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Book Review, © Copyright 2000, Jim Loy
This book is mainly the disturbing story of the dark side of women's (little girl's) gymnastics and women's (little girl's) figure skating. It begins with a bizarre sequence of accidents (on the vaulting horse and in the hospital) that led to the death of a young gymnast. It tells of a young gymnast paralyzed from the waist down. It then tells of the death by eating disorder of another young gymnast. It tells of the pressure and verbal abuse from successful coaches who insist their young athletes perform with broken bones. It ends with the bizarre story of a stalker father. Here are the subtitles of the chapters:
The book is full of very sad stories.
To order this book, click Amazon.com (goes directly to this book).
Reviewer's comment: I have often wondered about these sports which year after year become more spectacular and more dangerous. If they would only give more points for grace and poise, and fewer points for technical difficulty, I don't think these sports would suffer. And gymnasts wouldn't be retiring in their early teens.