Short Bios, The Non-Canadian Version
Contains:
Midori Ito /
Klimova & Ponomarenko /
David Liu /
Yuka Sato /
Michael Shmerkin
Midori's parents divorced when she was 11 and she moved in with her
coach.
Basic Stats
Competitive History
Amateur
- 1st, Japanese Nationals '96
- 2nd, Winter Olympics '92 (Albertville, Fra)
- 4th, World Championships '91 (Munich, Frg)
- 1st, World Championships '89 (Paris, Fra)
Professional
Pictures
Known as an extremely dramatic dance couple, this husband and wife
team currently live in California (Lake Arrowhead?). For a time, they
coached Bourne & Kraatz, and now remain
available to them as advisors.
Basic Stats
Marina Klimova
Sergei Ponomarenko
Amateur Competitive History
- 1st, World Championships '92 (Oakland, CA)
- 1st, Winter Olympics '92 (Albertville, Fra)
- 1st, European Championships '92
- 2nd, World Championships '91 (Munich, Frg)
- 1st, European Championships '91
- 1st, World Championships '90 (Halifax, NS)
- 1st, European Championships '90
- 1st, World Championships '89 (Paris, Fra)
- 1st, European Championships '89
- 2nd, Winter Olympics '88 (Calgary, AB)
- 3rd, Winter Olympics '84 (Sarajevo, Yugoslavia)
- Tatiana Durasova & Sergei 1st, World Junior
Championships '79 (Augsburg, Fra)
- Tatiana Durasova & Sergei 1st, World Junior
Championships '78 (Megeve, Fra)
Professional Competitive History
- 2nd, World Professional FSC '95 (Landover, MD)
Pictures
David and his family moved from Taiwan to the USA when he was 6.
Having never seen snow before he was instantly drawn to winter and
thence to winter sports. He begain skating at age 8, but quit at 13
because it had become too expensive. Wanting to remain in the
performing arts, he applied to the School of American Ballet and
earned entry with a scholarship. Over the next 3 years he proved to
be a gifted dancer at an elite school, but the rarified air of the
dance community combined with the unfortunate (for a ballet dancer)
height mother nature had bestowed upon him resulted in a decision to
return to figure skating.
Returing to the novice level, he advanced quickly becoming a senior in
1987 at which point he was invited to represent Taiwan in international competition. Being
practical he accepted. After the '88 Olympics he semi-retired to take
a degree in international relations at Case Western Reserve in
Cleveland, training only an hour a day. But inspired by a chance
meeting with JoJo Starbuck he interrupted his schooling to devote
himself to preparing for the '92 Olympics. He has been toiling on the
verge of greatness ever since, determined to stick with amateur
competition until he has the performance in competition that he can be
proud of, that reflects his true potential.
Like many other second generation overseas Chinese (although
technically speaking he is first generation), David is a devout
Christian, something he shares in common with JoJo Starbuck.
A short note on Taiwan: The tiny
island nation, Taiwan, is the Republic of China (ROC) a
capitalist-type democratic nation (one of the main places, other than
Hong Kong, where the rich who saw the cultural revolution coming and
could move their assets quickly enough moved to). Mainland China is
the People's Republic of China (PROC), the last bastion of communism.
Both consider themselves to be "the true China". However, PROC has
enough clout in the world of international politics and commerce to
ensure that Taiwan cannot be officially recognized by people who want
to be on speaking terms with the mainland. So it is that Taiwanese
athletes cannot carry the flag of Taiwan or compete for Taiwan, they
must complete for "Chinese Taipei" under a meaningless flag.
Basic Stats
- Birth Date: 1964
- Height: 168cm (5'6")
- Coach: Minzhu Li, Jojo Starbuck, Sonya
Dunfield, Carol Heiss Jenkins, Don Laws
- Trains: Cricket Skating and Curling Club, Toronto, ON, Can
- Choreographer: Toller Cranston
Competitive History
Amateur
- 11th, NHK Trophy '95 (Nagoya, Jpn)
- 29th, World
Championships '95 (Birmingham, England, Gbr)
- 21st, World Championships '94 (Chiba, Jpn)
- 6th, NHK Trophy
'94 (Morioka, Jpn)
- failed to qualify for the '93 Worlds and as a result, the '94
Olympics as well.
- 17th, Winter Olympics '92 (Albertville, Fra)
- 25th (after the short program), Winter Olympics '88 (Calgary,
AB)
Pictures
Both her parents are former Olympic figure skaters who reached 8th
place.
Basic Stats
- Birth Date: 02/73
- Home Town: Tokyo, Jpn
- Trains: Ottawa, ON
- Coach: Peter Dunfield, Frank Carroll
- Mother: Kumiko
- Father: Nobuo
Competitive History
Amateur
- 1st, World Championships '94 (Chiba, Jpn)
- 5th, Winter
Olympics '94 (Lillehammer, Nor)
- 4th, World
Championships '93 (Prague, Cze)
- 7th, Winter Olympics '92 (Albertville, Fra)
- 1st, World Junior Championships '90 (Colorado
Springs, USA)
Professional
- 1st, World Professional FSC '95 (Landover, MD)
- 1st, Toyota Canadian Professional Figure
Skating Championships '95 (Hamilton, ON)
- 1st, Rider's Ladies FSC '95 (Boston, MA)
- 2nd, Miko Masters '95 (Fra)
- ??, Challenge of Champions '95 (Tokyo, Jpn)
- 3rd, World Professional
Championships '95 (Landover, MD)
Pictures
Michael (or Misha) began skating at the age of 4 in Odessa. As he
advanced, he soon discovered that the fact that he is Jewish was being
held against him. Officials told his mother that Russia would never
let a Jew represent their flag. After much soul searching, she
divorced her husband and married a Russian, but the fact that Michael
was so clearly not giving up his religion meant that he could still
not advance as he deserved.
In the end they decided to move to Israel where they could live with
dignity. Michael did not expect that he would be able to continue
skating in Israel which had no facilities for winter sports of any
kind. But as fate would have it, at this time a group of Canadians
from the United Israel Appeal had decided to build an ice rink, called
the Canada Centre, in Metulla, a town on the Lebanese border.
Now Michael had a place to train. Next he convinced the mayor of the
town to support his case for going to the Olympics as a one man team
representing Israel. The mayor is now president of Israel's figure
skating association.
The Canada Centre is regularly visited by Jewish-Israelis,
Arab-Israelis, children from Lebanon, and at least one world class
athlete.
Basic Stats
- Birth Date: 02/02/70
- Home Town: Odessa
- Trains: Canada Centre, Metulla, Israel
- Spouse: Sarite Shmerkin
Competitive History
Amateur
- 2nd, Skate Canada '95 (St. John, NB)
- 11th, World
Championships '95 (Birmingham, England, Gbr)
- 2nd, Skate Canada '94 (Red Deer, AB)
- 14th, World Championships '94 (Chiba, Jpn)
- 16th, Winter Olympics '94 (Lillehammer, Nor)
- 19th, World Championships '93 (Prague, Cze)
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Last Modified:Sunday, 21-Sep-1997 00:11:30 UTC
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