Kimmie Meissner

Kimberly Claire Meissner (born October 4, 1989) is an American former competitive figure skater. She is the 2006 World champion, the 2007 Four Continents champion, and the 2007 U.S. national champion. She is the first American and the first woman to simultaneously hold the World, Four Continents, and national titles. In 2005, Meissner became the second American woman to land the triple Axel jump in national competition. She was the youngest American athlete to compete at the 2006 Olympics, coming in sixth place. She won the World Championships the following month, and the U.S. Nationals the following season. She was inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2020.

Meissner was one of the best technical figure skaters of her time, but was an inconsistent skater, especially towards the end of her career. She was compared to Olympic skater and U.S. champion Michelle Kwan, who called her "the new face of figure skating". was born on October 4, 1989, in Towson, Maryland, the youngest child of podiatrist Paul Meissner and Judy (Roth) Meissner. Her father Paul played hockey in youth leagues when he was in high school in Buffalo, New York, and in adult leagues in Maryland, after attending the University of Buffalo, graduate school in Cleveland, and a surgical residency in Detroit and Baltimore. Meissner's family is Catholic; she was baptized in Williamsville, New York, near where her parents grew up in Buffalo.

All three of Meissner's older brothers, like their father, played hockey, and she was brought to their games. She skated for the first time in January 1996, when she was six years old, after "a freak ice storm" The arrangement allowed Meissner to attend her school's prom in 2006. She graduated from Fallston in 2007. In 2014, she graduated from Towson University.

Competitive career

Early career

Meissner began skating when she was six years old, after watching her older brothers play hockey. She had watched figure skating on television, eventually giving up ballet, which she began when she was four, because she "liked skating more".

She moved up to the novice division during the 2002–2003 season, coming in first place at the 2003 Eastern Sectionals and second place at the 2003 South Atlantic Regionals, qualifying for the 2003 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. She "burst on the scene" and won the gold medal at Nationals, her first U.S. Nationals event. She came in first place after the short program, putting her in a good position, and won the free skate as well, with three triples, including a triple Lutz jump. She singled a planned fourth triple, a Salchow, but ended her program with a double Axel-double toe loop-double loop combination. She ended the season with a third-place finish at the Triglav Trophy in Slovenia.

2003–2004 season

Meissner competed as a junior during the 2003–2004 season. She earned a silver medal at the Sofia Cup, the Junior Grand Prix event in Bulgaria, and a gold medal at Slovenia, which qualified her for the Junior Grand Prix final in Sweden, where she came in fifth place. She competed as a junior at the 2004 U.S. Nationals and won the gold medal, after coming in second place in the short program and winning the free skate. Her win, along with her win the previous season as a novice, made her "one of the rare skaters"

2004–2005 season

thumb|right|Meissner at the [[2005 World Junior Figure Skating Championships|2005 World Junior Championships]]

Meissner worked on a triple Axel jump early in the 2004–2005 season and had started to land them in August 2004, but had to take a two-month break from training the element due to a slight back injury. Her free skating program, however, included seven other triple jumps. Her "personal goal" for the season was to make all her moves larger and "to do skating so the people in the nosebleed sections could see what I was doing". She finished in third place, despite a "poor short program" Gregory reported that Meissner had been consistently landing triple Axels for only a week before Nationals. She chose to include a triple Axel, the third jump in her free skating program, after completing a clean one during the warm-up. to keep her balance out of the last rotation of her triple Axel, but her landing was secure and she ended up in third place, her first senior-level medal. E. M. Swift from Sports Illustrated reported that Meissner earned the biggest response from the spectators and diverted attention away from Kwan. He also stated that Meissner was able to "breathe fresh air into a sport that had begun to stagnate in the U.S. and offer a peek into the future of American skating". Meissner was not age-eligible to compete as a senior at the Worlds Championships, but was named to the U.S. team for the 2005 Junior Worlds Championships. ESPN, however, sent Meissner to Worlds in Moscow "on assignment", for a special in which she appeared with Olympians Peggy Fleming and Paul Wylie.

At Junior Worlds in Kitchener, Canada, Meissner came in fourth place overall. In her short program, she came close to the edge of the rink, but successfully completed a triple Lutz-double toe loop combination. She also completed a triple loop and double Axel, earning 52.67 points and coming in third place, behind teammate Alissa Czisny by less than .25 points. In her free skating program, Meissner began with a triple flip, followed by a triple Lutz-double toe loop combination, a double Axel-double toe loop combination, a triple loop, and a triple Salchow. She turned both her Lutz and flip into single jumps towards the end of the program, earning 93.96 points and came in fourth place in the free skate, slipping to fourth place overall and earning a total of 146.63 points.

