Skater's children

[gardana]

Sorry if this is a double post-not meant to be :)

Anyway Jozef S(can't rember how to spell his last name) and his wife are going to have a baby. Jozef already has a son Blade from a previous marriage.
Petri Kokko and his wife(who's name escapes me) are also going to have a second child soon.
Now that the happy news is out of the way, I was wondering how many children of skaters become skaters themselves? The only one I can think of is Yuka Sato-who's dad was the Nat'l champion of Japan.

And to show you how bored I am. Here is a list of offspring of various skaters.

Daria Grinkova: Katia Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov
Artur Dmitriev Jr: Tatiana Druchinina and Artur Dmitriev
(Now it would be ENORMOUS pressure, and I don't know how "serious" they are about skating, they are about skating-they are only 10, but the team of Grinkova and Dmitriev would be so awesome:D , especially if they inherited their parents athletic ability, but then again too much pressure.)
Blade S: wife and Jozef
Viktoria Petrenko: Nina and Viktor Petrenko
Makar Abt: Mrs Abt and Sasha
Sasha Zhulin: Tatiana Navka and Sasha Zhulin
Timofei and Anton Ponomarenko: Marina Klimova and Sergei Ponomarenko
AnnieMae and Christopher Weiss: Lisa(I think) and Michael Weiss

I wonder if any of them will become skaters themselves?

Again sorry if this is a double post!

[Kati]

Susanna Rahkamo is Petri Kokko's wife. Their son is called Max.

Katia Gordeeva has an another child, Elizaveta, with Ilia Kulik, 1998 olympic champion!

Plilippe Candeloro and her wife Olivia have two daughters, Luna and Maya.

Nancy Kerrigan and his husband have a son.

Alexei Urmanov has got twins, both of them are boys.

I'm sure there are many more, too!

[Rogue]

Originally posted by gardana
Sorry if this is a double post-not meant to be :)

Now that the happy news is out of the way, I was wondering how many children of skaters become skaters themselves? The only one I can think of is Yuka Sato-who's dad was the Nat'l champion of Japan.



Well, depending on how far you want to go back, you have Maribel Vinson Owen, who competed against Sonje Henie, and her two daughters Laurence and Miribel Y. In 1961, Laurence was Sr Ladies' Champion and Maribel Y. was Sr. Pairs Champion. Unfortunately, all 3 were killed in the plane crash that took the entire US team.

[Twizzler]

Jill Trenary and Chris Dean have 2 sons.
Kris and Kristy Wirtz have 1 child together and Kristy has a daughter.

[Leela]

Ice dancer, Peter Tchernyshev's grandfather was a Russian singles skating champion.
Susie Wynne and husband, Tyler Barth, have a son, John.

[BittyBug]

I think this happens fairly often, maybe not always at the *star* level. In the U.S., the Baldwins are a skating family (father was a figure skater, IIRC). Kylie Gleason (Intermediate pairs champ) is the daughter of Suna Murray, who was on the 1980 (?) olympic team. I'm sure there are plenty of other examples. Like everything else in life, I think it's probably a combination of genetics and environment (meaning that if one of your parents has an interest in figure skating and starts you skating an early age, you might also develop an interest in skating).

[jcspkbfan]

Wow, there must be something in the water (or ice!) lately--first Scott, then Kurt, now Jozef (I didn't even know he remarried!), Petri and Susanna! Congratulations to all the skating parents-to-be!

As for current children of skaters, the only one I can think to add to this list is Isabelle Brasseur's and Rocky Marvel's daughter Gabriella.

BTW, Daria Grinkova has skated in a few local competitions in the LA area, but I think she competed only on the recreational level--I can't imagine the pressure the poor girl would face if she decided to compete at a more elite level! :)

[proam]

Elena Bechke had a baby boy about year and a half ago. :)

Shishkova/Naumov have a baby or two. Hard to keep up with these skaters. :)

Christine Hough twin boys.

Pasha Grishuk baby girl.

Alexander Abt baby boy.

Peter Carruthers, I think two boys.

Debbie Thomas a boy.

Susan Humphrey expecting. ;)

[Artemis]

Barb Underhill has a boy and a girl, and Paul Martini (oops, are we allowed to mention his name here? ;) ) has at least 1 son and perhaps other children too. I know both have said they don't particularly want their children to become skaters but wouldn't stop them if they really wanted. (I think it would be way cool if Paul's son skated with Barb's daughter!)

