Edge of Glory: The Inside Story of the Quest for Figure Skating's Olympic Gold Medals

by Christine Brennan

Opening with the 1997 U.S. National Championships and chronicling the subsequent year through the 1998 Olympic games, a respected sports journalist goes behind the scenes of this popular sport to give readers a look at the personalities and events that make it tick. Reprint. 40,000 first printing.

Genres: Sports, Nonfiction, Figure Skating, History, Book Club

432 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[N · Rating 2 out of 5]

Edge of Glory follows a number of figure skating hopefuls during the run-up to the 1998 Olympic Games. Unfortunately, the resulting narrative is so long that it becomes dirge-y and repetitive. We get it, Christine Brennan: Tara Lipinski went into obsessive 'frenzies' during training. You don't have you tell us about it ten times.

Despite its length, the book lacks depth. Brennan shows all the subtlety of... well, a newspaper reporter. She gets caught up in newsroom melodrama, without bothering to look for the real story. She also uses some truly appalling puns ('Mishin Impossible' for describing Alexei Mishin sticks in my mind) that would probably be fine in a tabloid sports write-up, but seem ludicrous in this context. I couldn't help but compare Edge of Glory to Joy Goodwin's The Second Mark, especially since the two books cover a little of the same material. Goodwin's book is thoughtful and beautiful; Brennan's is... neither of those things.

It's perhaps unfair to criticize Brennan for focusing on some skaters more heavily than others, if she judged their stories to be most compelling, but by the end, the book does become a love letter to Michelle Kwan. Did Kwan deserve the Gold in 1998? Probably. The book's fawning tone regarding all things Michelle is still ridiculous, though.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not like we didn't know all the shit about Tara Lipinski. This author is that tall-ass lady with big shoulder pads who would sometimes be recruited as an interviewer on actual figure skating broadcasts, but the skating community at large considers her to be a hack journalist. She writes about a lot of other sports, too.

Basically, this book is really sympathetic to Michelle Kwan and exposes the Lipinskis for all their money-grubbing stage-parent ways. You know, there's Nicole Bobek and boring-ass Tonia Kwiatkowski, and she talks about the Russian and American men (including lots of shit about how Michael Weiss is SO straight and manly), but it's all about bashing Tara Lipinski.

Do ask me to play you *THE SCREAM* over and over on VHS. You'll love it.

Anyway, I think this was semi-worth-reading, if only for the tidbits I didn't already know. It took me like 4 hours, and you know I totally drool and fall asleep when I read even one paragraph.

[Sandy Granato · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book interesting. If you're a fan of figure skating you'll be delighted how Brennan takes us in the world in which these world class skaters face intense pressure, cutthroat rivalry, and the joy and tears that comes with winning and losing. Recommended.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

For figure skating fans only.

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always felt that Michelle Kwan was robbed of the gold in 1998, but after reading this, I'm even more upset on her behalf.

[Becky Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are a follower of Olympic division figure skating, you'll love the book. I am and so I did. If you aren't a fan of skating, pass this one by.

[Juliette · Rating 1 out of 5]

”If you’re not falling, you’re not improving,” he said. “When your falling days are over, your skating days are over.”
(320)

I picked this up before the Olympics to hype myself even more (I love you, Nathan!), but ugh.
Brennan writes about all the travails of competitive skating, but there’s no joy. There’s no reason for young people to spend hours and hours on a cold rink, and falls on hard ice are no joke. (I have permanent bruises from skating.) No reason except, according to Brennan, cold, hard cash.
I found myself wondering if Brennan ever researched what skating feels like. The cold air on your cheeks. The happiness of finally nailing a simple move that you worked on for weeks. Cheering with your coach because you finally got it. Cruising past the rental skates in your Riedells. The ache in your legs and abs the next day.
It’s the best. There’s none of that in Brennan’s book.

I found myself asking why anyone would sign their child up for snowplow lessons when it’s so heartless.

Then the Olympics happened. Then Kamila Valeyva failed her drug test because she took heart medicine.
Then Trusova won silver for just jumping around the ice.
Brennan’s book isn’t the only reason to not sign up for Snowplow Sam.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a former adult skater and sometimes volunteer at competions including several Nationals and the Worlds here in DC I found the book fascinating. I think my favorite part was the story about judging and how a judge was surprised that he had scored Christopher Bowman higher than the other judges because he had dropped his pencil and missed Bowman, as another judge told him, "he slammed into the wall."

[Ellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nerdy, nostalgic look back at skating in the 1990s. A bit repetitive at times. Looking at this from 2017, I'm even more glad that Shizuka Arakawa and Yuna Kim were able to prove the "only high schoolers can win gold medals" gloominess wrong in 2006 and 2010. (And glad that the scoring system changed.)

