BIBFRAME Work

Title

  • Thane Baker and the 1952 Summer Games
  • Running in borrowed shoes

Type

  • Text
  • Monograph

Contribution

Subject

Language

Classification

  • ClassificationLcc: GV1061.15.B355 N53 2024
  • ClassificationDdc: 796.42/2092, B

Supplementary content

Content

Summary

"Running in Borrowed Shoes journeys with the United States Track and Field Team from the tryouts in Los Angeles to the 1952 Olympics and afterwards, as the Olympians traveled and competed in local competitions throughout a Europe still recovering from World War II. Running in Borrowed Shoes focuses on pivotal days in the life of Thane Baker, who won silver in 1952 and gold in the 1956 games. Running in Borrowed Shoes relates his first triumph, when the young Kansan overcame physical, educational, and financial obstacles to compete in the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki. When an accident at work left the fourteen-year-old with a piece of metal lodged under a kneecap, Thane's doctors told him he would never run again. But when a legendary coach at Kansas University admitted Thane to the team, Thane understood that his tenacity and hard work in the intervening years had paid off. Thane Baker's daughter Catherine Nicholson worked with her father to record his story. Seen through twenty-year-old Thane Baker's eyes, Running in Borrowed Shoes plunges the reader into the world of the young American athletes who competed in the first Olympics to reach a wide US audience through television. Primitive by today's standards, Helsinki's 1952 Olympic Village is brought into sharp focus, as are the characters who represented a USA fearful of Communism and still under the grip of Jim Crow. The Olympic competitions themselves, and Thane's sometimes risky travels throughout war-torn Europe, are rendered in acute detail by a young athlete relating his most unforgettable experience"-- Provided by publisher.

Table of Contents

Growing up in Kansas -- The Dream Discovered -- The Dream Destroyed -- Daring to Dream Again -- Departure -- New York City -- Welcome to Helsinki -- New Coaches and Old Friends -- Opening Ceremony -- Let the games begin -- The Dream Comes True -- Exploring Helsinki -- Nightmare -- A European tour -- Vienna -- Night Terrors -- All Dreams Must End -- Return to Reality -- Sharing the Dream at Thane Baker Day.

Authorized Access Point

Nicholson, Catherine Baker, 1959-. Running in borrowed shoes

Admin Metadata

  • Date: 2026-07-07T22:43:07.269774+00:00
  • Agent: bcld
  • Status: c
  • Derived from: 23551435

Admin Metadata

  • Date: 2026-07-07
  • Cataloger id: Unknown
  • Description level: bibframe-2-6-0
  • Description language: eng
  • Description authentication: pcc

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