Customer Reviews

Figure Skating Now: Olympic and World Champions

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

 

 

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.

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.

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.

This is a good introduction to the current stars of figure skating. If you have read books about skating and they have told you about recent stars then this book won't do you a lot of good. It does have a lot of good photography and does include info about some people that you don't normally find in other books. One other thing is, because it reviews figure skaters who did well in the 2001 worlds, it does not include Sasha Cohen considering she was out with an injury that season. It really depends on you if you want to get it or not. If you love reading skating books then this is a great book, but if you'd either only want to read about the champions or read about them once this isn't the book for you.

I only have the first edition of Figure Skating Now, so if I mention some skaters that dropped off the scene around 2001, that's my solid explanation why I did. Figure Skating Now is a better buy than Icestars because of it's wonderful photography and solidly edited profile info, and, after I buy a book, my fetish is to see if the pages "smell" good, and if you're on the same page with me and my fetish, then Figure Skating Now is a top-notch book because of it's forever-glossy smell contained in it's pages. Still, you have to remember that Figure Skating Now is not an informational guide to figure skating, like The Official Guide To Figure Skating, it's simply a book with extremely nice photography, glossy pages, and well-edited if not very informative, profiles of the top skaters in the world today. In that aspect, it's simply classified as a just-so-you-know book that fans of skating, particularly female fans, will love to flip through and chant a chorus of "Ooh!s and Aah!s" about over their favorite skaters. In that sense, it is similar to Icestars, only it's edited much better.
It basically gives profiles of all the four aspects of skating (mens, womens, pairs, and ice dancing) and the top skaters in each category (examples include Evgeny Plushenko, Michelle Kwan, Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao, and Barbara Fusar Poli and Maurizio Margaglio). Some other previous skaters whose profiles were featured include Alexei Yagudin, Todd Eldridge, Sarah Hughes, Maria Butyrskaya, Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat and Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kratz-retired skaters featured in the 2001 edition, the majority who competed in the 2002 Olympics before announcing their retirement. My point is that I would get the more updated version of Figure Skating Now (the 2nd edition) just to be more updated in your knowledge of the biggest stars in figure skating. Overall, this book is fine and is worth the money if you want a glossy skating book with nice profiles of your favorite skaters, if you want a book describing the comprehensive history and knowledge of figure skating, this isn't the one to get, but it doesn't claim to be that. In fact, it succeeds extremely well at what it claims to be.

"Figure Skating now" is the perfect book to prepare yourselves for the 2002 Olympics! It portraits the best figure skaters of the past four years and gives background informations as well.
If oyu love figure skating you should buy this book.

I got this book and was excited, but they wrote about such pointless stuff, its good for a quick ref i guess. They also didn't include skaters such as Sasha Cohen (:}) but oh well, don't buy it!

"Figure Skating now" is a perfect book to prepare for the 2002 Olympics! It covers the best skaters of the last four years and gives background information to everyone. If you're interested in figre skating you need to buy this book!!