Photo credit: © Jenny Jimenez

About the Author

Doug Levy is a lifelong sports buff and a huge fan of the Olympic Games. He owned and operated a lobbying and government affairs consulting business for twenty-five years, and worked as a sports reporter, sports columnist, and news reporter for the Tri-City Herald newspaper in southeast Washington and as a news and politics reporter for The Columbian in Vancouver, Washington through much of the 1980s.

He has skydived, run two marathons, climbed a mountain, paraglided, bungee-jumped, and once testified at a murder trial. Hero Redefined is his first book.

Why I wrote Hero Redefined

I wrote this book to shine a spotlight on the Olympic Games and the athletes who compete in them—but in ways we as viewers and fans don’t always think about. The Olympic Games, at their best, serve as a beautiful illustration of what can happen when we gather people around the world for the right reasons instead of for wars or violence. But the Olympic spirit goes way beyond just winning—at its essence, it is about competitors giving their all for their countries and doing their very best. As for the athletes in those Olympic Games, we often put a ‘hero’ label on those who win medals—understandable, given their greatness, brilliance, and dogged determination. But if we open our eyes and our perspectives a bit, we might discover that heroism goes beyond winning, and that we can find heroes outside of the medals stand. This book introduces you to a new set of heroes—those who might have crept across your radar once upon a time, but who have gone largely unnoticed or forgotten since then. I hope after reading, you might better remember and appreciate these heroes, too.