Product Description

Updated to include the 2003 Worlds competition.

Today's most exciting figure skaters are spotlighted in this richly illustrated book. Combining grace, incredible athletic ability and artistic showmanship, figure stating is exhilarating and highly entertaining. Anything can happen on the ice and often does. As the fans of competitive figure skating know, beauty and danger add up to the greatest show on ice.

Figure Skating Now covers the men, the women, the pairs teams and the dance teams. This second edition covers the reigning stars such as Timothy Goebel, Sarah Hughes, and Michelle Kwan, and introduces the next generation of competitors: Brian Joubert, Sasha Cohen, the pairs team Oberta and Sokolov and many others. With biographies and statistics, Figure Skating Now is an insider's view of international figure skating at its highest levels.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #908599 in Books
• Published on: 2003-09-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

From School Library Journal
Adult/High School-Skaters and wanna-bes will get hours of pleasure from studying the gorgeous pictures, reading the stories, and poring over the records of currently prominent people in the rarefied atmosphere of the world of figure skating. Readers meet the top competitors from around the world in all four divisions: ice dancing, pairs, and men's and women's singles; the inclusion of the up-and-comers will give the book a longer shelf life. Each skater or pair is given one or two full pages (three for Michelle Kwan, who also graces the cover), which include at least one large photo of the athletes in performance and several paragraphs about their career. Each individual's date of birth, hometown, training site, coach, and choreographer are also supplied. A few American stars are missing, e.g., Sasha Cohen and Jenny Kirk, in favor of some obscure European national champions, but never mind-teens will love this book.
Judy McAloon, Potomac Library, Prince William County, VA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
This overview of international figure-skating champions combines author Milton's brief biographical sketches with photographer Gerard Chataigneau's striking four-color photos. Of limited reference value--the bios read much like press releases--the book will be enjoyed primarily by browsers, although students writing reports will find essential facts about who won what when. It is the photos, though, that will draw skating fans. Shooting ice skaters in action is no easy trick for a photographer because skating is so fluid a sport, but Chataigneau manages to freeze such stars as Nancy Kwan at their most balletic. The ice dancers come off worse than the figure skaters because their dramatic gestures, when frozen on film, often look posed and pompous. Still, Chataigneau is a skilled photographer, and his images are carefully composed to show both physical grace and emotional intensity. A visual treat for those who follow the sport. Leon Wagner
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
Beautifully photographed and designed... an excellent guide to the latest and most popular skaters... Highly recommended. -- Lorraine Douglas, Canadian Materials for Librarians 02/2004

Customer Reviews

Great Book of knowledge
I recommend this book to anyone that wants to know the gossip on how the latest figure skaters got to where they are today. With lots of great pictures of all stars including Michelle Kwan, Sarah Huges, Irina Slutskya, Elvis Stojko, Alexei Yagudin and much much more from all around the world.

Eye Candy!
Outstanding photography is the highlight of this book, but the text is rather sparse, emphasizing breadth (74 total skaters) over depth. Although there is little here to learn for long-time skating fans, this could be an excellent introduction to skating for those new to the sport, as far as the "eligible" world of figure skating goes (no professionals are included). There doesn't appear to be as much pro-Canadian bias as there is in some books that come from that country! The only significant omission seems to be Sasha Cohen - understadable, though, since she sat out the previous season with an injury. So, again, I would give this 5 stars for photography, 3 for text.

Difficult to know which edition is which
The second edition (Sept 2003) does feature Sasha Cohen and is up to date - loads of photos very good info for the new or experienced skating fan.