Mark A. Flagel, in his first novel, sheds light on this chapter through women swimmers who, while creatures of his imagination, made the immense sacrifices, experienced the glory, and suffered the destructive consequences of many of their heroic historical counterparts.

The fictional American heroine is Ivy Johnson who, favored to win three individual gold medals at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, loses all three races to an overly muscular and masculine East German, the fictional Hannah Eberhardt. Ivy is certain she was cheated and says so, but the media calls her a sore loser, she loses any chance of endorsements, and her life goes off track for several years.

Hannah unleashed a firestorm of emotion as she claimed her trifecta in Montreal, in the process struggling through (among other things) the guilt and pain of the April 1976 death of her best friend Elsi. That guilt and pain, and a series of traumatic experiences over the ensuing years, cast a pall over the life of the Olympic champion.

Ivy, for her part, finally pulls herself together and, in 1987, becomes a lawyer and dedicates herself to the fight against performance enhancing drugs.

Then, in the early 1990’s, after the fall of East Germany, evidence emerges of a government-led program that had put all high level East German athletes on “vitamins” secretly known to be powerful steroids effective in the short term yet highly toxic over time. Ivy seeks vindication. She wants to confront Hannah. She wants recognition for gold. But the road to vindication is not as simple as Ivy hoped, she encounters many obstacles along the way, and both women undergo cathartic transformations as mysteries unfold and they learn more about each other.

In Price of Gold, the ups and downs and twists and turns in America and in Germany will take you on a roller coaster of emotions that will not only open your eyes to this incredible chapter in Olympic history, but will leave you to ponder what the most just outcome in the real world would be for the women who lived through these events. The author sums up his final sentiments at the end of the Epilogue:

“For me, this is a story that simply needed telling within a fictional framework. The facts are out there. But no one seems to think about the geographic depth and the true nature of the wounds caused by this sad chapter in East German and Olympic history.

Hopefully this work of fiction will, while showing compassion to the East German victims, bring back some glory to Shirley Babashoff and her 1976 Olympic teammates, or at least contribute a little to the healing that they all most certainly deserve.”
Price of Gold is available in paperback ($14.99) or on Kindle ($8.99), at http://www.amazon.com/dp/0692497013/ref=cm_sw_su_dp. Learn more about the author at www.markflagel.com


Mark Flagel
450 S. Camden Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90212
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 213 706-7507
Website: http://www.markflagel.com