Naomi Lang (born December 18, 1978) is an American former competitive
ice dancer
Ice dance (sometimes referred to as ice dancing) is a discipline of figure skating that historically draws from ballroom dancing. It joined the World Figure Skating Championships in 1952, and became a Winter Olympic Games medal sport in 1976. Ac ...
. With skating partner
Peter Tchernyshev
Peter Tchernyshev (russian: Пётр Андреевич Чернышёв; also romanized as ''Pyotr Andreyevich Chernyshev''; born February 6, 1971) is a Russian-American ice dancer. With skating partner Naomi Lang, he is a two-time Four Con ...
, she is a two-time
Four Continents champion (2000 and 2002), a five-time
U.S. national champion (1999–2003), and competed at the 2002
Olympic Winter Games
The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were hel ...
. Lang is the first
Native American female athlete to participate in the Winter Olympics. She is an enrolled member of the Karuk Tribe of California.
Personal life
Naomi Lang was born in
Arcata
Arcata (; Wiyot: ''Goudi’ni''; Yurok: ''Oket'oh'') is a city adjacent to the Arcata Bay (northern) portion of Humboldt Bay in Humboldt County, California, United States. At the 2020 census, Arcata's population was 18,857. Arcata was first ...
,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
to Leslie Dixon and Jason Lang, a member of the
Karuk
The Karuk people are an indigenous people of California, and the Karuk Tribe is one of the largest tribes in California. Karuks are also enrolled in two other federally recognized tribes, the Cher-Ae Heights Indian Community of the Trinidad ...
tribe.
[ She started to dance at the age of three and continued with ballet dancing to the age of 15, beginning her training at the Dancer's Studio in Eureka, California. She performed with the Grand Rapids (Michigan) Ballet Co.][ and studied ballet at the ]Interlochen Arts Academy
Interlochen Center for the Arts is a non-profit corporation which operates arts education institutions and performance venues in northwest Michigan. It is situated on a campus in Interlochen, Michigan, roughly southwest of Traverse City.
...
where at the age of 12 she received an award for 'Outstanding Achievement in Ballet'. She graduated from Lake Placid high school, Lake Placid, NY; in 1997.
In 2004, Lang had a daughter, Lillia Ashlee, with Ukrainian ice acrobat Vladimir Besedin.[ She married American ice dancer Mark Fitzgerald in August 2008 in ]Tarrytown, New York
Tarrytown is a village in the town of Greenburgh in Westchester County, New York. It is located on the eastern bank of the Hudson River, approximately north of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, and is served by a stop on the Metro-North ...
.[ She gave birth to a son, Mason Daniel, on November 14, 2009,][ and a second daughter, Madelyn Christina, on August 15, 2013. She and Mark Fitzgerald divorced in 2016.
Since then she has married Jeffrey Strong, and they have two children together.][ Their daughter, Elora Ivy, was born on November 7, 2016, and their son, Sebastian Joseph, was born on December 3, 2018. The family resides in Gilbert, Arizona.][
]
Skating career
Lang started skating when she was eight, after seeing Smurfs On Ice. She began competitive ice dance with John Lee, winning the 1995 U.S. Novice title and the 1996 U.S. Junior silver medal.
Partnership with Tchernyshev
Having noticed her at U.S. Nationals, Peter Tchernyshev
Peter Tchernyshev (russian: Пётр Андреевич Чернышёв; also romanized as ''Pyotr Andreyevich Chernyshev''; born February 6, 1971) is a Russian-American ice dancer. With skating partner Naomi Lang, he is a two-time Four Con ...
wrote her a letter in mid-1996 asking for a tryout.[ They had a successful tryout in ]Lake Placid, New York
Lake Placid is a village in the Adirondack Mountains in Essex County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,303.
The village of Lake Placid is near the center of the town of North Elba, southwest of Plattsburgh ...
and trained there for nine months with Natalia Dubova; then, due to Lang's homesickness, they moved to Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...
and began training with Igor Shpilband
Igor Yuryevich Shpilband (russian: Игорь Юрьевич Шпильбанд, born July 14, 1964) is an American ice dancing coach and former competitor for the Soviet Union. He is the 1983 World Junior champion with former partner Tatiana G ...
and Elizabeth Coates
Elizabeth Coates, sometimes known as Liz Coates, is a British ice dancing coach and former competitor. With Alan Abretti, she is the 1986 Fujifilm Trophy silver medalist and a two-time British national silver medalist.
