Ice Time: A Portrait of Figure Skating

Sarah Robertson is associate editor of the Canadian Book Review Annual.

Debbi Wilkes is eminently qualified to write about the complex, often
turbulent world of figure skating. A former pairs skater who captured
Olympic silver with her partner Guy Revell in 1964, she has covered
major figure-skating events for the past two decades as a broadcaster
for CTV. Running commentary in this sparsely illustrated but informative
volume is provided by such authorities on the sport as Barbara Ann
Scott, Toller Cranston, Brian Orser, Elvis Stojko, Louis Strong, Sandra
Bezic, and David Dore.

Using the 1993-94 season (notorious for the “Nancy and Sluggo”
affair) and her own amateur career as a framework, Wilkes covers
everything from boots and blades to international competition. Her book
maintains a distinctly Canadian emphasis as it examines top-level
skaters and the skating clubs from which they emerged; coaching and team
teaching; the construction of a figure-skating program; skating
associations (in particular, the Canadian Figure Skating Association,
perceived by many as a “medal-hungry powerhouse”); the logistics,
and limitations, of television coverage; amateur/professional
competition and judging; professional shows; and skating biomechanics.

Coexisting with figure skating’s allure and magic—this book makes
abundantly clear—is a dark side: eating disorders arising from a
combination of overwhelming pressures and inadequate support systems;
the discarding of skating stars who have lost their marketability; and
the painful transition from the rarefied world of skating to the
“real” world. (Wilkes’s ex-partner resisted the transition for as
long as he could and ended up a suicide in 1981.) Figure skating’s
recent evolution into big business will serve only to exacerbate these
disturbing trends, although some observers believe that the
profit-fueled glut will inevitably cause the sport to implode.

Ice Time is riddled with misplaced modifiers and other infelicities.
Worse, it is an organizational mess, lacking a table of contents, an
index, and even chapter titles. With her breezy, conversational style
and outspokenness, Wilkes somehow transcends the chaos and keeps the
reader hooked.