Jennifer Anne "Jenny" Kirk (born August 15, 1984) is an American former competitive
figure skater
Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, when contested at the 1908 Olympics in London. The Olympic disciplines are me ...
. She is the
2000 World Junior champion and the
2002 Four Continents champion.
Early life
Jennifer Kirk was born in
Newton, Massachusetts
Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is approximately west of downtown Boston. Newton resembles a patchwork of thirteen villages, without a city center. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the population of Ne ...
.
[ Prior to skating, she was a ]gymnast
Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, sh ...
until the age of nine.[ She also studied ]ballet
Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...
and once performed with the Boston Ballet
The Boston Ballet is an American professional classical ballet company based in Boston, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1963 by E. Virginia Williams and Sydney Leonard, and was the first professional repertory ballet company in New England. I ...
.[
]
Career
Kirk grew interested in skating and began training with coaches Evy and Mary Scotvold
Mary Batdorf Scotvold is an American figure skating coach, best known for her work with Olympic medalists Paul Wylie and Nancy Kerrigan, whom she co-coached with her husband, Evy Scotvold.
She won the novice ladies title at the 1959 U.S. Figu ...
at the age of 10[ at the ]Skating Club of Boston
The Skating Club of Boston is a not-for-profit figure skating club based in Norwood, Massachusetts. Founded in 1912, it is one of the oldest skating clubs in the United States, and a founding member of U.S. Figure Skating, the governing body for ...
. She was featured as a young up-and-coming skater on the PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
shows ''Zoom
Zoom may refer to:
Technology Computing
* Zoom (software), videoconferencing application
* Page zooming, the ability to magnify or shrink a portion of a page on a computer display
* Zooming user interface, a graphical interface allowing for image ...
'' and ''Arthur
Arthur is a common male given name of Brittonic languages, Brythonic origin. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. The etymology is disputed. It may derive from the Celtic ''Artos'' meaning “Bear”. An ...
''. At 15, a piece of bone tore from her pelvis and jutted into her hip flexor.[
Kirk won gold at the 2000 World Junior Championships. In 2002, she captured the ]Four Continents
Europeans in the 16th century divided the world into four continents: Africa, America, Asia, and Europe. Each of the four continents was seen to represent its quadrant of the world—Africa in the south, America in the west, Asia in the east, ...
title. At the 2002 World Championships, she placed 15th in the short program before withdrawing due to a hip injury.[
Ahead of the 2002–03 season, Kirk moved to train with ]Richard Callaghan
Richard Callaghan is an American figure skating coach. He is best known as the long-time coach of Todd Eldredge, the 1996 World champion and a six-time U.S. national champion. He also coached Nicole Bobek to her national title, and Tara Lipinski to ...
in Detroit. In addition to single skating, she also briefly dabbled in pair skating
Pair skating is a figure skating discipline defined by the International Skating Union (ISU) as "the skating of two persons in unison who perform their movements in such harmony with each other as to give the impression of genuine Pair Skating a ...
with Fedor Andreev
Fedor Vladimirovich Andreev (russian: Фёдор Владимирович Андреев, born March 2, 1982) is a former figure skater with dual Russian and Canadian citizenship. In single skating, he is the 2003 Canadian bronze medalist and ...
in the summer of 2003, describing it as fun but challenging. In the summer of 2004, Kirk moved to the Toyota Sports Center
The Toyota Sports Center (formerly the HealthSouth Training Center) is a practice facility for the Los Angeles Kings, and the Ontario Reign, located on 555 North Nash Street in El Segundo, California. The $24 million, facility broke ground o ...
in El Segundo, California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
, to train with Frank Carroll and Ken Congemi.[
Kirk won the bronze medal at the 2004 U.S. Championships. The following season, she withdrew from her first Grand Prix assignment due to an injury.][ She placed 10th at the 2004 Cup of Russia and won bronze at the 2005 Four Continents.