Life and career
Coates g ...
.[
Lang/Tchernyshev first won the ]U.S. national
Citizenship of the United States is a legal status that entails Americans with specific rights, duties, protections, and benefits in the United States. It serves as a foundation of fundamental rights derived from and protected by the Constituti ...
title in 1999. The following season, they took gold at the 2000 Four Continents Championships and placed 8th at the 2000 World Championships. They also performed with Champions on Ice
Champions on Ice was a touring ice show in the United States. The show featured a large cast of both professional and Olympic-eligible figure skaters along with novelty acts such as skating acrobats. The shows were focused primarily on solo per ...
.
In 2000, Lang/Tchernyshev moved to to train with Alexander Zhulin
Alexander (Sasha) Viacheslavovich Zhulin (; born 20 July 1963) is a Russian ice dancing coach and former competitor. With Maya Usova, he is a two-time Olympic medalist ( 1994 silver, 1992 bronze), the 1993 World champion, and the 1993 Europe ...
, who coached them until the end of the 2001–02 season.[ They missed their 2001 Grand Prix events because Tchernyshev had shin splits.][ Returning to competition, they won their fourth national title at the 2002 U.S. Championships and then won their second ]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. They placed eleventh at the 2002 Winter Olympics
The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 ( arp, Niico'ooowu' 2002; Gosiute Shoshoni: ''Tit'-so-pi 2002''; nv, Sooléí 2002; Shoshoni: ''Soónkahni 2002''), was an internationa ...
and ninth at the 2002 World Championships.
In 2002–03, Lang/Tchernyshev were coached by Nikolai Morozov.[ After missing their 2002 Grand Prix events due to an injury to Lang, the duo won their fifth national title at the 2003 U.S. Championships, took bronze at the 2003 Four Continents, and placed 8th at the 2003 World Championships.][
Lang/Tchernyshev did not appear internationally in the 2003–04 season. They intended to compete at the 2004 U.S. Championships but withdrew after Lang re-injured her Achilles tendon.][ They announced their competitive retirement in February 2004.][ The duo continued to skate together professionally and appeared in several U.S. ice shows, including many of the Disson skating shows televised on NBC and the Hallmark Channel. They also toured extensively in Europe and Russia,][ performing in Art on Ice, Kings on Ice with ]Evgeni Plushenko
Evgeni Viktorovich Plushenko (, born 3 November 1982) is a Russian former figure skater. He is a four-time Olympic medalist (2006 gold, 2014 team gold, 2002 & 2010 silver), a three-time World champion (2001, 2003, 2004), a seven-time European ...
and composer and violinist Edvin Marton
Edvin Marton (born Lajos Edvin Csűry, 17 February 1974, Vylok, Ukraine) is a Ukrainian-born Hungarian composer and violinist. He became known as the violinist of the skaters, mainly because Evgeni Plushenko, Stéphane Lambiel, Yuzuru Hany ...
, and the Katarina Witt
Katarina Witt (, ; born 3 December 1965) is a German former figure skater. A two-time Olympic champion, Witt is regarded as one of the greatest ladies' singles figure skaters of all time. Her Laureus profile states "she is remembered most for ...
Farewell Tour. They performed at Jim Carrey
James Eugene Carrey (; born January 17, 1962) is a Canadian-American actor, comedian and artist. Known for his energetic slapstick performances, Carrey first gained recognition in 1990, after landing a role in the American sketch comedy t ...
's private Christmas party in Hollywood.
Lang works at The Ice Den Chandler/Scottsdale as the Manager of Ice Dance.[
]
Programs
(with Tchernyshev)
Results
(with Tchernyshev)
(with Lee)
See also
* Mabel Fairbanks
Mabel Fairbanks (November 14, 1915 – September 29, 2001) was an American figure skater and coach. As an African American and Native American woman she paved the way for other minorities to compete in the sport of figure skating such as Naomi L ...
References
External links
Official site
*
Navigation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lang, Naomi
1978 births
20th-century Native Americans
21st-century Native Americans
Living people
American female ice dancers
Figure skaters at the 2002 Winter Olympics
Olympic figure skaters of the United States
Native American sportspeople
Four Continents Figure Skating Championships medalists
People from Arcata, California
20th-century Native American women
21st-century Native American women