Kimmie Meissner

Meissner's maternal great-grandparents, Emmanuel and Paulina Novo, emigrated to the U.S. from Galicia, Spain, in the 1920s; they met in Buffalo and had nine children and 60 great-grandchildren, including Meissner.

Meissner's family is Catholic; she was baptized in Williamsville, New York, near where her parents grew up in Buffalo.

They attended Mass regularly, at a parish in Hickory, Maryland.

All three of Meissner's older brothers, like their father, played hockey, and she was brought to their games.

Kimberly Claire Meissner (born October 4, 1989) is an American former competitive figure skater.

Kimberly "Kimmie" Meissner was born on October 4, 1989, in Towson, Maryland, the youngest child of podiatrist Paul Meissner and Judy (Roth) Meissner.

Her father Paul played hockey in youth leagues when he was in high school in Buffalo, New York, and in adult leagues in Maryland, after attending the University of Buffalo, graduate school in Cleveland, and a surgical residency in Detroit and Baltimore.

She skated for the first time in January 1996, when she was six years old, after "a freak ice storm" turned their backyard in Bel Air, Maryland, into a temporary rink; she used one of her brothers' skates stuffed with paper towels.

She took to skating right away, and her parents bought her a pair of skates and gave her lessons at a local rink.

A few years later, she took lessons at the Delaware Skating Club in Newark, and began working with coach Pam Gregory.

At first, Meissner and Gregory "had a somewhat prickly relationship", but they eventually came to respect and trust each other.

Meissner attended Fallston High School, a public secondary school in Fallston, Maryland, even though both her parents and all her brothers attended Catholic schools, because Fallston was closer to her family's home and made commuting to Delaware for her training easier, and because it provided her with more flexibility to attend classes early mornings and train in Delaware in the afternoons.

It also provided Meissner with a sense of normalcy while attending high school.

Her family worked hard to make Meissner's life as normal as possible; her mother acted as both her chauffeur and manager.

In the 1999–2000 season, Meissner competed as a juvenile in the 2000 South Atlantic Regionals, coming in fourth place, and qualified for the 2000 U.S. Junior Championships, where she came in 16th place.

The following season, 2000–2001, she also placed 16th at the U.S. Junior Championships, but at the intermediate level, and came in third place at Regionals.

She came in seventh place at the 2002 South Atlantic Regionals, also as an intermediate.

She moved up to the novice division during the 2002–2003 season, coming in first place at the 2003 Eastern Sectionals and second place at the 2003 South Atlantic Regionals, qualifying for the 2003 U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

She "burst on the scene" and won the gold medal at Nationals, her first U.S. Nationals event.

She came in first place after the short program, putting her in a good position, and won the free skate as well, with three triples, including a triple Lutz jump.

She singled a planned fourth triple, a Salchow, but ended her program with a double Axel-double toe loop-double loop combination.

She ended the season with a third-place finish at the Triglav Trophy in Slovenia.

Meissner competed as a junior during the 2003–2004 season.

In 2005, Meissner became the second American woman to land the triple Axel jump in national competition.

She is the 2006 World champion, the 2007 Four Continents champion, and the 2007 U.S. national champion.

She is the first American and the first woman to simultaneously hold the World, Four Continents, and national titles.

She was the youngest American athlete to compete at the 2006 Olympics, coming in sixth place.

She won the World Championships the following month, and the U.S. Nationals the following season.

The arrangement allowed Meissner to attend her school's prom in 2006.

She graduated from Fallston in 2007.

In 2014, she graduated from Towson University.

She was inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2020.

Meissner was one of the best technical figure skaters of her time, but was an inconsistent skater, especially towards the end of her career.

She was compared to Olympic skater and U.S. champion Michelle Kwan, who called her "the new face of figure skating".

By 2020, she worked in the medical field and coached young skaters in Maryland.

Meissner was the spokesperson for the "Cool Kids Campaign", a pediatric oncology charity.

In early 2020, she was taking courses in Towson's physician assistant studies program and coaching five skaters in Baltimore.

Meissner began skating when she was six years old, after watching her older brothers play hockey.

She had watched figure skating on television, eventually giving up ballet, which she began when she was four, because she "liked skating more".

She landed her first triple, the Salchow, six years later.