Collection Spotlight: Best in Snow

Contributors: Carol Terry, Danette Pachtner and Ira King

Winter Olympics and Sport

Tired of cold wintry weather? Don’t be snowboard – curl up with interesting reading, or peak at these films … what do you have to luge? (Are we skating on thin ice here?)

If you are ready for vicarious international adventures in spectacular snow and ice, Lilly Library’s collections will transport you. Our latest Collection Spotlight shines on winter sports, Olympic history and snowy landscapes inspired by the upcoming Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. Some winning titles are featured below, but judge for yourself and see the full list in Best in Snow.

Film

• The Price of Gold (2014, dir. Nanette Burstein) ESPN 30 for 30
  The world couldn’t keep its eyes off two athletes at the 1994 Winter Games in Lillehammer – Nancy Kerrigan, the elegant brunette and Tonya Harding, the feisty blonde who would stop at nothing to get on the Olympic podium.
• Sister (2012, dir. Ursula Meir)

  

  A drama set at a Swiss ski resort and centered on a boy who supports his sister by stealing from wealthy guests.

• Curling (2010, dir. Denis Côté)
  On the fringe of society in a remote part of the French-Canadian countryside, the fragile relationship and unusual private life of a father and daughter is jeopardized by dreary, unforeseen circumstances.
• Of Miracles and Men (2009, dir. Jonathan Hock) ESPN 30 for 30
  The story of one of the greatest upsets in sports history has been told. Or has it? On a Friday evening in Lake Placid, a plucky band of American collegians stunned the vaunted Soviet national team, 4-3 in the medal round of the 1980 Winter Olympic hockey competition. Americans couldn’t help but believe in miracles that night, and when the members of Team USA won the gold medal two days later, they became one for the ages. But there was another, unchronicled side to the “Miracle On Ice.”
• Blades of Glory (2007, dirs. Josh Gordon and Will Speck)

  

  In 2002, two rival Olympic ice skaters were stripped of their gold medals and permanently banned from men’s single competition. Presently, however, they’ve found a loophole that will allow them to qualify as a pairs team.

• Cool Runnings (1998, dir. Jon Turteltaub)When a Jamaican sprinter is disqualified from the Olympic Games,he enlists the help of a dishonored coach to start the first Jamaican Bobsled Team.

Books

• Speed Kings by Andy Bull

  

  In the 1930s, as the world hurtled towards terrible global conflict, speed was all the rage. Exotic, exciting and above all dangerous, it was by far the most popular event at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics. It required an abundance of skill and bravery. And the four men who triumphed at those Games lived the most extraordinary lives.

• Artistic Impressions: Figure Skating, Masculinity, and the Limits of Sport by Mary Louise Adams
  In contemporary North America, figure skating ranks among the most ‘feminine’ of sports and few boys take it up for fear of being labelled effeminate or gay. Yet figure skating was once an exclusively male pastime – women did not skate in significant numbers until the late 1800s, at least a century after the founding of the first skating club. Only in the 1930s did figure skating begin to acquire its feminine image.
• Two planks and a passion : the dramatic history of skiing

  

  Roland Huntford’s brilliant history begins 20,000 years ago in the last ice age on the icy tundra of an unformed earth. Man is a travelling animal, and on these icy slopes skiing began as a means of survival. In polar exploration, skiing changed the course of history. Elsewhere, in war and peace, it has done so too.

• Sochi 2014 : the Olympic Games through the lens of John Huet and David BurnettCommissioned by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to create a personal record of the Olympic Games, Huet and Burnett  capture the essence and adventure of the Olympic Games through stunning and unconventional photographs.

So many more books and films  examine the Olympics from a range of perspectives – from pure sport and Olympic ideals to international political and social concerns and controversies. Explore further in our Collection Spotlight, and visit  Best in Snow.