The Girls Who Beat the Odds

The Girls Who Beat the Odds

The untold and unheralded stories of women in sports history, forgotten no longer…

The Girls Who Beat the Odds is a showcase of just how far women's sports has come in the past hundred years―while honoring those who had the courage and fortitude to come first.

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About the Book

So many women in sports history have been overlooked. Their strength and perseverance dismissed or forgotten. Even the most well-known women athletes don’t garner the same attention as their men counterparts.

Despite this, new generations are engaging with and supporting women athletes, both as individual stars and on teams. Men’s sports continues to dominate in terms of media coverage and airtime, but the momentum for women’s sports is here, and it’s growing. Women today, as skilled as they are in their own right, stand on the shoulders of the giants who built the game, brought the pain, stayed the course, and gave it their all.

This collection, from renowned speaker, author, and retired U.S. Army Major General Mari K. Eder highlights all of these women, covering incredible American athletes from the 1900s to the modern era.

Details
Author: Mari K Eder, US Army, Major General (Ret.)
Tag: Stories with Purpose
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Publication Year: 2026
ASIN: B0GKBYRV25
ISBN: 9781464244308
“An essential catch-up for sports fans on these overlooked athletes and an engaging look at leadership, ingenuity, and grit for non-sports fans.”
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Mari K Eder, US Army, Major General (Ret.)

Mari K. Eder, retired U.S. Army Major General, is a renowned speaker and author, and a thought leader on strategic communication and leadership. General Eder has served as Director of Public Affairs at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies and as an adjunct professor and lecturer in communications and public diplomacy at the NATO School and Sweden’s International Training Command. She served in a number of senior positions in the Pentagon, on the Army Staff, as Deputy Chief of Public Affairs and Deputy Chief of the Army Reserve, and with DoD’s Reserve Forces Policy Board. General Eder speaks and writes frequently on communication topics in universities and for international audiences and consults on communications issues.

She has an established record of scholarship, research, and publishing. Her book, Leading the Narrative: The Case for Strategic Communication, is used in a number of university communications courses. Her latest communications book, American Cyberscape: Trials and the Path to Trust, was released in November 2020. She is the author of numerous case studies and articles on military ethics, leadership, strategic communications, and two books of children’s stories.

A deeply inspirational book, The Girls Who Stepped Out of Line, was released in August 2021. The Library Of Virginia awarded it the People’s Choice Award in October 2022. The second in the series, The Girls Who Fought Crime, was released in August 2023. Her latest release, The Girls Who Beat the Odds, released September 2026, and is available wherever you buy books.

Ret. Maj. Gen. Eder was recently awarded the Daughters of the American Revolution Medal of Honor, and named the Historic Hotels of America 2023 Historian of the Year.

When not writing, lecturing, or traveling, Ret. Maj. Gen. Eder works with rescue groups, fostering rescue dogs.

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