The Dark Side of Elite Gymnastics and Figure Skating: How Little Girls are Pushed to the Breaking Point in the Hunt for Perfection

Diego Funes Byk: Unfortunately not all the facts are accurate. Easy to read, good testimonies I still enjoyed it. Hope everyone gets a chance to read it for themselves.

United States on Dec 05, 2021

Katherine Gilraine: I was born in an Eastern-bloc country and moved to the US as a child. Part of the upbringing in the old country was a deep love of gymnastics and figure skating, because this was our form of "national pride".

Then I moved to the US and Bela Karolyi took his Magnificent Seven to the gold. I was 11 when I saw Kerri Strug do that second vault - a vault that, as I found out very recently, was *not required*; the US team had the points to get the gold already. Strug retired after that vault; the injuries (this one included) were too much.

My opinion of Bela Karolyi was not that great before I read this book, and did not improve one bit after I read it.

This book is absolutely required reading. What the coaches put the gymnasts through is... abusive is too nice a term. To call that pressure-cooker of hell abusive is giving it an undue compliment. It is a brutalizing process to make a teenager into an elite athlete, and all of these Olympic dreams come at an enormous cost.

Remember the names: Julissa Gomez, Christy Heinrich, Elena Mukhina.
In this book, you'll find out why these names should be mentioned over and over again to ANY girl who has dreams of...

United States on Aug 05, 2021

Wendy C. Winslow: This is about young gymnasts and their abusive coach.

Canada on Feb 25, 2021

Sofie: Erg boeiend boek, in middendeel op kwalitatief papier foto’s van de besproken dames. Leuk dit via Amazon ook in Europa vlot te kunnen bestellen, vele jaren na publicatie.

Germany on Nov 02, 2019

A H.: Written many years ago but still an eye opening discussion of the abuse of young girls in the,pursuit of gold medals

United Kingdom on Oct 14, 2018

Johnny: A surprising look into the darker side of competitive gymnastics and ice skating. As a gymnastics fan, I had been anticipating the release of this book digitally since I knew finding a paperback version would be a bit difficult given the publication date. Upon buying I immediately pushed through the chapters and was immersed in the informative writing of the author. I don't want to give too many details away but don't expect this book to be a optimistic view of girls in sports like sports books. This book gets down to the gritty side of competition where you question if accidents could be prevented, how much pressure is put on these young girls, and what happens to the girls who don't make the team. I recommend this book to anyone that is a fan of gymnastics and who wants a more in depth view into gymnasts' world.

United States on Sep 19, 2016

jha van rossum: Intriguing stories. Nicely written. It still is valuable today in terms of parental behavior or how to recognize an authoritative sports coach.

United Kingdom on Nov 10, 2015

Amazon Customer: As a former elite gymnast whose coach and fellow teammates are mentioned, I think this book is dead on in exploring the world of elite gymnastics and how it is little more than legalized child abuse in my opinion. Granted, my time was the early 90s and perhaps things are different today, but I find that hard to imagine. The coaches were brutal and belittled us on a daily basis. Public shaming was how we were kept in line and would prevent us from telling our parents what really happened in practice. While I realize my comments will not be popular with a lot of people nor with people who are not at the elite level, I think this book is invaluable for parents who are considering the commitment it takes to succeed at this level. I think gymnastics has a lot of wonderful qualities, such as instilling discipline, coordination, muscle memory, fitness and time management. The extremes in this book are not realized until the elite level. I loved gymnastics until I became an elite.

United States on Jun 28, 2015

Alexa: I bought this book because I love gymnastics but I have found it surprisingly difficult to find information on some of the more undisclosed aspects such as eating disorders and injuries. However, Little Girl in Pretty Boxes paints a very negative picture of women's Artistic Gymnastics (the focus is mainly on gymnastics with only a few stories thrown in about ice skating). From the beginning of the book Ryan makes it clear that her opinion of the sport is not a positive one.

The subjects covered in this book include eating disorders, pressure from coaches, the politics behind the sport and injuries. However, through all the different chapters Ryan seems to use the same examples - the same girls and the same coaches. Yes, some of these girls did suffer but I think the way she describes them isn't accurate. I think some of the quotes are taken out of context - every sportsman will have negative things to say about their sport whether it's about the coaching, the pressure, their parents. The quotes all seem to be from gymnasts who never quite made it and parents who lost their children. From reading the book you would think these girls hated their sport but this isn't the case....

United Kingdom on Jul 12, 2012

M. Jay Babb: As a gymnastics fan, there's always been two sides of me: On the one hand I enjoy watching little girls flip over, and fly in the air-things that you and I would never think of trying our selves. On the other hand-I've been concerned over the years about what these girls go through to make it to the elite or olylimpic levels. In 1994 when Christy Henrich died as a result of eating disorders. That's when I begin asking some serious questions about the sport.
One thing that needs to be made VERY clear: Ryan was NOT dealing with what is called recrational gymnastics, Doing gymnastics for fun and fitness. It can be a rewarding sport for chidren. What Ryan DOES deal with is the elite or olylimpic levels of the sport.
It documents the disturbing training methods of Bela Karloli. I've been concerned about this for a long time-but now the truth is told-and the truth hurts. It also documents the belittling coments that coaches often say to the gymnasts about weight. This often triggers an eating disorder. This is sickening. Coaches like Karloi would just like to blame parents for these problems. While parents do play a role, it's the coaches coments made to gymnasts that triggers it....

United States on Mar 17, 2003