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 Verona is a township in Essex County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 14,572, an increase of 1,240 (+9.3%) from the 2010 census count of 13,332, which in turn reflected a decl ...

and

Kyiv, Ukraine Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. Kyi ...

. He is a 2015 graduate of the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

where he received the Charlene Conrad Liebau Library Prize for Undergraduate Research for ''The Post-Soviet Development of Elite-Level Athletics in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan''.

Figure Skating Career

Matej competed in singles and pairs and was the 2012

U.S. Collegiate Figure Skating Championships The U.S. Collegiate Figure Skating Championships (previously National Collegiate Championships) are a collegiate figure skating competition sanctioned by U.S. Figure Skating. It is the highest level at which figure skating takes place at the ...

Junior Men's Champion. He left competitive skating due to a shoulder injury sustained during the 2015 – 2016 season. At that time, he was partnered with Elizaveta Usmantseva, competing in Senior Pairs at the 2016 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. After a six-year hiatus from competitive skating, Matej and his partner, Kate Finster, competed at the

2022 U.S. Figure Skating Championships The 2022 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships was held from January 3–9, 2022 at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. Medals were awarded in the disciplines of men's singles, women's singles, pairs, and ice dance at the senior an ...

in Championship Pairs, where they placed 7th.

Competitive Programs

Professional Skating

In 2017 - 2018, Matej joined

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

Dancing On Ice (series 10) The tenth series of '' Dancing on Ice'' began airing on ITV on 7 January 2018. It was the first series since it ended in 2014 and featured a new set and ice rink, a new judging line up, and a new logo. After the tenth series, the live tour of ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. He was partnered with

Coronation Street ''Coronation Street'' is an English soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner-city Salford. Origi ...

actress

Brooke Vincent Brooke Levi Vincent (born 4 June 1992) is an English actress, known for her portrayal of Sophie Webster in the ITV soap-opera ''Coronation Street'', which she played from 2004 to 2019. Early life Vincent was born in Audenshaw, Greater Manchest ...

, and they finished as Runners-up in the series. In 2019 – 2020, Matej was a skating professional in

Dancing on Ice (Netherlands and Belgium) ''Dancing on Ice'' in the Netherlands and Belgium is broadcast by the Dutch TV channel RTL 4 and the Belgian TV channel VTM and hosted by Martijn Krabbe and Francesca Vanthielen. The members of the jury are: Joan Haanappel, Sjoukje Dijkstra, Th ...

, where he and his partner, Olympic gold medalist in snowboarding,

Nicolien Sauerbreij Nicolien Sauerbreij (, born 31 July 1979) is a Dutch professional snowboarder. She won seven World Cup races and ranked first in the parallel giant slalom standings of the 2007–2008 and the 2009–2010 World Cup. She competed in the Winter O ...

, made the semifinals. He also skated in the first ice skating event in Nepal, Skate Nepal, led by

Dawa Steven Sherpa Dawa Steven Sherpa ( ne, दावा स्टेभन शेर्पा) is a Nepalese Sherpa adventurer, entrepreneur and environmentalist, who has scaled Mount Everest three times, as well as other himalayan peaks such as Mount Kanchenjun ...

, as part of the

Visit Nepal 2020 Visit Nepal 2020, also known by the initialism VNY 2020, was a tourism advertising campaign released by the Government of Nepal as an extension of Visit Nepal campaigns of 1998 and 2011. The campaign was coordinated by Suraj Vaidya. The folkloric ...

campaign, at

Gokyo Lakes Gokyo Lakes are oligotrophic lakes in Nepal's Sagarmatha National Park, located at an altitude of above sea level. Lakes and resort were named after Gokyo Ri peak. These lakes are the world's highest freshwater lake system comprising six main l ...

(4750 m) on February 14, 2020, along with Elizabeth Putnam,

Patrick Chan Patrick Lewis Wai–Kuan Chan (born December 31, 1990) is a Canadian former competitive figure skater. He is a 2018 Olympic gold medallist in the team event, 2014 Olympic silver medallist in the men's and team events, a three–time World ch ...

Jeremy Abbott Jeremy Abbott (born June 5, 1985) is a former American figure skater. He is the 2008 Grand Prix Final champion, a two-time (2007, 2011) Four Continents bronze medalist, and a four-time (2009, 2010, 2012, 2014) U.S. national champion. He repres ...

, Sergei Voronov and others.

Film career

Whilst recovering from an injury, Matej established a production company, Kitsune Tale Productions, and made the documentary, ''Baba Babee Skazala randmother Told Grandmother' about Ukrainian children torn from their homes in the crush between the Nazi and Soviet fronts in World War II.https://www.newjerseystage.com/articles/2018/10/06/new-jersey-film-festival-premieres-matej-sileckys-baba-babee-skazala-grandmother-told-grandmother-this-sunday-october-7-2018/ (Retrieved 15 Feb. 2022) In 2022, Matej played the role of Ice Skater in the independent feature film '' Goodbye, Petrushka''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Silecky, Matej 1994 births Living people