Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating, believable, and engrossing!!
Review: This book is amazing reading if you want to find out more about what goes on in gymnastics--behind the scenes. Some truly shocking things have happened. LGIPB has been criticized for providing only anecdotal evidence. Perhaps this is a valid criticism, but there is A LOT of anecdotal evidence. Certainly, Joan Ryan makes the case that there are many, many problems in the sport. I highly recommend the book. Even if you disagree with what she has to say, Ryan raises some interesting points. LGIPB will definitely get and keep your attention!
Rating:
Summary: From the view of a gymnast
Review: I am a gymnast myself and i think this book tells other people what we go through. being a gymnast isn't all glitz and glamour, it is so much harder than just doing flips. I would suggest this book to any and al gymnasts all around th world.
Rating: 
Summary: read it with tabloid curiosity
Review: This book has a clear bias: Ryan thinks elite gymnastics and figure skating are rife with abuses. This may or may not be as true as she presents, but her book makes good reading. I raced through it with a tabliod curiosity. Good photos too. It puts a spin on all those expressions on the gymnasts' faces during the recent Olympic coverage. Personally, I found her argument credible, though not a big surprise. A fast read.
Rating:
Summary: The Truth Behind the Image
Review: I started taking gymnastics at the young age of five because I liked the sport; I think my mom, however, enrolled me so I would quit flipping off of and jumping on the furniture at home! Even as a kid in those classes, I noticed there were two groups: those who did it for fun (like me), and those kids (and parents) who had visions for Olympic gold medals dancing before their eyes. Ryan's book focuses on the latter, the darker sides of professional gymnastics and figure skating, along with the image these sports push on society: the image of perfectly thin, little, beautiful young girls. This book is a interesting, if harrowing read. Ryan documents the terrible accident that resulted in up-and-coming Julissa Gomez' death and spends a good portion of the book devoted to Christy Heinrich and eating disorders, along with other gymnast's bouts with this terrible disease. In addition, she reports about abusive coaches (those who sexually molested or verbally abused gymnasts), along with stories about the famous gymnastics coach Bela Karolyi. There's even a report about a coach who killed a gymnast by bashing her head into the balance beam! Ryan devotes a chapter to those parents who push their children into these sports and then try to live through the child's victories and Olympic hopes. While figure skating doesn't get much time devoted to in the book, it does give in detail the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan saga, along with Nancy's strive to improve her "marketability" by having her teeth capped. Such interesting stories that we, as the American society, have never heard of, but need to. I really don't think that Joan Ryan was trying to cash in on the Olympics by releasing the book again. I think as a seasoned journalist who knows her stuff, she's concered about the future of these two sports, along with the effects of American sociey's expectations on little girls. It's sad to say, despite this great read, that the truth behind the magic and victory isn't always pretty.
Rating:
Summary: Definitely worth a read
Review: I found this book engrossing and enlightening. I am a huge gymnastics fan and while I am not so naive to think it's an easy sport, it's eye-opening to read all that is given up by these young girls. I think alot of the blame has to lay on America's shoulders. Until we can place more value on these children than winning, nothing will really change.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining if not taken seriously
Review: I give the book on a whole 3 stars because it did manage to keep me quite entertained. I liked reading all the antidotes of former gymnasts but what I didn't like was the author's own opinions. It is quite a frustrating read if you aren't able to just laugh it off. She apparently was/is a sports writer for a newspaper. Journalism and book writing are not the same and I think it shows she had a hard time adapting. For example, she makes way too many references to the title as if to say, "it really is an accurate metaphor, really!" Also, she seems way to stuck on gymnastics and figure skating being way worse for the girls involved than anything their male counterparts do. Early in the book she points to the way the girls starve themselves to remain lean. She claims the boys never do that. I'd like to suggest to Ms. Ryan that she take a look into the sports of boxing and wrestling where it's better to be the top of a small division than the bottom of a big one. And how about horse jockeys? The less wait on the horses' back, the faster they'll run. I've read both releases of this book and for the new updated section I'd give it considerably less stars. There's hardly anything to the one chapter. Obviously it's just an attempt to cash in on the 2000 Olympics. There is a lot of talk about how the sport of gymnastics has changed since the original release. And of course it was greatly do to this book! Maybe it was, but quit telling us! Then she says something so uncharacteristic of the famous Kerri Strug vaults at the Atlanta games that I believe Bela got a hold of her and made her say it! I don't recall any new material on ice skating at all... maybe that will be out in 2002. I'm sorry I bought the new version. If you have read the original, don't buy this one- borrow it or check it out from the library.
Rating: 
Summary: Try This...
Review: When i read this book i was thinking....What??? I think its a little off...no, i believe its WAY off. I dont think Ryan has any right to put these people down...people who have put their lives into this b/c they wanted to. NOT b/c someone made them. what does she know anyway? I'm not here to write horrible things about this book, but i think it has blown the world of elite gymnastics way out of proportion. not everyone is anorexic or bulemic. i agree with the person who said this is a "waste of paper" I dont think this book gives gymnastics a fair chance:(
Rating:
Summary: What's wrong with training hard and excelling?
Review: I believe the authors have some valid complaints about certain sports. However, let's look at the argument from another vantage point. If militaries didn't train their troops hard, wouldn't they fail in combat? And wouldn't businesses fail if they didn't compete hard in this world? The current mentality in America seems to say that if you train hard, or are trained hard, you're being abused. That's not the case. And it's certainly not the case in other countries, which do train their athletes hard. It's a fact of life: To survive in whatever you do, you need to fight. There's no other way around it. I'm afraid that the worldview of the authors, if it does catch on further in America, could really make us a weak nation in terms of motivation and the skills needed to compete in this world, athletic and otherwise. The people qualified to review this book are gymnasts and those involved in gymnastics. Most seem to deplore the book. That should raise an eyebrow or two.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing insight into the world of gymnastics
Review: Any parent who has daughters getting into *serious* gymnastics should read this book. It is hard to watch gymnastics (especially the Olympics) after reading this book. The abuse of the girls and attitudes of the coaches (especially Bela Karolyi)are terrible. I just cringe whenever I see him on the tv knowing what he put some of those girls through. Is winning worth the pain these girls go through? I wonder if anything has changed in the methods of training or oversight of the gymnastics 'industry' since this book came out? I also think all sports writers should read this book for context when covering women's gymnastics.
Rating:
Summary: Close to My Heart
Review: This book was very hard to read because my cousin died. Cause of death - Gymnastics. Her name was Julissa Gomez, she was one of the featured gymnasts. She was a wonderful person. She was beutiful. And thanks to the pressure of it all she the world will never have the opportunity to know just how good a person she was. This book was hard to read for myself and for my entire family who all loved Julissa. I remember my other cousin (her sister) and I going with her to gym when I was little we would be there for hours and hours and hours at a time we'd eat there. We'd get there in the morning and leave in the evening. I used to think it was amazing what my cousin could do. I used to be amazed by the perfectness of it all. Now as the olympic comes around I am soured to the gymnastics. I fear for other families to have to go thru what my family, especially my aunt went thru for years after the accident until her death. Be careful when you put your daughter into sports. Julissa, I love you and miss you, may god bless you.
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