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

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.

“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, Booklist

“Great sportswriting takes readers where they never thought they would go. This is the ride you are in for with The Fall Line, Nathaniel Vinton’s painstakingly researched and richly reported look at downhill ski racing.”
- James Hill, The Washington Post

“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

“The Fall Line unfolds like an exhilarating downhill race. Chronicling the lead-up to the 2010 Winter Olympics, Nathaniel Vinton weaves deftly between technical descriptions of the art of skiing and intimate portraits of the sport’s motley band of luminaries. This is as inside as an account can be of one of the most exciting seasons in American sports history.”
- David Epstein, author of The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance

“Nathaniel Vinton’s reporting skill and skiing expertise underpin this thrill ride with the US Ski Team. All the politics and drama around the making of a US dynasty are delivered with new insights and details on its daring―and sometimes rebellious―stars. You don’t know Bode Miller or Lindsey Vonn until you read The Fall Line.”
- Selena Roberts, filmmaker, best-selling author, and former sports writer for the New York Times and Sports Illustrated

“The Fall Line is a riveting, richly informed ride down the world’s most renowned ski slopes, chronicling the ascendance of American skiing and the outsized stars, Bode Miller and Lindsey Vonn, who epitomize it.”
- Wayne Coffey, author of The Boys of Winter

“One of the best books written about the world of professional ski racing.”
- Kirkus Reviews

“[A]n intriguing book that will be devoured by fans as well as those who don’t know a slalom from a super G.”
- Publishers Weekly

“Shines at making the sport’s finer points accessible. . . . You’re rooting for each skier that comes out of the starting gate.”
- Amanda Ruggeri, Powder Magazine

“[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, Skiing Magazine