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Fitness & Sports

Figure Skating – There Is Much More to Know Than Watching Skaters On TV

The grace and beauty on the ice is absolutely amazing, beyond belief, and the stars that make it so are real people behind the scenes working so hard to deliver these routines – often giving up everything from a very early age in the hopes of gold, Olympic gold and onto sponsorships and paid performances. It is athletics mixed with theatre dance, and one wrong move could have you really breaking a leg, as the Broadway quote goes.

Still, as much as you think you might be up on figure skating, it’s so much more, years of hard work for a moment stuck in time, and imprinted into our minds, performances we never forget. We are dazzled by the strength, speed, and stunning acrobats, and yet, we know so little about the reality, about the people who make it so. Oh sure, we get to watch the narratives, biography video stories, but it’s a competitive no-holds-bar sport, and it is very much a sport indeed.

One great book on this topic you might very much like to read, and also one I personally own in my own library is “Inside Edge – A Revealing Journey Into the Secret World of Figure Skating” by Christine Brennan, Scribner Publishing, New York, NY, (1996), 319 pages, ISBN: 0-684-80167-1. The author of course was a sports writer for the Washington Post, and the storyline mentions all the great skaters of the era, Olympic hopefuls and Olympic champions too. Remember the Tanya Harding scandal and story with the beating of Nancy Kerrigan, this book will take you behind the scenes.

This book talks about the World Competition from Asia, and how the judging works, or doesn’t and how politics have clouded the issues and points over the years. Hear about the scandals, payoffs, and the advantage of youth, beauty, and the strong men in the couples’ routines, including the HIV/AIDS challenges which have plagued the industry. This books covers from the trials and tribulations of the making of a star to the gold medals and later endorsements taking the athletes from rags to riches in an amazing 30-day period.

Indeed, I highly recommend that you learn more about figure skating today, because when you see it on TV or in the Olympics you will appreciate it all so much more, once you know what these skaters have to go through to put on that peak performance, and why it is so emotional, and is either a dream come true, or a bitter end to a long hard fought career of someone who gave it all they had but came up short on the wrong day, at the wrong time. Please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow

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