Against the backdrop of the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan, the 1980 Moscow Olympics was always going to be political.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser wanted Australia's Olympic athletes to boycott the Games, in line with the USA, but many of the athletes had a different view and competed anyway.
Athletes were the victims - and most of them female.
According to Ford, who was Australia's first and founding member of the International Olympic Committee's Athletes Commission, that struggle is far from over.
In Turning the Tide, 800 metres Swimming Gold Medal winner, Michelle Ford, charts the highs and lows from the beaches of Sydney as a young girl with a dream, to the dizzy heights of Olympic swimming gold against the odds of Cold-War politics spilling into sport like poison.
Olympic boycotts, death threats, wilful blindness and misogyny coincided with the first and most ferocious, systematic, state-sponsored doping the world has ever witnessed.
As Paris prepares to host the 2024 Olympics, 100 years after the Modern Olympics founding father Pierre de Coubertin declared that "Women have one task, that of the role of crowning the winner with garlands", an indifference to female athletes lives on.
In this roller-coaster account of courage and resilience in the Olympic realm, Turning the Tide is a manifesto for change.
Industry Reviews
A significant contribution to Olympic history. A must read.
Anita de Frantz, IOC Member, ex-Senior Vice President of the IOC and Chair of the Women and Sport Commission
"An important read for all athletes!"
Claudia Bokel, ex-Chair, IOC Athletes' Commission and Member IOC Executive Board
Michelle Ford's book, Turning the Tide, is a valuable and insightful recollection of her years as an upcoming and elite athlete. What she had to endure, and what she overcame, is definitely inspiring. Her stories are crisp, clear and accurate, and should provide food for thought for anyone interested in the value and future of sport.
John Naber, Olympic Champion, Broadcaster and Author
Reading Turning the Tide brought back many memories of the 1980 Olympics and the boycott, and rekindled my admiration for Michelle and her colleagues who travelled to compete in Moscow. It is a great reminder to anyone that the path to success is often laden with obstacles, and I am thrilled that Michelle has pledged to use her voice to advocate for swimmers who were denied opportunities due to doping and boycotts. Let this story be a lesson that politics and drugs have no place in sport.Congratulations Michelle on another wonderful achievement!Tracy Stockwell OAM (n?e Caulkins), Olympic and World Champion swimmer
Even though we were involved in a different sport, Michelle Ford was a role model and inspiration to me for her achievements, dedication and resilience. They are all important traits in the Olympic journey and this book tells a wonderful tale that I hope all young aspiring athletes and swimmers will read.
Cathy Freeman OAM, Olympic and World Champion 400m athlete
