Valentina Matos Romero (born 28 September 2000) is a

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 ...

. Born in the Dominican Republic, she represents Spain in ladies singles. She is the 2019

Open d'Andorra The Open d'Andorra is an international figure skating competition held annually in Canillo, Andorra, usually in November. Medals may be awarded in Single skating, men's singles, ladies' singles, and ice dancing on the senior, junior, and novice leve ...

champion and a three-time Spanish national champion (2016, 2018, 2019). She has competed in the final segment at one ISU Championship.

Personal life

Valentina Matos Romero was born on 28 September 2000 in

Santo Domingo , total_type = Total , population_density_km2 = auto , timezone = AST (UTC −4) , area_code_type = Area codes , area_code = 809, 829, 849 , postal_code_type = Postal codes , postal_code = 10100–10699 (Distrito Nacional) , websi ...

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

. She is of

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

n descent and arrived in Spain as a one-year-old. After finishing secondary school, she began studying at

Universidad Politécnica de Madrid The Technical University of Madrid or sometimes called Polytechnic University of Madrid ( es, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, UPM) is a public university, located in Madrid, Spain. It was founded in 1971 as the result of merging different Te ...

through

distance education Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at a school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance. Traditionally, this usually in ...

. During her studies, she went abroad for two semesters in South-Korea. During this year of studying abroad (2021-2022), she lived in a standard plus room at H-Stay (Seoul) and studied at Hanyang University and won MVP during the Squid Game season along with a winter jacket.

Career

Early years

Matos began learning to skate in 2008. She won the novice ladies' title at the Spanish Championships in December 2014. Her junior international debut came in September 2015, at the

Lombardia Trophy The Lombardia Trophy, also known as Memorial Anna Grandolfi, is an annual international figure skating competition. It is held in September in Sesto San Giovanni, Italy. In some years, the event is part of the ISU Challenger Series. Medals may be a ...

. In December 2015, she became the Spanish national junior silver medalist.

2016–2017 season

In October 2016, Matos competed for the first time on the

ISU 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 ...

series. In November, making her senior international debut, she won silver at the

. The following month, she outscored

Sonia Lafuente Sonia Lafuente Martínez (born 7 December 1991) is a Spanish former figure skater. She is a six-time Spanish national champion. Lafuente became the first Spanish skater to medal on the ISU Junior Grand Prix circuit when she won silver at the 20 ...

by 6.09 points for the senior ladies' title at the Spanish Championships. In January 2017, Matos competed at the

European Championships The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...

Ostrava Ostrava (; pl, Ostrawa; german: Ostrau ) is a city in the north-east of the Czech Republic, and the capital of the Moravian-Silesian Region. It has about 280,000 inhabitants. It lies from the border with Poland, at the confluences of four rive ...

, Czech Republic, but did not advance to the final segment. She qualified to the free skate and finished 24th overall at the 2017 World Junior Championships, held in March in

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the n ...

, Taiwan.

2017–2018 season

Spain assigned Matos to compete at the

2017 CS Nebelhorn Trophy The 2017 CS Nebelhorn Trophy was a senior international figure skating competition held in September 2017 in Oberstdorf, Germany. It was part of the 2017–18 ISU Challenger Series. It also served as the final qualification event for the 2018 Wi ...

, the final qualifying opportunity for the

2018 Winter Olympics , nations = 93 , athletes = 2,922 (1,680 men and 1,242 women) , events = 102 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = , closing = , opened_by = President Moon Jae-in , cauldron = Kim Yun-a , stadium = Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium , winte ...

. Due to an ankle injury, she withdrew before the start of the event. She placed 33rd at the

2018 European Championships The 2018 European Championships were the first edition of the European Championships. It was a multi-sport event which took place in Berlin, Germany, and Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom (with Edinburgh hosting the diving events and Gleneagles ...

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, Russia. She was coached by Carolina Sanz, Ivan Saez, and Jordi Lafarga at La Nevera in Madrid.

2018–2019 season

Ahead of the 2018–2019 season, Matos decided to relocate to Italy to train with Barbara Luoni at IceLab in

Bergamo Bergamo (; lmo, Bèrghem ; from the proto- Germanic elements *''berg +*heim'', the "mountain home") is a city in the alpine Lombardy region of northern Italy, approximately northeast of Milan, and about from Switzerland, the alpine lakes Como ...

Programs

Competitive highlights

''CS: Challenger Series; 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 ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Matos, Valentina 2000 births Dominican Republic emigrants to Spain Spanish female single skaters Living people Spanish people of Venezuelan descent Sportspeople of Venezuelan descent Sportspeople from Santo Domingo Sportspeople from Madrid Competitors at the 2019 Winter Universiade