Skating Superstars

Liz Dennett is a public service librarian in the Science and Technology
Library at the University of Alberta.

Debbie Wilkes chose these figure-skating medal hopefuls for the 2006
Olympic Games in Turin, Italy, and gives us quick glimpses into their
personalities and lives. Some of the skaters truly are “superstars,”
such as Michelle Kwan, Evgeni Plushenko, and Irina Slutskaya, while
others have had some measure of international success but are still
trying to crack the medals on the world or Olympic stage. Each skater or
duo is featured in a one-page profile that discusses their start in
skating, any obstacles overcome in becoming world class athletes, and
their activities and hobbies outside of skating. There is also a short
highlights section that lists their results at major competitions.
Facing each profile is a full-page action picture of the skater that the
back of the book claims is a “mini-poster.”

There is a magazine-quality transience about this book, in part because
it refers to the “upcoming” 2006 Olympic Games in Turin, Italy.
Since the results of those games are now known, the book feels out of
date. A number of the featured skaters have retired from amateur
competition, and some have not lived up to the promise they showed when
this book was written. Also, the information contained in the profiles
is limited; an interested reader could learn more by going to a couple
of skating-fan websites. The book looks to have been designed to be torn
apart into posters to be hung on a skating fan’s bedroom wall. And to
be fair, it is priced accordingly. Not recommended.