The Long Program: Skating Toward Life's Victories [Hardcover]

Peggy Fleming (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1999

In the 1968 Olympic Winter Games Peggy Fleming not only captured the United States' only gold medal, but a country's collective heart as well. A young woman who embodied both stunning athleticism and magnificent grace, Peggy Fleming reluctantly became an instant celebrity. In the decades that followed, she also triumphed off the ice -- commentating for ABC Sports and nurturing a long-standing marriage while raising two sons.

Fleming's toughest challenge of all came in 1998 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Here, she candidly details her courageous physical and emotional battle and explains what compelled her to become an outspoken promoter of breast cancer awareness. A moving memoir that earns the highest marks, The Long Program is both a portrait of a remarkable woman and a collection of inspiring lessons on how each of us can be our best.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Fleming has been in the public eye for some 30 years since she won the Olympic Gold Medal for figure skating in 1968. She went on to perform in the Ice Capades and also became a television commentator. More recently, Fleming's appearances have been for a very different purpose: she's become a spokeswoman for cancer survivors. Here, Fleming discusses her entire life from her first skating lessons at age nine, touching on her disciplinarian father and domineering mother, her long marriage, her skating career and her treatment for breast cancer. Fleming sees herself as competitive but very shy, and recognizes that it took years for her to stand up for herself. She's quite honest, even when discussing painful subjects. About letting her mother take charge of her wedding, Fleming recalls: "As with most things, she took the reins and produced the whole thing down to the last detail. I just let her do it. It was the price of peace.... Looking back though, I wish I had the self-assurance then that I have now, I wouldn't have let Mom totally run the show." Fleming describes her father: "My dad's way of dealing with this was to be as happy-go-lucky as possibleAwith plenty of help from his buddies and the bottle." Unfortunately, the book proceeds not chronologically but by random recollections. Readers will learn about Fleming personally, but this autobiography offers few substantial insights into the competitive world of figure skating. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Fleming's career was the beginning of the modern era in figure skating: as the 1968 Olympic champion, she was the first in a string of American ice princesses to capture the public's attention. Television coverage brought her wide public recognition not only as a skater but also, later (with Dick Button), as a television commentator for the major skating competitions. Now at 50, she reflects on both her accomplishments as a skater and on her recent bout with breast cancer. She dutifully recounts the events of her life, but although some amusing episodes are sprinkled here and there, this is basically a flat story without detail or depth. Gliding across the surface, this book lacks the emotion and drama that must certainly have been central to such a dedicated and successful life in the limelight. Still, until a better biography appears, this is recommended for larger public libraries.
-ABonnie Collier, Yale Law Lib., New Haven, CT
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Atria; First Edition edition (October 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671038869
• ISBN-13: 978-0671038861
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,306,726 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific portrait of an American champion, November 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Long Program: Skating Toward Life's Victories (Hardcover)

THE LONG PROGRAM was a book I truly enjoyed, from beginning to end. I've always been a Fleming fan, and it was with great interest that I bought the book and began reading about Peggy's humble beginnings, her family's moving around, becoming an athlete, and growing into an Olympic champion. I feel that she was very honest in this book, sharing with the reader the good with the bad, and I felt it was refreshing that she gave her opinion on things like other the performances of other skaters, the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan incident, the changes in skating, etc. For such a private person to share her real struggle with breast cancer and also to include details of her personal life that others may have chosen to gloss over -- these things make for an exceptional autobiography, which I feel this is. She is a real person, and tells it like it is here in her own uplifting way. I recommend this book highly.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The skating parts were great, December 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Long Program: Skating Toward Life's Victories (Hardcover)

I enjoyed reading all the parts of this book that had to do with skating. This is where Peggy is at her best. She is clearly a classy, talented lady. Also, her very honest discussion of her experience with breast cancer was, I think, helpful and insightful. However, I was less interested in the parts of the book dealing with her parenting philosophy, her views on life as a "long program" and her fitness/exercise tips. This was a great book to borrow from the library and curl up with over a long weekend, but it's not one I plan to buy. Still, nothing can diminish Peggy Fleming as a wonderful skater and a good role model for young athletes to follow.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A bit impersonal, December 11, 2005

By 

Recreational Reader (St. Louis, MO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Long Program: Skating Toward Life's Victories (Paperback)

I love Peggy Fleming -- she was talented, unspoiled, and professional as an athlete. But folks who want to get to know Peggy in depth willl need more than this autobiography. Fleming writes in a very impersonal tone, as if she is telling the story of another skater. While it is chockful of details about skating programs and locations, it lacks any real insight into what it FELT LIKE to be a 1960s Olympic athlete and her views on the skating world today. Fleming barely mentions the pressures that skating must surely have placed on her formative years, family life, social and personal development, and self esteem. The impact of the family's Peggy-focus on her sibilings is only lightly mentioned in brief paragraph. Indeed, the most interesting struggle Fleming appears to have had was finding skating outfits that were both pretty and modest. There is also little indepth analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the skating world today. Her commentary about the Harding/Kerrigan incident could have easily been made by a nonprofessional spectator. Fleming comes across as a nice person who speaks well of others and the sport, but lacks (or chooses to surpress) any kind of a critical eye to the controversies that have surfaced in the skating world (e.g., excessive pressure to excel, anorexia/bulimia, inside politics, etc.). It is a "nice" book, but Ms. Fleming remains a very private person which is not what one expects when the personal account of someone's life story!