Finding The Edge My Life On The Ice

Figure skating icon and U.S. National Champion Karen Chen tells the amazing story of her rise to the top, featuring never-before-seen photos and behind-the-scenes details from her journey on and off the ice! At seventeen years old, Karen Chen has already achieved what some girls only dream of—and yet it’s only the beginning for this incredibly talented athlete. The daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, Karen began to figure skate at just five years old. Ten years and many grueling training sessions later, she broke out at the 2015 US Championships with a bronze medal. This was after sustaining a nearly career-ending ankle fracture a year earlier. In 2017, Karen became the US National Champion, winning gold in two programs and receiving the highest score ever recorded for the short program at the US National level. Now for the first time, Karen shares the story of how she got where she is today—and where she’s going next. Karen has already overcome astounding obstacles, and her grit, determination, and positive attitude have made her future truly limitless. In Finding the Edge, she shares, in her own words, what it’s like to be Karen Chen—and what it takes to achieve the impossible. Features a foreword from Kristi Yamaguchi, the Olympic champion, two-time World champion, and U.S. champion.

Figure skating is the most beautiful and mysterious of all sports. When the skaters are on the ice, every twitch of a muscle and every slip of a skate blade is visible for the world to see. In Inside Edge, Christine Brennan chronicles—for the first time—a season on the skating circuit, intimately portraying the lives, on and off the ice, of the sport's current and upcoming stars. Woven into the narrative are stories of figure skating luminaries—including Peggy Fleming, Janet Lynn, Katarina Witt, Brian Boitano, Scott Hamilton, Kristi Yamaguchi, Nancy Kerrigan, Oksana Baiul, Michelle Kwan, Rudy Galindo, and Tara Lipinski. Revealing the backstage conflicts high-profile figure skaters face, and the ambition that drives them, Brennan also tells the stories of their families, of improbable rises to the top, and of wasted talents. If skaters are perfect, they can become international heroes. But if they fall, if they miss a three-revolution jump on a quarter-inch blade of steel, the despair is theirs alone. This is their life on the edge, where decades of training culminate in little more than four crucial minutes on the ice. There is no other sport like it. There is no other story like theirs.

Tessa and Scott share their incredible and inspiring story — now updated and expanded with a new introduction, over 100 dazzling new photographs, and three all-new chapters covering the pair’s stunning performances at the Sochi and PyeongChang Olympic Games and beyond. Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir are the most decorated figure skaters in the history of the sport, and are widely celebrated by peers and fans alike for their superior athleticism, one-of-a-kind partnership, and generosity of spirit. In these pages, they share their incredible story with the world. Tessa and Scott: Our Journey from Childhood Dream to Gold offers an intimate and revealing behind-the-scenes look at the iconic duo. Veteran sports columnist Steve Milton draws from hours of conversations with Tessa and Scott as they take us from their first meeting in 1995 to their impressive debut and rapid rise on the international scene; from the highs and lows of competitive skating to the profound impact of Tessa’s injury and subsequent recovery; and from their unprecedented Olympic achievements in Vancouver in 2010 and Sochi in 2014, through to their exhilarating triumph in Pyeongchang in 2018, when their performance capture hearts the world over and catapulted them into unparalleled international acclaim. Lavishly illustrated with over 100 new photos, this updated and expanded edition is filled with personal stories and recollections from Tessa, Scott, and those close to them — including family members, friends, and coaches past and present. Tessa and Scott is as much a spectacular visual history as it is a celebration of two of the world’s premier athletes.

Finnish figure skater Kiira Korpi's career included triumphal championships and bitter disappointments. Trained from early childhood in a sport that demands uncompromising self-discipline and unrelenting work, her "fight until you make it" attitude brought her success and fame--and an insidious performance anxiety. Mental and physical burnout forced her retirement in 2015. With interviews and quotes from family, friends, coaches and competitors, Korpi's candid memoir describes the making and eventual undoing of a champion, reveals a darker side to the "ice princess" image of women's figure skating and advocates a more holistic, athlete-centered model of training.

Kristi shares the many obstacles and concerns she and her family have faced in their lives--from her family's difficulties as Japanese-Americans during World War II to her own struggle dwith an earyl childhood foot deformity.

Figure skating is an incredibly beautiful and at the same time incredibly competitive sport. Every year tens of thousands of kids come to sports sections but only few of them reach the top.What is the path that a young figure skater and their parents have to go? How do kids from small towns get into the capital sport clubs? What is there behind the victories in international competitions? What does success depend on - working with distinguished coaches or the character itself? What is the price of medals?This is a true story of Alexandra Trusova. The girl who has made her way from the children's figure skating section to the podiums of the European and World Championships. The strongest figure skater in the world with an incredibly complex set of Ultra C elements. The figure skater who opened a new era of quadruple jumps in women's single skating.Here you will learn everything about modern figure skating seen through the eyes of Alexandra's parents, her coaches and the athlete herself. You'll learn about the way up and everything that is usually behind the scenes of this truly ultra-competitive sport."Character, obstinacy, hard work... You can't even count the times the author of the book uses these words. And that is because no other words can describe Sasha better - the girl who changed the world of figure skating forever. And us as well. I'd really like this book to be read not only by Sasha's fans but by as many boys and girls as possible, because Sasha's example proves that if you really want to, you can achieve anything. The main condition is to work hard. And first of all, to work on yourself".Maria Komandnaya, TV presenter, sports journalist.

A rich and revelatory memoir of a young woman reclaiming her courage in the stark landscapes of the north. By the time Blair Braverman was eighteen, she had left her home in California, moved to arctic Norway to learn to drive sled dogs, and found work as a tour guide on a glacier in Alaska. Determined to carve out a life as a “tough girl”—a young woman who confronts danger without apology—she slowly developed the strength and resilience the landscape demanded of her. By turns funny and sobering, bold and tender, Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube brilliantly recounts Braverman’s adventures in Norway and Alaska. Settling into her new surroundings, Braverman was often terrified that she would lose control of her dog team and crash her sled, or be attacked by a polar bear, or get lost on the tundra. Above all, she worried that, unlike the other, gutsier people alongside her, she wasn’t cut out for life on the frontier. But no matter how out of place she felt, one thing was clear: she was hooked on the North. On the brink of adulthood, Braverman was determined to prove that her fears did not define her—and so she resolved to embrace the wilderness and make it her own. Assured, honest, and lyrical, Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube paints a powerful portrait of self-reliance in the face of extraordinary circumstance. Braverman endures physical exhaustion, survives being buried alive in an ice cave, and drives her dogs through a whiteout blizzard to escape crooked police. Through it all, she grapples with love and violence—navigating a grievous relationship with a fellow musher, and adapting to the expectations of her Norwegian neighbors—as she negotiates the complex demands of being a young woman in a man’s land. Weaving fast-paced adventure writing and ethnographic journalism with elegantly wrought reflections on identity, Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube captures the triumphs and the perils of Braverman’s journey to self-discovery and independence in a landscape that is as beautiful as it is unforgiving.

Join Milo as Princess Kida takes him on an unforgettable tour of Atlantis in this colorful chapter from the hit film.