A former North American champion and member of three United States Olympic teams gives her impressions of this art-sport.

Discusses the sport of figure skating, the equipment used, safety issues, and competitions.

Includes techniques, clothing, skates, instruction, etc.

People & Places is a special collection from the World of Wonder series. World of Wonder is a weekly illustrated full-page feature syndicated in over 100 newspapers nationwide. Devoted to exploring educational themes and examining the realms of history, science, nature and technology, it is written in a reader-friendly style and accompanied by colorful illustrations. This collection gives the reader a wealth of information on everything from Angkor to Dracula.

Figure skating is the most popular televised sport at the Olympic Winter Games and is the oldest of the winter sports, having first been contested at the Games of the fourth Olympiad in London in 1908. No other sport creates such a perfect balance between athleticism and artistry, and the athletes—many of them household names like Oksana Baiul, Brian Boitano, Nancy Kerrigan, Evan Lysacek, Katarina Witt, and Kristi Yamaguchi—spend years in training to make it look effortless. The Historical Dictionary of Figure Skating relates the history of the sport through a chronology, an introductory essay, an extensive bibliography, appendixes, and over 800 cross-referenced dictionary entries on hundreds of skaters, past and present, but also on skating countries, governing bodies, skating disciplines, technical elements, skating styles, and many other subjects. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the history of figure skating.

Figure skating is the most beautiful and mysterious of all sports. When the skaters are on the ice, every twitch of a muscle and every slip of a skate blade is visible for the world to see. In Inside Edge, Christine Brennan chronicles—for the first time—a season on the skating circuit, intimately portraying the lives, on and off the ice, of the sport's current and upcoming stars. Woven into the narrative are stories of figure skating luminaries—including Peggy Fleming, Janet Lynn, Katarina Witt, Brian Boitano, Scott Hamilton, Kristi Yamaguchi, Nancy Kerrigan, Oksana Baiul, Michelle Kwan, Rudy Galindo, and Tara Lipinski. Revealing the backstage conflicts high-profile figure skaters face, and the ambition that drives them, Brennan also tells the stories of their families, of improbable rises to the top, and of wasted talents. If skaters are perfect, they can become international heroes. But if they fall, if they miss a three-revolution jump on a quarter-inch blade of steel, the despair is theirs alone. This is their life on the edge, where decades of training culminate in little more than four crucial minutes on the ice. There is no other sport like it. There is no other story like theirs.

The executive director of the Professional Skaters Association (PSA) provides proven technique instruction for more than 100 skills, presenting them progressively from beginning to advanced levels of expertise. 170 photos.