Champions on Ice: Twenty-Five Years of the World's Finest Figure Skaters

This book celebrates 25 years of the touring skating show Champions on Ice, with an up-close look at the 2002 Olympic Tour, featuring Salt Lake City gold medallists Sarah Hughes, Alexei Yagudin, and Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat, and many others. Christine Brennan of USA Today has travelled with the tour and spent time with skating’s superstars behind the scenes to learn what makes them special and what makes them tick. She follows the tour to present a “day-in-the-life” view, from wake-up call to tuck-in at night, from quiet moments to clowning around, to a packed arena and showtime on ice.

In addition to this year’s tour, Brennan brings moments alive from every year, presenting a “Who’s Who” of modern figure skating. The story of Champions on Ice mirrors the development of figure skating itself, and Brennan brings this to life when she describes fan passions, the art and craft of selecting the right music for a routine, the changing role of coaches and choreographers, and the impact of the “Russian invasion” that changed the face of North American figure skating in the early 1990s.

Also profiled is Tom Collins, the impresario who created Champions on Ice when he put together the first tour of Olympic-level skaters in the mid-1970s. Today, his 2002 Olympic Tour will play 93 dates from coast to coast, with a further winter tour booked for early 2003. Collins attributes his success to creating a comfortable family environment for his talented skaters, and it is this sense of fun and the sheer joy of skating that comes through on every page of Champions on Ice.