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I didn't particularly like the style in which the book was written (the author was/is(?) a sports correspondent and commentator, and thus wrote the book in the same spirit), I DID enjoy the book; namely, because I remember the majority of the performances and competitions described in great detail. I liked reading about what was going on behind the scenes, as far as injuries the skater's had during the time of their performances that the public wasn't privy to, the coaching dynamics, the competitor's lifestyle at home and during training, and the role the main competitor's parents played in their training. All the main players in the ice-skating scene of the 90's were in the book: men's, women's and pairs; Harding, Kerrigan, Kwan, Lipinski, Kwiatkowski, Chen, Slutskaia, Bobek, Bonaly, Kulik, Stojko, Eldredge, Yagudin, Candeloro, Weiss...and the list goes on. Also interesting, was to learn about the politics involved in scoring. Very insightful.

"I've prepared the best way I can prepare. And I'm just going to go out there and do my job and enjoy it. And if I deserve to win, I will. And if I don't, that's the way it goes. And I accept that. But if I do what I was supposed to do and plan to do, then I've won, regardless if I win a medal, because you just don't have that control."
-Elvis Stojko, Canadian Silver Medalist in the 1998 Olympics.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The lovefest of Michelle Kwan continues in book form.

Christine Brennan is a pretty good figure skating reporter. I've always appreciated her take on skating and in the past she has stood up to what was the USFSA in her journalism, "like it really is." I enjoyed her first book much more than this one, but for anyone who enjoys skating or particularly likes the skaters she covers in this book, they will enjoy it.

I was a little taken aback with the constant drip drip drip of love for Michelle Kwan and the subtle, yet obvious dislike for Tara Lipinski and her team. Michelle is a lovely person but the fact remains that she was always a much overrated skater who became a "star" through media support. She had her moments but I never could see her as being the skater everyone made her out to be. Her jumps were not high, speed across the ice was slow and the "artist" in her was forced. Tara was young, fast, talented and even more important, WANTED it badly. That was why through it all, the weird lifestyle, pushy parents and agents, she won the World Championships and the Olympics. I always wondered why Tara's career fizzled out after the Olympics and this book tells that story. We could have seen much more and even better skating from Tara.

In the end, neither girl was was I would consider a great "classic" skater, but in this era of skating, they were everything.

If you are a figure skating fan, I highly recommend this book!

[Tatiana · Rating 5 out of 5]

The lives of competitve, Olympic-bound figure skaters, their familes, and their pros and choreographers, are documented by journalist Christine Brennan for the year and a half leading up to and though the 1998 Nagano Olympic Games. Brennan's full access pass to the hearts and minds of ice greats like Michelle Kwan, Rudy Galindo, Alexei Urmanov, among others, make Edge of Glory a delectable treat for life-long, die-hard figure skating enthusiasts as well as those new to the sport.

The behind-the-scenes insight was fascinating. I found myself revisting classic programs on YouTube after reading of their origins. I read slowly, dishing out only small amounts at a time, even while I could have just as easily devoured it in a few sittings. It kept me attached to the figure skating world during this off-season. I wish Brennan had written a novel such as this for every Winter Olympics since.

Four stars!

[Surreysmum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written in the opinionated style that characterizes journalists, this is a reasonably entertaining account of the events leading up to the 98 Olympics, with the focus on the Tara-vs-Michelle women's event (the men's also gets reasonable coverage, but there's precious little about pairs, no dance, and no real foreshadowing of the judging horrors that would haunt the 2002 Olympics, despite the appearance of those signs in the dance event). Brennan's a bit tough on Tara Lipinski in terms of her depiction of her character - after all, she was just a teenager. But it was a smooth read, and had some interesting quotations from the characters in the skating soap opera. This book must certainly have had an effect in setting some people's early opinion of Michael Weiss and his apparent homophobia.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read this book several times over the years and just read it once more before putting it in the box bound for Goodwill. I enjoy watching figure skating on TV (or in person) and this book focuses on the 1997-98 skating season, culminating in the 1998 Winter Olympics and the battle for the ladies' gold medal between Michelle Kwan and Tara Lipinski. (I was rooting for Michelle, as were many of us, so was very disappointed with the decision.) However, it's interesting reading about the surreal world of young teens living away from their parents, in some cases across the country, in order to pursue elite-level skating and hoping the sacrifice will pay off.

**#94 of 120 books pledged to read/review during 2016**

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brennan's writing annoyed me at times. On several occasions her puns and pseudo-clever clickbait-type phrases made me literally stop reading, roll my eyes, and exclaim, "Seriously?!" Some cringe-worthy writing aside, I inhaled this. I was already interested in the topic, but someone who is new to figure skating or who comes to the book without a particular interest in the sport might not find much here.

[fiona · Rating 2 out of 5]

As usual, I only read the parts I cared about...

I think it was just awful how the American media treated Oksana Grishuk... Like all the comments of Pasha at the Olympics were so disrespectful to how amazing of an athlete she is.

date: 2022

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick read tracing the lives of the men and women figure skaters from 1995 to 1998 Olympics, but it was well worth it.