Super Skaters: World Figure Skating Stars

Virginia Gillham is the senior librarian at Wilfrid Laurier University
and an international figure-skating judge.

Sports writer Steve Milton, who has followed and written about figure
skating for many years, has created a short, glossy, popular compendium
that will undoubtedly appeal to the wide audience attracted to the sport
by television.

The body of the book consists of full-page color photographs and facing
one-page biographies of a selection of figure skating’s current stars
(all of whom, with the exception of Kristi Yamaguchi, appeared in the
1994 Winter Olympics). While some other top competitors of the past few
years might have proved of more interest than one or two who were
included, this portion of the book will be highly satisfying to the
casual reader.

The supporting text, however, is another matter. Milton’s knowledge
and understanding of figure skating is significant, and he has attempted
to compress most of it into 14 pages of text. The result is a jumble of
information confusing even to adult readers.

The index and the list of Olympic gold medallists beginning with the
1906 Olympics are interesting and useful additions. The book has much to
offer. A more thoughtful, logical approach would have made it even
better. Recommended with reservations.