Customer Reviews

Carly Patterson (Amazing Athletes)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Carly Patterson is arguably one of the strongest and most confident young gymnasts that the United States has ever seen. She is an image of a classic American teenage gymnast, and her confidence in what she does is clearly one of her most distinctive traits. Is is this that helped her win that Olympic title at the 2004 Summer Games in Athens at age 16. Now almost 18 years old, Ms. Patterson seems to be looking toward different goals (i.e. studying dentistry in college, getting a record deal and singing), but her amazing success as a gymnast will always serve as a strong identity for her.

This book has a few pages of photos and broad information about Carly that young readers might enjoy. It talks briefly about how she began gymnastics, what it was like when she first entered longtime coach Evgeny Marchenko's gym, and how she gradually evolved from an awkward beginner who couldn't keep her knees straight in her routines to one of the top gymnasts in the world. It isn't really the book to get if you're looking for something with new and developed information about this athlete; it talks a little about that classic birthday party that lured Carly toward gymnastics, as well as her 2003 elbow injury and her ups and downs in some of her major competitions, but again not much depth is provided to satisfy a reader looking for something more.

Hopefully a more detailed account on Carly's life and experiences will be published in the near future. It would be interesting to see her write an autobiography about her career. It looks like a new book just came out about her on April 1 (it's called Carly Patterson: Be Strong) but I'm not sure what is in it. In any case, Carly Patterson really made it big two years ago in Greece, and it will be interesting to see what she does in the future.