The Fall Line – How American Ski Racers Conquered a Sport on the Edge - Hardcover

One of the best books written about the world of professional ski racing.

Most of the world tunes into ski racing only every four years, and Vinton capitalizes on the opportunity to detail what happens in between, with so much more involved in the sport than just preparing for the Olympics.--Kurt Kragthorpe

[A] superbly crafted account of how the U.S. ski team, led by Vonn, Miller, Mancuso, and Ligety, evolved from a D-list squad in the 1990s into a ski racing powerhouse by 2010, and how in the process, they changed the sport forever.--Kelley McMillan

[A]n intriguing book that will be devoured by fans as well as those who don't know a slalom from a super G.

[T]he finest book ever written about World Cup racing... Worth reading for its portrayal of Bode Miller alone--as nuanced as Miller is complicated--it's richly detailed and vivid throughout, informed by Vinton's unrivaled behind-the-scenes access to the sport's athletes, coaches, and peripheral players. His love of the sport and respect for the courage of its heroes shines through on every page. At last, American ski racing gets the book it deserves.--Joe Cutts

Nathaniel Vinton has written what may be the best book ever about the U.S. Ski Team and the highest levels of alpine ski competition. Vinton has been one of the most astute observers of ski racing for more than a dozen years, with both a writer's instinct for telling a good story and an insider's knowledge of the sport. ... Even if you don't care about ski racing, you find yourself rooting for these athletes. And even if you know what happened, you find your pulse racing as you read about it.

A page turner that keeps you on the edge of your seat, wanting to know what's next. [Nate Vinton is] a great reporter but also a wry wordsmith.--John Laconte

Exhaustively well-reported and colorfully told... Through it all, you hear Vinton's heart beating, pounding actually. He loves ski-racing people, the places, the blinding magic of that elite snowy world. And, with that, you swim easily with his story as if carried on a current.--Biddle Duke

Set against the backdrop of spectacular mountains, Vinton's account combines history, biography, corporate politics, and environmental issues into a compelling narrative detailing the past and present of Alpine ski racing.--Craig Clark

This is a ripping, compulsively readable, deeply reported journey into the sporting world's least-known subcultures. Nathaniel Vinton delivers the danger, the surprises, and the high-octane personalities that will take readers to the edge, and then past it.--Daniel Coyle, New York Times best-selling author of The Secret Race and The Talent Code

Nathaniel Vinton is a writer who covered sports for the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, and many other publications. While an investigative reporter at the New York Daily News, he coauthored American Icon: The Fall of Roger Clemens and the Rise of Steroids in America's Pastime. A lifelong student of ski racing, he lives in New York with his wife and their children.