Product Description

Sasha's own story -- on and off the ice

Champion figure skater Sasha Cohen captured the world's attention with her exquisite spiral and outstanding layback spin at the 2002 Winter Olympics. Today she is the reigning queen of winter's most competitive sport and the most serious contender for the gold medal in 2006. For the first time, Sasha tells her amazing story, in her own words, including:

• Her discovery of ice skating at age 7 and the coaches who trained her
• Her comeback from the injury that almost ended her career
• The crushing lows and miracle wins

This is the official autobiography of the world's most captivating skater, on and off the ice.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1740841 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03-17
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

From School Library Journal
Grade 4-8–From her early years as a gymnast to her determination and achievements as a professional skater, Cohen tells her story with frankness and humor. This fascinating glimpse into a skater's world–hours of practice, travel, and, finally, competition–will educate readers who think that the journey is an easy one. Cohen discusses her back injury and recovery, exhaustion, disappointments, and moments of triumph. The situations she describes are applicable to anyone who is contemplating a career in professional sports. The sacrifices that her family has made to support her skating–moving frequently, costly lessons, etc.–are described with candor as well. Black-and-white and color family and competition photographs add to the narrative. A thoroughly enjoyable read.–Kathleen A. Nester, Downingtown High Ninth Grade Center, PA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Gr. 4-6. Although Cohen hasn't yet earned a medal at an Olympics, the lissome 21-year-old's teen-idol looks and charisma, and her strong position going into the 2006 Winter Games, will be enough to draw readers to her autobiography. Writing with Maciel, Cohen tells of her switch at age seven from gymnastics to ice skating, the sport in which she leapt to fame at the 1999 Nationals. Her subsequent struggles with injury, nerves, and finding the right costumes and coaches dominate the book's latter half. Nonskaters may be perplexed by shoptalk ("working on her edges and slides"), and the somewhat emotionless postmortems of each competition eventually begin to run together. But there are enough girl-next-door details, such as the skater's adoration of ice cream and cats, to propel interested readers through passages that lack Zamboni polish, and children training seriously in any sport will appreciate the honest descriptions of athletic highs and lows: "When you fall on the ice, it's like everything inside of you falls too." Jennifer Mattson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Sasha Cohen is an unbelievably charming, gifted skater, and she is the early favorite to win the Gold Medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Italy. She placed fourth at the 2002 Games, and has since improved her skating, trained with new coaches, worked as a professional model, and taken the world by storm!