Kate Finster (born December 14, 2003) is an American

pair skater 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 her former skating partner, Balazs Nagy, she is the 2020 U.S. national junior champion, the 2019 U.S. national junior silver medalist, and the 2019 JGP Poland silver medalist.

Personal life

Kate Finster was born on December 14, 2003 in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

to Jay and Stacey Finster. She has four siblings named Cameron, Chase, Maddie, and Caroline, and her older brother Chase also competes nationally in figure skating. Kate and Chase live together while training in

Colorado Springs, Colorado Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...

. Finster's family owns three cats and three dogs. She enjoys playing water sports, long boarding, baking, cooking, spending time with friends, and going to the beach. Finster is an honor roll student who studies through Connections Academy. Finster looks up to

Alexa Scimeca Knierim Alexa Paige Knierim, née Scimeca (born June 10, 1991) is an American pair skater. With her skating partner, Brandon Frazier, she is the 2022 World champion, a 2022 Olympic silver medalist in the figure skating team event, the 2022 Grand Prix ...

Chris Knierim Christopher Knierim (born November 5, 1987) is an American former pair skater. With his wife, Alexa Scimeca Knierim, he is a 2018 Olympic bronze medalist in the figure skating team event, a two-time Four Continents medalist ( 2016 silver, 2014 b ...

and, when she was younger,

Madeline Aaron Madeline Aaron (born October 25, 1994) is an American former pair skater. With former partner Max Settlage, she is the 2014 CS U.S. Classic bronze medalist, a two-time U.S. national pewter medalist (2015–2016), and the 2014 U.S. national junio ...

Max Settlage Max Settlage (born July 1, 1992) is an American former pair skater. With former partner Madeline Aaron, he is the 2014 CS U.S. Classic bronze medalist, a two-time U.S. national pewter medalist (2015–2016), and the 2014 U.S. national junior cha ...

Career

Early career

Finster began skating in 2008. She trained in singles with Jessica Mills Kincade in

and in pairs with Delilah Sappenfield and John Coughlin in

. Finster teamed up with her first pairs partner, Joseph Goodpaster, at the age of 10. Together, they placed eighth at the 2014 U.S. Championships on the intermediate level. Finster paired with Eric Hartley for the next two seasons and won the 2015 U.S. national novice pairs title. She is the youngest skater to win the national novice pairs title. Finster then competed one season with Brandon Kozlowski, finishing tenth in the junior division at the 2017 U.S. Championships. She did not compete during the 2017–18 season. Finster tried out with Balazs Nagy in the fall of 2017, around Thanksgiving, and they officially teamed up in early 2018. The pair relocated from training with Jessica Miller and Stephanie Miller in

Northern Kentucky Northern Kentucky is the third-largest metropolitan area in the U.S. Commonwealth of Kentucky after Louisville and Lexington, and its cities and towns serve as the de facto "south side" communities of Cincinnati, Ohio. The three main counties ...

to work full-time with Sappenfield and Larry Ibarra in Colorado Springs.

2018–2019 season

In their first season as a team, Finster / Nagy were assigned to 2018 JGP Czech Republic, where they finished ninth. They then won silver at Midwestern Sectionals. At the 2019 U.S. Championships, Finster / Nagy won the junior silver medal behind Laiken Lockley / Keenan Prochnow. As a result, they were named to the 2019 World Junior Championships team. At Junior Worlds, they were tenth after the short program and thirteenth in the free skating, to finish eleventh overall. Nagy called the experience "humbling" and motivation for the next season.

2019–2020 season

Finster / Nagy opened the season with a sixth-place finish at 2019 JGP United States. They then won their first international medal at 2019 JGP Poland, earning the silver medal, behind

Apollinariia Panfilova Apollinariia Sergeevna Panfilova (russian: Аполлинария Сергеевна Панфилова, born 23 January 2003) is a retired Russian pair skater. With partner Dmitry Rylov, she is the 2020 World Junior Figure Skating Championships ...

Dmitry Rylov Dmitry Vadimovich Rylov (russian: Дмитрий Вадимович Рылов, born 7 September 2001) is a retired Russian pair skater. With partner Apollinariia Panfilova, he is the 2020 World Junior champion, the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics c ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

and ahead of

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

's Annika Hocke / Robert Kunkel. Their results qualified them as first alternates to the 2019–20 Junior Grand Prix Final. Finster / Nagy won the inaugural U.S. Pairs Final to qualify to the 2020 U.S. Championships. They won their first junior pairs title at the 2020 U.S. Championships, ahead of Anastasiia Smirnova / Danil Siianytsia and Winter Deardorff / Mikhail Johnson. Their result earned them a berth on the 2020 World Junior Championships team.

2020–2021 season

Finster / Nagy placed ninth at the ISP Points Challenge. In December, Nagy announced that the pair had split.

2021–2022 season

Finster formed a new partnership with ''

Dancing on Ice ''Dancing on Ice'' is a British television series presented by Phillip Schofield alongside Holly Willoughby from 2006 to 2011, who then returned in 2018, and Christine Bleakley from 2012 to 2014. The series features celebrities and their profe ...

'' professional

Matej Silecky Matej Silecky (born April 15, 1994) is an American figure skater and documentary film director. Early life and education Matej was born on April 15, 1994, and was raised in Verona, New Jersey and Kyiv, Ukraine. He is a 2015 graduate of the Un ...

. Finster/Silecky placed seventh in their debut appearance at the senior U.S. Championships.

Programs

With Nagy

Competitive highlights

''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 ...

With Silecky

With Nagy

With Kozlowski

With Hartley

With Goodpaster

Detailed results

With Nagy

Junior results

References

External links

*
Kate Finster / Balazs Nagy
at

U.S. Figure Skating U.S. Figure Skating is the national governing body for the sport of figure skating in the United States. It is recognized as such by the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee "USOPC" under the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act an ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Finster, Kate 2003 births Living people American female pair skaters Sportspeople from Louisville, Kentucky 21st-century American women