2005–2006 season

thumb|Meissner and her coach, [[Pam Gregory.]]

Meissner's focus, going into the 2005–2006 season, was the Olympics, and making her routines more mature, with more difficult and intricate spins and footwork. She abandoned her triple Axel, working on it from time to time during the season, to focus on her combination jumps and because the Axel was not consistent for her.

Meissner started off the season with a third-place win at the 2005 Campbell's Classic. She did not include her triple Axel, but earned 109.08 points overall, a personal best. At Trophée Éric Bompard in Paris, her first senior Grand Prix competition, she had a "disastrous" short program. She stepped out of her triple Lutz, which prevented her from completing a planned combination jump, and had a fall, earning 44.92 points.

At NHK Trophy, where she was more comfortable and less nervous, she again came in fifth place. She came in third place after the short program, earning 56.10 points, which were higher scores than she earned at Paris. Unlike her short program in Paris, she was able to complete her triple Lutz-triple loop combination, which was the highest-scoring jump combination (10.0 points) of the evening. Her spins were the weakest of the program; she was not centered on her spins and was afraid she would fall, but was in good position for a medal.

At the 2006 U.S. Nationals, Meissner won the silver medal and was named to the U.S. Olympic team. She was in fourth place after the short program, but after "a stellar performance" in her free skating program, overcame Emily Hughes, who came in third place. Sasha Cohen won her first U.S. Nationals title. It was the first time the IJS scoring system was used at a U.S. Nationals. Most of the media's focus during Nationals was on U.S. Figure Skating's decision about the U.S. Olympics women's team and on Cohen's potential to win the title, so despite Meissner's successes of the past season and her second-place finish at Nationals, the media paid little attention to her. Michelle Kwan, who withdrew from Nationals due to injury, petitioned to be named to the team. Eventually, U.S. Figure Skating chose to send Kwan, instead of Emily Hughes, as well as Cohen and Meissner. Kwan had to withdraw from the Olympics due to an injury that occurred during a practice session in Turin; Hughes took her place.

Meissner trained in Courmayeur, a town 150 kilometers north of Turin, the week before the Olympics. She spent most of her time in an apartment with her family instead of staying at the Olympic Village, which kept her calm and focused for the competition. She was one of the youngest competitors in the Games, and the youngest American athlete in Turin. Her short program, which had a base value of 31.7 points, was competitive compared to the strongest skaters in the field. Meissner came in fifth place after the short program with 59.40 points, 7.33 points behind Cohen, who came in first place. Meissner's presentation was clean, with some of the highest technical scores of the competition. Her component scores were weak, ranking eleventh-best, but she was in medal contention going into the free skate. Her planned free skating program opened with two triple-triple jump combinations, with a middle section that included three single triple jumps. Meissner planned a combination with three double jumps during the final segment of her program in order earn the highest points possible. Despite her "anticlimactic" finish at the Olympics, her hometown of Bel Air put on a parade in her honor upon her return home, and they named a street in her honor. Maese reported that Meissner's chances for winning the Worlds title, even though her teammate Sasha Cohen came into the competition as the favorite, were boosted by the absence of teammate Michelle Kwan and the skaters who won the gold and bronze medals in Turin, Shizuka Arakawa from Japan and Irina Slutskaya from Russia.

At Worlds in Calgary, Meissner came in third place after the short program, with a score of 88.63 points. Cohen was in first place, with 94.21 points and almost four points ahead of Japan's Fumie Suguri's 90.59 points and almost five points ahead of Meissner. Meissner's opening jump was a triple Lutz-double toe loop combination instead of two triples in the combination, but she earned higher scores than normal for her spins and level-3 footwork.

