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Book Cover
Book
Author Ryan, Joan, 1959-

Title Little girls in pretty boxes : the making and breaking of elite gymnasts and figure skaters / Joan Ryan
Edition First edition
Published New York : Doubleday, [1995]
©1995

Copies

Location Call no. Vol. Availability
 MELB  796.4408352 Rya/Lgi  AVAILABLE
Description 243 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Contents If It Isn't Bleeding, Don't Worry About It: Injuries -- They Stole Her Soul and They Still Have It: Eating Disorders -- Be Thin and Win: Image -- Do It for America: Pressure -- We All Became Junkies: Parents -- The Game Within the Game: Politics and Money -- Whatever It Takes: Coaches -- The Aftermath: An Update
Summary Here are the heartbreaking stories of the countless girls who have stumbled along the way, broken by pressure, humiliation, and an outdated cultural ideal of femininity that has shaped both gymnastics and figure skating and driven their young athletes beyond the breaking point. Joan Ryan documents in harrowing and explicit detail the preponderance of eating disorders, weakened bones, stunted growth, debilitating injuries, and damaged psyches that are often the result of intensive training
With sports as our national fairy tale, we have come to worship the tiny gymnasts and sequined skaters who appear on the landscape as storybook princesses with their poise and beauty, agility and grace. But the truth behind the making of elite women athletes reveals a grim national trend far less magical than what these images project. All too often behind the pigtails and mascara is a trail of abuse from parents, coaches, and federation officials - the very people charged with protecting these young athletes
Analysis Girls
Gymnastics
Ice skating
Olympic Games
Overseas item
Sports injuries
Sports training
United States
Women
Subject Figure skating for girls -- United States.
Figure skating -- United States.
Gymnastics for girls -- United States.
Skating -- United States.
Sports -- Moral and ethical aspects -- United States.
Women athletes -- Abuse of -- United States.
LC no. 94043317
ISBN 0385477902