A figure skating fiction phenomemon! Originally published between 1998 and 2000, On the Edge, now in its second run, is the most popular figure skating serial in modern history. This coming of age melodrama sparked the imagination of a thousand figure skating fans.

Get figure skating fiction in small doses. Read these special selections from Private Ice's archive of figure skating short stories, humor, and poetry.

Graceful and stubborn. Powerful and arrogant. Destined for each other and for figure skating greatness. Will fate allow? Listen for the Whispers on the Ice.

Figure skating fiction's original soap opera, The Strong and The Sequined. Running continuously since 1997, The Strong and The Sequined is the first modern skatefic. Always outrageous, The Strong and the Sequined is so close to reality that even top US Figure Skating Association officials love it. Private Ice is proud to host the TSTS Archives.

Go behind the scenes with insider Sonia Bianchetti as she spins true tales of figure skating's powerful and autocratic leaders. Figure skating is neither pure nor glittering nor glamourousÑit's politics and intrigue, money and back room deals. In the wake of the 2002 Olympic figure skating judging scandal, Bianchetti puts the new, secretive, and complex judging system in historical context and outlines--with the clarity of vision that has made her a legend--what must be done to save figure skating.

Figure Skating Coaches—Frank Carroll

When it comes to coaching figure skating and the Olympics, Frank Carroll has been a perpetual bridesmaid but never the bride. The list of students he has taken to the Olympic Winter Games is impressive: Linda Fratianne, Christopher Bowman, Michelle Kwan, and Timothy Goebel‹but none of them brought home a gold.

Though the triumphs of Carroll and his students have been many, so have the disappointments. Two-time world figure skating champion Fratianne got the silver in the 1980 Olympics despite excellent performances, leading many in the sport to wonder if politics influenced the results. Two-time national champion Bowman had the makings of a figure-skating king, but his personal problems got in the way. Carroll led Kwan to four world titles and a 1998 Olympic silver medal before she stunned the figure skating world by dismissing her longtime coach just weeks before the 2002 Winter Games. Carroll went to that Olympiad with another student, Goebel, who took home a bronze. The two recently parted ways.

Carroll himself was a competitive skater in the 1950s under the direction of Maribel Vinson Owen. After he did not make the 1960 Olympic Team, he decided to join the Ice Follies. He also became a minor actor, snagging parts in some "beach blanket" flicks. Owen's death in the 1961 plane crash that took the lives of many U.S. figure skating greats helped him to realize that he wanted to pass on his knowledge of the sport to new generations.

Carroll lives and works in California. Last year's U.S. bronze medalist Jennifer Kirk and 2004 World Junior Silver Medalist Evan Lysacek are among his students. The United States Figure Skating Hall of Fame inducted Carroll in 1996.

—Beth Braccio Hering

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Figure Skating fiction, serials, stories, novels, humor, and poetry at Private Ice!

Figure Skating Coaches—Frank Carroll