Little Girls in Pretty Boxes: The Making and Breaking of Elite Gymnasts and Figure Skaters [Paperback]

Joan Ryan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2000

From starvation diets and debilitating injuries to the brutal tactics of tyrannical gymnastics guru Bela Karolyi, "Little Girls in Pretty Boxes" portrays the horrors endured by girls at the hands of their coaches and sometimes their own families. An acclaimed expose that has already helped reform Olympic sports -- now updated to reflect the latest developments in women's gymnastics and figure skating -- it continues to plead for sanity, safety, and an end to our national obsession: winning at any cost.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"The female gymnast's career is a race against time and nature," writes San Francisco Chronicle sports columnist Ryan, and the same appears to be true of world-class female figure skaters. In both sports, the contemporary ideal is a girl with a boy's body: sans breasts and hips. To achieve this "ideal," the athletes overtrain at a time when their skeletal development is supposed to be the greatest, suffering injuries to vertebrae, arms and legs at the same time that they are constantly being ordered to lose weight. The result: anorexia and bulimia. This expose, which absolves the exploited trainees of most blame?though some are apparently monomaniacal about becoming Mary Lou Rettons or Dorothy Hamills?is scathing on the subjects of parents, coaches, judges, the U.S. Gymnastic Federation and the U.S. Figure Skating Association. Ryan concludes that females aged 13 to 18 are not only exploited but abused. Such a powerful plea for reform may have some results.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

YA?In an attempt to focus attention on the high price paid through pain, pressure, and humiliation to become an Olympic champion, Ryan has researched the stories behind some of the young female superstar gymnasts and figure skaters. The extraordinary cost to these young women in body, mind, and spirit is dramatized through the intense subculture dominated by gyms, trainers, parents, and sports officials who press for excellence and success without regard to the health and well-being of those involved. This anecdotal account serves as a warning to all those engaged in competitive sports that children should not be sacrificed to adult egos and the thrills of victory. A book to be pondered by coaches, parents, and young people.?Mary T. Gerrity, Queen Anne School Library, Upper Marlboro, MD
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing; Revised edition (August 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446676829
• ISBN-13: 978-0446676823
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (150 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #784,435 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #34 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Winter Sports > Ice Skating & Figure Skating
  • #87 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Individual Sports > Gymnastics

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 46 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Shocking and engrossing. October 24, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

I think most of the people who gave this book negative reviews are in denial. You can't deny how competitive women's gymnastics and skating are, and how much emphasis is placed on appearance and on winning (look at how Kerri Strug was basically forced to do a vault with a severely injured ankle in the 1996 Olympics--"shake it off," indeed). Even those of us who are merely spectators can see what a high-pressure situation it is, and you can't deny the truth of the stories of Julissa Gomez, Christy Heinrich, and the others. The author is not calling for the abolishment of these sports, just for some changes that might actually make competing a positive, enjoyable experience for the athletes. I hope coaches and parents of the athletes read this book and take it seriously, but most of them will probably deny that it applies to them. Highly recommended.

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars You gotta be thin to win May 24, 2002

By JLind555

Format:Paperback

Prior to 1972, gymnastics was a rather ho-hum sport that appeared to be dominated by eastern European robots with as much appeal as wind-up toys. Especially in the Olympics, the big draws were swimming and track, with gymnastics coverage relegated to the back of the sports pages. But at the Munich Olympics in 1972, among the Russian gymnasts was a tiny 17 year old sprite named Olga Korbut who looked like an elf dangling from a charm bracelet and wowed the crowds in the gym, changing the face of gymnastics overnight. Never mind that Korbut wasn't the best gymnast on the Russian team; she was a natural showgirl. The crowds ate her up. Olga's size (84 pounds) didn't hurt her appeal either. There was a new face on female gymnastics and it was cute, petite, and above all, thin. This was reinforced four years later at Montreal by Nadia Comaneci, who was not only petite, she was barely 14 years old. Combining a formidable talent with an insatiable coach, Nadia tore up the gym to win three gold medals. The formula for a winning gymnast was thus established: take them as young as possible, feed them as little as possible, and train them as hard as possible.

Some girls thrived under this regime; many more cracked (or cracked up). Ryan goes to convincing lengths in describing the results of this training on bodies that were for the most part far too young to handle it: eating disorders (including at least one death from anorexia); severe injuries, including permanent paralysis; and damaged psyches from dealing with demanding coaches and obsessed parents who live vicariously through their children. She also points up that many coaches do not have the requisite training and experience to coach children without subjecting them to serious physical and emotional harm.... And she tells of the disillusionment felt by many young gymnasts when nature inevitably catches up, the inches and pounds increase, and they are jettisoned for a younger, shorter and thinner crop of aspiring competitors.

