Nikki Nichols

When the author uses the phrase "frozen in time" as part of the title, it implies that the skaters who perished are forever left as young, nimble athletes. Sadly, they have also become a part of the forgotten past, one which should be resurrected. With all the real-life films we have about tragic sporting events, it would be a wonderful opportunity to see these skating heroes be remembered for their promise, as well as the devastation their deaths wreaked on U.S. figure skating. Nichols book brought me an awareness of people and their stories that should not be forgotten.… (mer)

This book is an amateur historian's labor of love: A story about a group of people, a sport, and a time for which she obviously has enormous affection. It's untainted by any sense of perspective, proportion, or any of the larger contexts into which it might have been fitted. All the skaters profiled are -- to hear the author tell it -- flawless human beings: charming, decorous, polite, well-mannered, sportsmanlike. The world in which they competed is a kind of lost Golden Age -- so far removed from the high-intensity world that is competitive figure skating today that they almost seem to be competing in a different sport altogether.

Nikki Nichols' nostalgia for that era -- its greater formality, its more sedate routines, its styling of the female skaters as "ladies," and the conceptualization of both male and female skaters as performers more than athletes -- is palpable, and for a while it's intriguing (even charming) in its intense earnestness. After a while, though, I found it limiting, and frustrating: I wanted Nichols to drop back a bit, pull back her focus, show how the culture of the figure skating world reflected the time, the place, and the socio-economic world in which it grew.

I also found myself wanting to see more about the inevitable climax that hangs over the story, from the beginning, like a dark cloud: The plane crash that killed virtually everyone in the book in 1961. Nichols -- taking a page from Sebastian Junger's final chapter in The Perfect Storm -- imagines what the crash might have been like, but there (again) she stops. What did Americans outside the figure skating world make of the crash (if anything)? How did sports journalists cover it? How was the story framed, before the rise of Peggy Fleming to stardom in the mid-1960s created the perfect coda to it?

On all that, Nichols is silent . . . it's not the story she wants to tell, any more than the larger, dispassionately analyzed story of figure skating in 1961 is the story she wants to tell. The story she does want to tell is there on the page, in gushing, breathless, resolutely uncritical prose -- and, if you share her enthusiasm for that quieter, more genteel world of sport, you'll love it.… (mer)

Frozen in Time" is a well researched and well written look at the entire U.S. Skating team that was killed in a 1961 plane crash in Brussels. Author Nikki Nichols focuses mostly on the Owen family (nine time National Champion Maribel Vinson Owen and her daughters, "Little Maribel" and newly crowned National Champion, 16 year old Laurence) and Stephanie Westerfield, Laurence's closest rival and her sister Sharon. The book also gives insight into what skating was like at that time, with detailed explanations of elements such as school figures which are no longer included in competitions and the different competitions themselves, including the North American Championships which no longer exists. Finally, the book also talks about the devastating affect the deaths had on family members left behind as well as how the deaths forever changed the United States figure skating program.

Although I was just a baby when it happened, I'm a long time figure skating fan and I grew up hearing about the plane crash and wondered what had happened. This long overdue remembrance is a poignant read and by the end readers will feel as if they knew each skater. Nikki Nichols intersperses the history of skating with her narration, including the fact that 1961 was the first time Nationals was shown on television (although on tape, not live). Nichols also compares skating then to skating now and skating fans probably won't be too surprised to learn that even back in 1961 Maribel Owen was fighting corrupt judges. The book is full of pictures and many of them are haunting, such as the team posing for pictures on the steps of the doomed plane; a burnt skate; the charred copy of Sports Illustrated with Laurence Owen on the cover; and the ever present smile of Laurence.

If the book falters anywhere, it's when Nichols tries to imagine what the atmosphere on the doomed plane was. Of course, no one can know what conversations took place on the flight and Nichols valiant attempt doesn't work and tends to be over dramatic. I also wish the section dealing with the rebuilding of the U.S. Skating team had been a bit longer.

Still, these minor flaws shouldn't keep anyone from reading this excellent book.… (mer)

"Frozen in Time" is a great tribute to a not very well known (outside of skating circles, at least) group of skaters and how they died before they achieved all they could. The book especially focuses Laurence Owen and Stephanie Westerfeld.

The author Nikki Nichols gives a wonderful view into their lives, what they gave up
in order to skate comptetively and what their lives outside of skating were like. Some of the conversations must be fictional accounts, but I didn't find this bothersome.

Even for someone who doesn't follow the skating world, this but is an enthralling
look into the lives of this very appealing group of young skaters.

One great thing about the 'net is that on YouTube, you can see some of the performances mentioned in the book.… (mer)