Customer Reviews

Gymnastics Balancing Acts

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you love gymnastics, then this is the book for you! This book has terrific pictures of your favorite gymnasts that bring out their personalities. The pictures aren't of them doing gymnastics, (only a few are,) but doing other things. For example, there is a picture of Amanda Borden doing a handstand on a go-cart, and a picture of Dominique Dawes singing on a billboard high above Times Square. The book also tells their feeling about gymnastics and how they got started. This book is a definite MUST for gymnastics fans! I would reccomend it to anyone!

This is an awesome book!!! I am a gymnast myself and usually find any other books about gymnastics besides Biographies or Autobiographies about gymmnastics seem to have incorrect information in them. But not this book, this book is great and it is cool to see all the people in that book that I have met and see what they really think.

It is obvious that Christina Lessa understood that the world of a gymanst goes well beyond public performances. She has done a fabulous job capturing the essence of each gymnast featured, in ways unexpected and fascinating. She has set asside "fact sheets" and scores and has captured what drives them to be great as gymnasts as well as unique and focused individuals. Easy to read and filled with great photos, this book would be a great addition to anyone's coffe table! It has also become one of my favorite books to give as a gift...specially to anyone involved in sports.

If you like seeing pictures of your favorite gymnasts out of the gym, then this is the book for you! This book features old stars and recent stars(from '96)such as Olga Korbut, Nadia, Bart Conner, Mary Lou, Shannon Miller, Jaycie Phelps, Dominique Dawes, John Macready, and many, many more! The book also showcases the athletes emotions about gymnastics, and it shows each person's unique personality. There are also a few pictures of the athletes in the gym, which makes the book well-balanced.

This book has THE most amazing pictures of the BEST Gymnasts of all time. The gymnasts are all pictured in unique ways that best bring out their personalities, and show that there is another side to these talented people. The gymnasts also tell what they love best about the sport, and why it attracted them in the first place.

This book's main focus is on photography; beautiful photos of world class gymnasts playing dress up and wearing different costumes that mostly relate to their personality. There are also pictures of them in the gym, or doing gymnastics. Comments, thoughts, and quotes from the gymnasts are printed in each of their sections throughout the book. As some have mentioned, some of the results listed in the front are wrong, so that's why I'm only giving 4 stars. And about the gymnasts being barefoot: THEY ARE GYMNASTS! THEY COMPETE BAREFOOT. So it makes since for them to be barefoot in the book. Gymnasts featured are: All Mag 7 members (Dominique Dawes, Shannon Miller, Dominique Moceanu, Amy Chow, Amanda Borden, Jaycie Phelps, Kerri Strug), Julianne McNamara, Mary Lou Retton, Trent Dimas, John Roethlisberger, Chainey Umphrey, Cathy Rigby, Kim Zmeskal, Bart Conner, Nadia Comaneci, Peter Vidmar, Jair Lynch, Svetlana Boguinskaia, Lilia Podkopayeva, Mitch Gaylord, Abe Grossfeld, Mariel Grossfeld, Ivan Ivanov, Jordan Jovtchev, Ivan Ivankov, Vitaly Scherbo, and Olga Korbut. Bela Karolyi, Shannon Miller, and Dominique Dawes write forwards and intros. Shannon Miller is on the cover.

Pictures range from Shannon looking like a princess standing on a horse (an actual live animal), to Kerri Strug dressed like a ballerina, to Bart Conner covered completely in gold body paint, to Lilia dressed like a mime, and more. There are also gymnastics poses, like Jaycie Phelps doing a tumbling series on the beam.

This book is full of great gymnasts in their purest and most creative form. It is perhaps their best performance to date. Ms. Lessa portrays each and every one of them as unique and exciting individuals. It is a nice change of pace to see these amazing people in a non-gymnastics arena and to hear their innermost thoughts and emotions. A must-see and read book for anyone associated with the world of gymnastics!

Gymnastics Balancing Acts is a must read book for gymnasts and fans alike.Christina Lessa did a wonderful job of portraying these gymnastics legends as both gymnasts and actors. From Shannon Miller standing on a horse to Lilia Podkopayeva dressed as a mime, this book shows gymnastics and the legends of gymnastics at its best.

Well, if you look at the results in the front, man, are they not accurate! Terrible. Since when did Olga Korbut win two team medalions in the olympics. It has either a lot of typos, or mistakes. The pictures are good, and the stories are too, but Svetlana won more medals at the '88 games than 2. Man, you have got to check up on your trivia, and re read your stuff. It is OK, if you aren't looking for accuracy.

The photos in this book are very nice, but everyone featured is inexplicably barefoot. Not only that, but feet feature prominently within these pages. Weird. Anyway, as another reviewer mentioned, the text is riddled with errors even a casual fan shouldn't miss. If you can tolerate these problems, then you might like htis one.