Although Ryan's book is supposed to be about gymnasts and figure skaters, the latter don't get nearly as much attention, perhaps because they don't suffer as severe injuries as gymnasts and generally are older when they compete at the Olympics. But her argument that age works against these girls does point up the case of Michelle Kwan, who was a 13 year old sensation at the world championships and stayed at the top of her sport until she was nineteen, when she started growing upwards and outwards and was upstaged and defeated by a 15 year old challenger named Tara Lipinski. Ryan has researched her book carefully and perhaps it has had a beneficial effect; the minimum age for Olympic gymnastic competition has been raised to sixteen, and at the 2000 Olympic games, the girls looked much better fed than they did in 1996. The one caveat I have about this book is that Ryan seems not to have to talked to any competitors who enjoyed their sport, who persevered because they enjoyed it and not because they were pushed or bullied into it. Including some of these athletes would have made for a more balanced and ultimately a better book.

Judy Lind Read more ›

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Important read! September 22, 2002

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

I was a competitive and professional figure skater and am now a coach. In this book, Joan Ryan says what needs to be said. It is true, as some other reviewers have mentioned, that not all skaters and gymnasts have negative experiences and it's wonderful to see when gymnasts and figure skaters do have positive, enriching experiences in their sports. However, this is the exact reason that it is so important for us to be aware of the inclinations within each sport that can produce devastatingly negative experiences, so that we can improve these conditions to produce positive experiences for more athletes. I know of many, many skaters who have suffered physical and psychological damage - eating disorders, low self-esteem, self mutilation, etc. - when their love and dedication to the sport was abused (probably unintentionally or unknowingly) by various influences in the figure skating world. It is helpful for all of us who love figure skating and/or gymnastics to face our sport's weaknesses and use criticism constructively. Problems come bearing solutions; the first step is to identify the problems. Ryan does an excellent job of this in this book.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars EENY...MEENY..TEENY...WEENY... March 2, 2003

By Lawyeraau HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a terrific book on the state of woman's gymnastics and, to some extent, figure skating, though the primary focus of the book is on gymnastics. It focuses on the enormous demands made upon these young athletes by coaches, trainers, officials, and parents. Some of those demands are so unrealistic as to border on child abuse. There are athletes who are starve themselves, who develop life threatening eating disorders, who perform dangerous maneuvers in the quest for the gold, and who sometimes end up dead or devastatingly injured as a result.

There is a lot of backstage dish in the book that is interesting. True life stories, some of which are heartbreaking, flesh out the allegations asserted by the author. The emphasis on being tiny and elfin has had enormous impact on elite female gymnasts. One sees the difference in just by looking comparatively at the women's U.S. Olympic gymnastic teams from 1976 and 1992. The photographs in the book best illustrate this and the comparison bespeaks volumes. Elite gymnastics went from being a woman's sport to a girl's sport, as the author has sagely noted, and the photographs corroborate that assertion.

Moreover, while some measures have been taken, such as raising the age for Olympic competition in 2000 from fifteen to sixteen, at the same time the minimum level of difficulty has increased, making an already dangerous sport more dangerous. Remember, elite gymnastics is a sport fraught with the potential for devastating spinal cord injuries. The author recounts a number of these heartbreaking injuries and the circumstances under which they occurred, leaving the reader to ask oneself, "Just what were these coaches thinking?

The pressure that some of these girls and young women endure is truly unbelievable.... The demands upon them are often unrealistic, stunting not only their physical development, but their social and emotional development, as well. Competing with serious injuries, while taking potent drugs for the excruciating pain, is simply not commensurate with a sensible athletic regimen.

Parents who are living their dreams through their children are often as dangerous as unscrupulous and unqualified coaches. Many force their children to compete merely to satisfy their own desires for personal glory, badgering and berating their offspring every step of the way. Coaches, likewise, have their own dreams. Everyone wants to produce Olympians, but at what cost?

This is a an excellent book with a lot of information, both anecdotal and empirical. When purchasing the book, however, be sure to get the latest edition, as it has been updated with information on the state of gymnastics as of the year 2000. It also contains 24 pages of photographs, including 8 new pages for the updated edition. Read more ›