Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(59)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(23)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(29)

 

 

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.

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.

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

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.

I've been reading all the reviews for this book and am struck by the number of people who say that the book criticises the whole sport of gymnastics and how they/their child have had positive experiences. READ THE BOOK PROPERLY! The author clearly states that gymnastics and figure skating can be rewarding and beneficial for children, and that her book is only focusing on the pressures of gymnastics and skating at an elite/olympic level. Also, yes, eating disorders are not restricted to just gymnasts and skaters, but research has clearly proven that the percentage of gymnasts and skaters suffering from an eating disorder is far, far above the average rate. The atrocities outlined in this book unfortunately do happen and burying our heads in the sand is only going to ensure that they continue to happen.

This is a well documented expose of the extremes necessary for Olympic Gold. It should be required reading for figure skaters and gymnasts who pursue this dream. Also for anyone who would be a coach.

Without a coach who recognizes the limits of an athlete's body, she will get hurt, both physically and mentally. The necessity of a coach to push a hopefully Olympian past her limits exists, but apparently the norm in the industry is to push until athletes are used up, burned out, and broken subservient shells.

The one thing I took away from reading this book is that coaches push little girls so hard because their 'career' is essentially ended by puberty. This chews up and screws up potential (and real) superstars.

Documented studies show that more than 4 hours a day of training is counterproductive, but also that the more training an athlete does in his or her lifetime, the better their performance is. Coaches use the latter to justify a ruinous regimen that ends often in injuries for Olympic hopefuls.

If your child has natural talent, the best thing for her is to shoot for a full college scholarship with a healthy diet and no more than 4 hours a day of intensive training and exercise. With bright talent, the full college ride is a sure thing, but the elusive Olympic endorsement is pie in the sky. This book is full of examples of shattered Olympic hopefuls, but has a counterexample of girl with careful parents who turned their child's potential Olympic talent into free college, worth a couple hundred thousand dollars these days.

I have no ties to industry except watching the Olympics on TV, and I learned a lot from reading this book. Recommended.

More for the fans of gymnastics rather than ice skating because the content is very uneven. But serious ice skating lovers should also get something out of it.

The book contains a lot of personal experiences and a lot of young athletes heartache but it fails to ever fully convince it's reader that things are all bad in the sport. Mainly due to the lack of up to date accounts. Almost all the horror stories are from the late seventies and eighties. If things are still so bad, why not mention the current troubles?

The writing is at times weak. There is a lot of references to the title... a lot! And the stories are sometimes split up in nonsensical ways. But overall, if you love the sport and want to know more dirt than they print in the stars' biographies then it's a great read.

This book was very hard to read because my cousin died. Cause of death - Gymnastics. Her name was Julissa Gomez, she was one of the featured gymnasts. She was a wonderful person. She was beutiful. And thanks to the pressure of it all she the world will never have the opportunity to know just how good a person she was. This book was hard to read for myself and for my entire family who all loved Julissa. I remember my other cousin (her sister) and I going with her to gym when I was little we would be there for hours and hours and hours at a time we'd eat there. We'd get there in the morning and leave in the evening. I used to think it was amazing what my cousin could do. I used to be amazed by the perfectness of it all. Now as the olympic comes around I am soured to the gymnastics. I fear for other families to have to go thru what my family, especially my aunt went thru for years after the accident until her death. Be careful when you put your daughter into sports. Julissa, I love you and miss you, may god bless you.

As a former gymnast and big fan of figure skating, I was drawn to this book. Although I read the book about 5 years ago when it was first published, I can still remember some of the chilling details that hit eerily close to my heart. A must for anyone who is considering high level sports for their children, or anyone who is slightly interested. The personal stories of horror make this a page-turner!

I believe Ryan is correct in the life of gymnasts and figure skaters...I have been a gymnast for 15 years now, and have seen more people quit the sport because of feeling to "big", or from anorexia or bulimia, than people who have had to quit because of injuries. Also, the people who quit because of eating disorders didn't quit because someone told them they were fat or anything...from a gymnasts' point of view the way I look at it is that you are constantly surrounded by people smaller or bigger than you in a leotard that shows everything, so some people just assume they are fat even when they are smaller than the average person...just thought I'd share my comments! Thanks!