| Parker Pennington |
Article Index for Parker |
Website Links For Parker |
Information AboutParker Pennington |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT PARKER PENNINGTON | |
| living people | |
| 1984 births | |
| american figure skaters | |
| people from hartford, connecticut | |
Parker Pennington (born September 13, 1984 in Hartford , Connecticut ) is an American Figure Skater . He was the 2001 US Junior National Champion, the 1998 US Novice National Champion, the 1997 US Intermediate National Champion, and the 1996 US Juvenile National Champion. He is the only man to have achieved the distinction of winning Nationals on all those levels. BIOGRAPHY Parker Pennington began skating at age three. He has always been a Single Skater . In 1995, Pennington won the national title on the Juvenile level. The next year, he won it on the Intermediate level. After failing to make it out of Regionals in 1997 on the Novice level, he won the 1998 Novice national title. This earned him a trip to the Triglav Trophy , his first international event, which he won. Moving up to Junior, he was given a Junior Grand Prix event in Sofia, Bulgaria , where he placed 4th. He was then given a second, in China , where he placed 9th. He placed 3rd at the World Junior selections competition, a since-discontinued competition that served to pick the US team to the World Junior Championships, earning himself a trip to the 1999 World Junior Figure Skating Championships , which were for the last time being held before Nationals. In later years, Nationals served as the picking grounds for the Junior Worlds team. Pennington placed 16th at Junior Worlds, a very respectable debut. At the 1999 Nationals, Pennington won the bronze medal on the Junior level. In 1999, Pennington was given two Junior Grand Prix events and placed 5th at both. He then won his Sectionals and placed 2nd at Nationals, again on the Junior level. This earned him another trip to the Triglav Trophy, where he won his second international gold medal. In 2000, Pennington won both his Junior Grand Prix events, establishing himself as a very good competitior on the Junior level. He placed 6th at the Junior Grand Prix Final. At Nationals, he won the gold medal on the Junior level, making him the first and so far only man to win Nationals on all of the following levels: Juvenile, Intermediate, Novice, and Junior. Should Pennington win the senior title, he will be the first skater to achieve a clean sweep of nationals titles. In 2001-2002, Pennington was originally scheduled to compete internationally on the Junior Grand Prix. However, following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the USFSA withdrew all their skaters from the Junior Grand Prix and so Pennington was not allowed to compete internationally in the fall season. In his first season competiting nationally as a senior, he placed 13th in his senior-level Nationals debut. He earned a trip to the Gardena Spring Trophy , which he won. In the 2002-2003 season, Pennington made up for lost time. He won the silver medal at both his events and then won the bronze medal at the Junior Grand Prix Final. He placed 6th at Nationals, earning himself another trip to the World Junior Championships. However, Pennington was forced to withdraw with injury before the event began.http://www.goldenskate.com/articles/2003/072903.shtml Pennington struggled in the 2003-2004 season, winning one Junior Grand Prix event and placing 6th at the other, which did not allow him to return to the Junior Grand Prix Final. He had to withdraw from the 2004 Nationals with injury.http://usoc.gazette.com/fullstory.php?id=6105 For the 2004-2005 season, even though he had not competed at Nationals, he was given his first senior international event, the Finlandia Trophy , where he placed 8th. His 16th place finish at Nationals did not earn him an international assignment for the 2005-2006 Olympic season. However, his placement of 9th at the 2006 Nationals earned him a trip to the 2006 Nebelhorn Trophy , the first senior event for the 2006-2007 season. Pennington won the silver medal behind Tomas Verner . But due to ISU rules, this medal did not earn Pennington a Personal Best score and did not put him on the list of seasonal best scores, denying him a chance to earn his way on to the ISU Grand Prix Of Figure Skating in the future. That year at Nationals, Pennington placed 7th. Pennington was coached by Carol Heiss Jenkins from 1992 through 2003, by Diana Ronayne from 2003 through 2005, and Janet Champion in 2006. In the summer of 2007, he moved to Fairfax, Virginia, to train under Audrey Weisiger . He lives with Tommy Steenberg 's family. Pennington graduated from also competes as an elite skater. For the majority of his career, Pennington has competed out of the ultra-competitive Midwestern Sectional. Following his move to Weisiger, Pennington changed his home club affiliation from the Broadmoor Skating Club to the Washington Skating Club and will now compete out of the Eastern Section, which is comparitively less competitive in the senior men's event than the Midwestern Section, which is so competitive that 2007 Four Continents bronze medalist Jeremy Abbott did not make it out of that section to Nationals in 2006. Pennington had previously competed out of the Eastern Section in 2003, the only season he represented the Skating Club Of New York in national competition. PROGRAMS COMPETITIVE HISTORY
REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS |
|
|