, Letting Go, and Conquering Life's Hardest Climbs
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- ¥1,700
発行者による作品情報
World champion climber Sasha DiGiulian tells her story—from coming of age under the scrutiny of social media, navigating a male-dominated sport, and tackling her most heart-stopping climbs—and shares the power of perseverance and positivity.
At age six, Sasha DiGiulian stepped into a climbing gym for the first time and was competing within a year. Decked out in all-pink gear and with her blonde hair tied into pigtails, Sasha knew from an early age what it was like to be a girl in a traditionally male-dominated sport, vowing to never sacrifice her femininity to fit in. With a fierce love for the climb and incredible natural talent, Sasha soon won her first National Sport Climbing Championship at only seventeen, and a year later took the title of World Champion.
To her fans, it looked like Sasha was on top of the world. But under the accolades, she was just another young woman learning how to handle the intense scrutiny of social media and dealing with body dysmorphia, all while quietly facing a potentially career-ending injury. In a relatable and inspiring voice, Take the Lead reflects on the highs and lows of Sasha’s illustrious life and career for the first time, bringing readers on her remarkable journey from novice climber to Columbia University graduate, adventurer, environmentalist, and entrepreneur, and one of the most recognizable faces in climbing.
For readers of Cheryl Strayed’s Wild and Megan Rapinoe’s One Life, Take the Lead ultimately emphasizes the power of perseverance, fearlessness and positivity in tackling some of the most daunting and fearsome climbs—on and off the wall.
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DiGiulian debuts with a gripping memoir about how she became a professional rock climber. She discovered her love for the sport at age seven while attending her older brother's birthday party at a climbing gym in her hometown of Alexandria, Va., where later that year she started training with a team to climb competitively. Her teenage years were spent practicing on weekdays and competing on weekends, hard work that paid off when at age 19 DiGiulian won gold in the Female Overall category at the 2011 International Federation of Sport Climbing World Championships. She continued to compete while studying at Columbia University, and though the death of her father from a stroke when she was 22 hit her hard, she worked through her grief by recommitting herself to climbing. The recreations of what it's like to cling to cliffsides will have readers' palms sweating ("The coarse sandpaper rock has shaved my fingertips bloody.... I maneuver my hips ever so slightly to the left in order to position my center of gravity above my left toe, which is balanced on a pebble-sized protrusion"), and her reflections on the sport are uplifting: "The challenge in life is to understand the difference between rational and irrational fear—to harness one and conquer the other." This thrills and inspires.
