The Second Mark: Courage, Corruption, and the Battle for Olympic Gold

by Joy Goodwin

Book Overview

It was billed as the greatest event in the history of pair skating: three of the best teams of all time battling for Olympic gold on one night in Salt Lake City. Technical ability was approximately... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 074324527X
• ISBN13: 9780743245272
• Release Date: February 2004
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 333 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.6" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Great Book!!

This book has interesting information on the childhoods, tribulations, and triumphs of Jamie Sale, David Pelletier, Shen Xue, Zhao Hongbo, and Elena Berezhnaya. The one person it is lacking information on is Anton Sikharulidze. It goes through their elite careers and touches on competitions leading up to the games. The play-by-play account of the Olympics brings you back to the day you watched the pair's final. If you are looking for information on the scandal other than what was printed in newspapers, don't bother reading this book. Overall, it gives information that is hard to find elsewhere on the six skater's lives before and after the Olympics. I highly reccomend this book.

compelling drama behind the scenes

The biographical information about the three pairs is what makes the book so intensely readable. The Olympic controversy was well-covered but not very exciting. What the skaters, especially the Chinese, have endured to get where they are is almost unbelievable.

6.0 for The Second Mark

This is the best skating book I have ever read! I have been a figure skating afficiando for more than a decade now and I have read and loved Christine Brennan's books but this one is far better! I loved the "fly on the wall" approach to what is takes to be an Olympic quality pair skater. I enjoyed learning about my favorite skaters and their vastly different lives. I found the first few sections about the preparation more interesting than the Salt Lake scandal aspect, however I enjoyed reading that part too. This book is extremely well researched with first hand interviews from the skaters and their families. I respect the author's decission to stay as true to the original spellings of Russian names and the proper order of Chinese names. I give this book a 6.0! I couldn't put it down! I recommend it to every die-hard skating fan out there!

A book that transcends skating, for fans and everyone else

THE SECOND MARK is a wonderful example of how good, solid reporting can transform a nonfiction book into a page-turner. This is a meticulously-researched account of the 2002 Olympic pairs competition. If you thought you knew all about it, think again. The story spans three continents and four decades, Communism and capitalism. I am so impressed by the stories of these people, which are so beautifully told. I never wanted the book to end. And I especially appreciated how hard the author tried to represent the points of view of so many different cultures. The author gives you a chance to really appreciate what every pair offers. She points out that the Russians might easily have won even if the judging hadn't been biased-it wasn't a lock for the Canadians, as was so widely reported. The Chinese were consistently underscored over the years. The Canadians' perspective, which we all have heard, is presented in a fresh way, too. This is a serious book by a fine writer. I recommend it wholeheartedly. TJLong Island, NY

The Second Mark

Like Seabiscuit, Friday Night Lights, and Eight Men Out, The Second Mark transcends the sports genre. The figure skating is there, all right, but so is the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the lost generation of Mao's Cultural Revolution, a little boy carrying a bedboard down flights of stairs to use as a pingpong table, and a Chinese girl skating by candlelight in a deserted, late night ice rink. In both large strokes and small details, the book takes you, not only into the lives of the six medalists in the Olympics pairs skating competition, but into the cultures from which you cannot separate them. It is an amazing story that unfolds, even if you thought you knew it. Beautifully written and seen--Joy Goodwin's writing is worthy of the story and that is high praise. I loved this book!