Meissner successfully completed seven triples in her free skating program, including two triple-triple combinations (a triple flip-triple toe and a triple Lutz-triple toe), the only ones in the competition. She hit all her elements and stayed focused throughout the program, including her double Axel-double toe loop-double loop towards the end, even though she said later that she could not hear her music over the audience, who were on their feet before she ended. She earned a personal-best score of 129.70 points in her free skate, for a total of 218.33 points, almost nine points more than Suguri, who won the silver medal, ten points more than Cohen, and over four points more than the 2006 Olympic gold medalist, Shizuka Arakawa from Japan, earned during the Olympics. She also procured endorsement deals with national sandwich chain Subway, sporting apparel company Under Armour, and VISA. In August 2006, Meissner was given the Michelle Kwan Trophy by the readers of U.S. Figure Skating's Skating Magazine as their favorite skater of the year . ESPN reported that she "resurrected her triple Axel from a year's hibernation", The music she chose for her free skating program, "Galicia Flamenco", was from Galicia, Spain, the home of her maternal great-grandfather before he immigrated to the U.S. Olympic gold medalist and figure skating analyst Dick Button stated that the program demonstrated Meissner's growth and maturity. U.S. champion Kristi Yamaguchi said that Meissner had improved artistically since the Olympics, but needed to work on the emotional aspect of her skating. In her short program, which Golden Skate called "disappointing", she touched down on the first jump of her triple Lutz-double toe loop combination, but was able to successfully compete her triple flip, double Axel, and a level-four spiral sequence and combination spin. She came in third place, with 58.82 points, ten points behind Asada, who came in first place, and eight points behind Miki Ando from Japan, who came in second place. She planned to include two triple-triple combinations and her triple Axel in her free skate. She came in eighth place towards eligibility to compete at the Grand Prix finals, making her the first reigning World champion to not qualify for the following season's Grand Prix final. Figure skating writer Philip Hersh called Meissner's season performances prior to the 2007 U.S. Nationals in Spokane, Washington "underwhelming", and raised questions about her inconsistent skating, and if her free skating program that won her the Worlds title, as well as the triple Axel she completed only once in competition, was "a one-time wonder". Meissner was the "overwhelming favorite" Meissner later admitted that skating immediately after Hughes, who also skated well, motivated and challenged her to excel in her own short program. Hughes ended up in third place after the short program, after Beatrisa Liang, who came in second place, who was more than three points behind Meissner.

In the free skate, Meissner did not plan to include her triple Axel. She came in third place, with 115.99 points. She put her hand down after completing her opening triple Lutz, which lost her some points by foregoing a planned triple-triple combination. She also had difficulty landing her triple flip-triple toe loop combination, but she successfully completed a double Axel, a double Axel-double toe loop-double loop combination, four more triple jumps, and a level-three straight line footwork sequence. She later told reporters that she was shocked after putting her hand down on the Lutz, but that she was able to refocus, regain her composure, and get through the program. She was certain that she could finish strongly and win the gold medal if she continued despite her mistake. Jeff Bunch of the Spokesman-Review felt that it was a good decision and "the pivotal moment in the deciding free skate". short program, she fell on her opening triple Lutz-triple toe combination, but successfully completed her triple flip and double Axel. She struggled through her layback spin, so only received a level-one in her scores, and had a "wobbly" triple flip and received negative grades of execution for it. Figure skating reporter Elvin Walker reported that Meissner "seemed disconnected from her program and didn’t seem to present a clear artistic vision to the audience", Meissner came in sixth place after the short program, with 52.49 points; four points separated Meissner and Canadian Joannie Rochette, who came in first place. and won the gold medal, her first time competing at Four Continents, with 172.75 points. She struggled with her triple flip-triple toe combination, popping the flip jump, but she felt stronger as the program progressed. She opened her routine with a successful triple Lutz-triple toe combination, the only skater to include one in her program. She completed five clean triple jumps, including a second triple Lutz at the end, and a successful double Axel-double toe loop-double loop combination, also towards the end of her program. She planned to not include a triple Axel and chose to complete a clean double instead. The spectators gave her a standing ovation for her performance, which Walker felt had improved since U.S. Nationals. She was in fourth place after the short program, earning a personal-best score of 64.67 points. She skated a clean program and like the other top three skaters (Yu-Na Kim of Korea, who earned a personal-best score of 71.95 points and the highest short program score up to that point, Miki Ando of Japan, and Carolina Kostner of Italy), performed triple-triple combinations in her program. Even though she fell on her triple Lutz during the six-minute warm-up, Meissner successfully performed a triple Lutz-triple toe combination jump, as well as a triple flip and a double Axel. She had good speed throughout her level-four spiral sequence, and as reporter Laura Fawcett put it, her level-three straight-line footwork sequence was "musical but seemed a little slow across the ice". According to Fawcett, Meissner's performance at Worlds demonstrated her inconsistency throughout the season. The U.S. women, due to Meissner's fourth-place finish and Hughes' ninth-place finish, earned three slots in the 2008 Worlds Championships. At the recommendation of Gregory, she trained with coach Frank Carroll in California, as well as other coaches and a former Bolshoi ballerina for two weeks during the summer, where she focused on improving her artistry, expression, and jumps. She went into the 2007–2008 season a stronger skater and with a new focus. She began college, taking three courses at the University of Delaware, and looked to defend her U.S. title and medal again at Worlds. She changed her free skating program and choreographer four weeks before her first competition of the season because the original routine failed to inspire and challenge her. She returned to her previous choreographer, Lori Nichol, who created a routine to "Nessun Dorma," a piece usually reserved for pair skaters.