On September 7, 2005, Kirk announced her ]retirement
Retirement is the withdrawal from one's position or occupation or from one's active working life. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours or workload.
Many people choose to retire when they are elderly or incapable of doing their j ...
from competitive figure skating.[ She moved to ]Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, where she worked as a coach, but later returned to Southern California. Kirk's decision to quit competitive skating the year before the Olympics was profiled on ''Ice Diaries
''Ice Diaries'' is a documentary TV series on the TLC network that follows four up-and-coming American figure skaters through the 2005/2006 Olympic season as each tries to make the 2006 Olympic team. The four skaters are Beatrisa "Bebe" Liang, ...
''.
Kirk is a member of the U.S. Figure Skating International Committee. In the fall of 2012, she and her colleague, David Lease, launched "The Skating Lesson", a podcast and website.The Skating Lesson's about page
/ref> The two interview current and former skaters, coaches, choreographers and skating officials including Debi Thomas
Debra Janine Thomas (born March 25, 1967) is an American former figure skater and physician. She is the 1986 World champion, the 1988 Olympic bronze medalist, and a two-time U.S. national champion. Her rivalry with East Germany's Katarina Witt ...
, Frank Carroll, Sandra Bezic
Sandra Marie Bezic (born April 6, 1956) is a Canadian pair skater, figure skating choreographer, and television commentator. With her brother Val Bezic, she won the Canadian Figure Skating Championships from 1970 to 1974 and placed ninth at the 1 ...
, Alissa Czisny
Alissa Czisny (born June 25, 1987) is an American former competitive figure skater. She is the 2010 Grand Prix Final champion, a two-time Skate Canada champion (2005, 2010), the 2011 Skate America champion, and a two-time U.S. national champion ( ...
, Tiffany Chin
Audrey Tiffany Chin (born October 3, 1967) is an American figure skating coach and former competitor. She is a two-time World bronze medalist (1985–1986), a two-time Skate America champion (1983, 1986), and the 1985 U.S. national champion.
P ...
, and Rudy Galindo
Val Joe "Rudy" Galindo (born September 7, 1969) is an American former competitive figure skater who competed in both single skating and pair skating. As a single skater, he is the 1996 U.S. national champion, 1987 World Junior Champion, and 199 ...
. The web-series has garnered a following of thousands of figure skating fans with its weekly video interviews.
Personal life
In May 1999, Kirk's mother, Pat Harris, was diagnosed with breast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or a re ...
. She died in August 2001. The loss of her mother was one of the reasons Kirk decided to retire. "Although I still love skating very much, my passion and love for the competitive aspect of the sport has dwindled following the death of my mother in 2001 and my nagging hip injuries."[
In 2009, she revealed her career-long struggle with ]eating disorders
An eating disorder is a mental disorder defined by abnormal eating behaviors that negatively affect a person's physical or mental health. Only one eating disorder can be diagnosed at a given time. Types of eating disorders include binge eating ...
and mentioned that it had been a factor in her decision to retire.[ She also stated that disordered eating was very common among skaters but not enough was being done to address the problem.][
]
Programs
Results
''GP: Grand Prix
Grand Prix ( , meaning ''Grand Prize''; plural Grands Prix), is a name sometimes used for competitions or sport events, alluding to the winner receiving a prize, trophy or honour
Grand Prix or grand prix may refer to:
Arts and entertainment ...
; JGP: Junior Grand Prix
The ISU Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating (titled the ISU Junior Series in the 1997–98 season) is a series of international junior-level competitions organized by the International Skating Union. Medals are awarded in the disciplines of men ...
''
* At the 2002 World Championships, Kirk was 15th in the short program before withdrawing.
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kirk, Jennifer
1984 births
Living people
American female single skaters
Sportspeople from Newton, Massachusetts
Four Continents Figure Skating Championships medalists
World Junior Figure Skating Championships medalists
21st-century American women