A Skating Life

August 13, 2007
From age eight, when she discovered she loved skating, to age 19, when she won her Olympic gold medal, Hamill's parents sacrificed and scraped so she could train. This memoir is her homage to them, as well as her frank recounting of the difficulties women faced in professional sports in the 1970s. Hamill's father worked to support the family, so her mother, Carol, would drive her to most practices and competitions, battling “the sport's old boys' network” on her daughter's behalf. After the Olympics, it was up to Hamill to figure out what to do. She was young and unschooled in life off the rink, with no female role models for the professional career she wanted. She struggled to pay back her parents, find a man who'd love her, and keep skating beautifully, but she couldn't do it all. She ended up suffering two difficult divorces and a custody battle, alienating her parents and going bankrupt trying to make the Ice Capades successful. Frequent mentions of Carol's mental problems distract from Hamill's story, but that won't dissuade the skater's fans from devouring this quietly charming book.

September 1, 2007
Dorothy Hamill charmed America at the 1976 Olympics with her irresistible smile and her stellar performance, which brought home the gold in figure skating. One might have thought that the national attention and endorsements that followednot to mention popularizing a cute wedge haircut and having an ice-skating move named after you (the Hamill Camel)would have resulted in a satisfying and relatively carefree life. Not so. Hamill reveals the truth in this candid memoir, exposing a litany of woes: the silent curse that afflictedboth her parents (untreated depression); her fathers alcoholism; financial hardship; hertwo failed marriages; and her self-doubt as life dealt her blow after blow.Watching her parents try to treat their depression with drinking or indifference made her face her own demons, and with proper treatment, she is able to keep her depression in check.On the plus side, Hamill celebrates the two loves of her life, skating and her daughter, Alexandra. A poignant, revealinglook at a life we might have imagined differently; the story will touch the hearts of skating fans everywhere.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)