thumb|Meissner at the 2007-2008 Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final|alt=

At Skate America, Meissner won her first Grand Prix gold medal, even though she came in second place in the free skate, by less than 1.5 points than Miki Ando, who came in second place overall. Sports writer Candus Thomson of the Baltimore Sun reported that the judges interpreted the rules strictly and "cracked down on imperfections that they had previously let slide", In her free skate, Meissner, like all the other competitors, was unable to skate a clean program, making errors on four of her jumps. She stepped out of a triple Salchow, popped her second triple Lutz into a single, skated slowly through her spins, and received downgrades on her opening triple flip-triple toe loop combination and her triple loop jump. She was able, however, to successfully complete two triple jumps and a double Axel-double toe loop-double loop combination. She earned 103.99 points in her free skate, and 163.23 points overall. Her biggest competitor was Mao Asada; Thomson stated that the competition could be a view into future competitions like the 2008 World Championships and 2010 Olympics. Meissner again did not include the triple Axel into her free skating program, a choice she also made at Skate America, because she and Gregory felt that it was too risky, that other jump combinations were worth more points, and that she could win competitions without it. Asada, even though she could also complete the triple Axel, also chose to not include hers in Paris.

Figure skating reporter Elvin Walker said that Meissner's Lutz combination jump and triple flip in her short program were her strengths going into the 2007–2008 Grand Prix final. He also stated that her program components were not as challenging as the other five competitors, so she needed to "skate perfect programs" to excel in Torino. During her short program, she lost points for taking off on the wrong edge on her triple flip and underrotated her second jump in her triple Lutz-triple toe loop combination, but was able to successfully complete a double Axel and two level-four spins. She came in fifth place after the short program, with 59.08 points. She later told reporters that she felt that she had delivered a strong program, despite her scores. Meissner ultimately came in sixth place, after coming in sixth place in the free skate, with 95.14 points. She fell on both her triple Lutzes and on her opening triple flip, which was penalized because she took off on the wrong edge. After what Philip Hersh of the Chicago Tribune called her "poor Grand Prix Final performances", She started with "an elegant" spiral sequence, but then fell on an underrotated triple flip, which she called "a silly mistake".

Meissner performed a revamped free skating program that was the most difficult free skating program of the competition, with two triple-triple combinations. She fell three times, on her first two elements, a triple flip and a triple Lutz, and another triple Lutz, but successfully completed a double Axel-double toe combination and two triple jumps.

Thomson also wrote that Meissner "hasn't been her old self" and "Instead of beating others, she's beating herself". It was the first time in many years that the American women did not have a credible chance of winning a medal at Worlds.

In February 2008, Meissner left her long-time coach Pam Gregory and moved out of her family home in Delaware to work with coach Richard Callaghan in Florida. She later said that she had grown apart from Gregory as early as 2007, and had misgivings about her career. Meissner hoped that the change in coaches and the opportunity to compete at Worlds would help salvage what seemed to be a declining career, saying, "I’m grateful to Pam Gregory for everything she has done, but I needed to make some changes in order to regain my focus and confidence". Steve Keating of Reuters called Meissner's change in coaches "unexpectedly bold". She came in 12th place in the free skate, which figure skating reporter Anna Kondakova called " a hit-and-miss experience" for Meissner. She stepped out of her first jump, underrotated the last jump in her triple flip-triple toe loop combination, and fell on her Lutz and Salchow, which were also underrotated. She came in seventh place overall, with 149.74 points.

Post-2008 career

Going into the 2008–2009 season, Meissner worked to get her career back on track with Callaghan and former figure skater and World Champion Todd Eldredge.  She also worked with a ballet instructor.  She later said that her arrangement with Callaghan did not work and that his approach "robbed her of the joy that had always fueled her best performances". her comeback was "derailed in a series of falls and poorly executed jumps". although Elvin Walker of Golden Skate reported that she "skated with a newfound maturity and a happiness that has been absent from her skating at recent competitions" and that her results kept her in contention for a medal, anyway.  Walker called her free skate "disastrous"; she slipped on the landings and fell on her opening two jumps, a triple Lutz and a double Axel, changed or eliminated five other jumps, and completed none of her planned three combination jumps.  Despite her low results, Olympic champion and figure skating commentator Scott Hamilton, who blamed Meissner's difficulties on her recent growth spurt, said that she should not be counted out of consideration for future success.  She came in eighth place, with 48.08 points.  She came in seventh place in the free skate, with 83.28 points, and eighth place overall, earning a total of 131.36 points.

Meissner withdrew from the 2009 U.S. Nationals due to a hip flexor injury that occurred during an off-ice training session, while sprinting on a treadmill, and exacerbated while training jumps on the ice.  She went through physical therapy back in Baltimore, but the pain was too much to complete her jumps and fully compete.  She stated that she hoped that she would recover in order to compete at the 2010 Nationals.

In August 2009, Meissner watched a beloved aunt and an 8-year old friend from the Cool Kids Campaign die of cancer.  Also in August, Meissner sustained an injury while training, when she pulled out of a jump to avoid colliding with a younger skater.  She landed on her right knee, which became chronically inflamed, swollen, and painful.  After six weeks of physical therapy back home in Maryland, she was diagnosed with severe patellar tendonitis and a partial dislocation in her right kneecap.  After consulting with an orthopedic specialist, she decided to withdraw from her two Grand Prix assignments, the Rostelecom Cup and the NHK Trophy.  Although her withdrawal meant that she would not be eligible for Nationals and thereby not eligible for the Olympics, she told the Baltimore Sun she was not retiring from skating.  Meissner retired from competitive skating in 2010.

In 2016, Meissner told figure skating reporter Sarah Brannen that the end of her competitive career was difficult for her, and that without training for competitions, she felt depressed, lost, directionless, and betrayed by her own body.  For a while, she expected to recover from her injuries and return to competitive skating, but too many things happened in her personal life at the same time.  She ended up distancing herself from figure skating and had nothing to do with the sport for two years.  She said that it took her five years to recover from retiring from competitive skating.  For many years, it was difficult for her to even watch competitions, but she found support from her family and from other skaters like Michelle Kwan and Ryan Bradley.

Skating style

Meissner was one of the best technical figure skaters, with good position in the air on her jumps, smooth landings, fast speed, and high energy, but her weakness was her artistry, which the Associated Press, in 2007, speculated was due to her young age. Her choreographer Lori Nichol stated that Meissner's work with children with cancer helped her be a better and more thoughtful figure skater.

Youngest American to compete at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

| rowspan=2 |

Un Ange Passe

Siciliana
Romeo and Juliet
Adieu
Love Theme
Romeo and Juliet Suite

! 2008–2009

Snowstorm

Galicia Flamenca
Paternera

Keep Holding On

! 2005–2006

Symphonic Dances

Belkis, Queen of Sheba

! 2004–2005

Reverie

Daphnis et Chloé

! 2003–2004

Sand and Water

Pines of Rome

Results

right|thumb|The women's podium at the [[2006 U.S. Figure Skating Championships|2006 U.S. Nationals. From left: Kimmie Meissner (2nd), Sasha Cohen (1st), Emily Hughes (3rd), Katy Taylor (4th)]]

right|thumb|The women's podium at [[2007 Skate America. From left: Miki Ando (2nd), Kimmie Meissner (1st), Caroline Zhang (3rd)]]

GP: Grand Prix; JGP: Junior Grand Prix

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

! colspan="7" style="background-color: #ffdead; " align="center" | International

! Event

! 03–04

! 04–05

! 05–06

! 06–07

! 07–08

! 08–09

| align=left | Olympics || || || 6th || || ||

| align=left | Worlds || || || bgcolor=gold | 1st || 4th || 7th ||

| align=left | Four Continents || || || || bgcolor=gold | 1st || ||

| align=left | Final || || || || || 6th ||

| align=left | Bompard || || || 5th || bgcolor=cc9966 | 3rd || bgcolor=silver | 2nd ||

| align=left | Cup of Russia || || || || || || 8th

| align=left | NHK Trophy || || || 5th || || ||

| align=left | Skate America || || || || bgcolor=silver | 2nd || bgcolor=gold | 1st || 8th

! colspan="7" style="background-color: #ffdead; " align="center" | International: Junior