[jcspkbfan]

Susan Humphrey's daughter Ella is only three months old--is she expecting another one already? (Boy, there must really be something in the water--LOL!)

I know Paul Martini has at least two children--his wife, son, and daughter were shown in the audience during Underhill and Martini's "One Last Time" show. Along with her twin girls (one of whom died in a swimming pool accident), I think Barb has two boys (one was born around 1994/95 and the other was born around 1999/2000).

Christine Hough's twin boys are named Jerrod and Tyler.

Speaking of quotes from skaters on whether they'd like their children to follow in their footsteps, I came across an interesting one from Kurt--Chatelaine magazine asked him that very question and Kurt's reply was, "I don't think so, but everyone tells me I will anyway." I guess we'll just have to wait and see on that one! :lol:

[vesperholly]

Originally posted by jcspkbfan
BTW, Daria Grinkova has skated in a few local competitions in the LA area, but I think she competed only on the recreational level--I can't imagine the pressure the poor girl would face if she decided to compete at a more elite level! :)

Last I heard, Daria was more enamored with gymnastics than skating.

Jocelyn

[tdnuva]

Somebody once posted the following bit:

They had a bit of Christopher Dean on British TV and asked him if his eldest (at the age 3) had taken up skating yet. He answered, jokingly, that he was trying to steer the kids towards tennis or some other sport that would take them to warm places instead of ice rinks.

[proam]

Originally posted by jcspkbfan
Susan Humphrey's daughter Ella is only three months old--is she expecting another one already? (Boy, there must really be something in the water--LOL!)


Oops the baby has arrived.

[icenut84]

Originally posted by tdnuva
They had a bit of Christopher Dean on British TV and asked him if his eldest (at the age 3) had taken up skating yet. He answered, jokingly, that he was trying to steer the kids towards tennis or some other sport that would take them to warm places instead of ice rinks.

I saw that, but apparently on that VH1 show, the presenter/interviewer or whatever asked Jack (the 3 year old) if he skates and he said yes.

Another - Diane Towler, who was World ice dance champion with Bernard Ford from 1966-1969, has twin daughters (I think they're 18) who are both ice dancers. Phillippa Towler-Green was 4th (IIRC) in this year's British Ice Dance Championships with her partner, and Candice Towler-Green won the Junior Ice Dance Championships with her partner. Diane said in an interview that she didn't force them to skate (she said you can't force teenagers to do anything, much less get up at the crack of dawn to skate, if they didn't want to), they both wanted to.

[gardana]

BTW, Daria Grinkova has skated in a few local competitions in the LA area, but I think she competed only on the recreational level--I can't imagine the pressure the poor girl would face if she decided to compete at a more elite level!

I totally agree with you there!

BTW: Artur Jr also skates.

And in an interview w/ Jozef he said Blade skates occasionally.

[Kruss]

I have totally forgotten her name, but Tenley Albright's daughter skated at one of the American Opens here in the Chicago area a few years ago.

Spinner - help me - what is her name???

[Oracle]

Peggy Fleming has 2 sons. Dorothy Hamill a daughter & Dick Button has a son & a daughter, possibly another child...I can't quite remember.
Christopher Bowman has a daughter. Carol Heiss & Hayes Alan Jenkins have 3 children. Janet Lynn has 4 or 5 sons. Linda Fratianne has a daughter. David Santee, 2 sons. Have we mentioned Klimova/Ponomorenko? Last I heard they had 2 sons. Tracy Wilson has 3 boys? Tai Babalonia has a son. Holly Cook has 4 or 5.

[Artemis]

Somewhat off topic, but ... does anyone know about the father of Sean Wirtz? Both Kris and Paul are his uncles, so there must be another, presumably older, Wirtz brother out there somewhere. Was he ever a skater?

[Gaela]

Does Debbi Wilkes have any kids? Or Sandra Bezic?

Kristie Wirtz has two kids, of course, one with Kris Wirtz.

Has Mike Pike Weiss been mentioned, everybody's favorite SAHD and the first man to land the quad lutz, to boot!!

[~RL~]

Debbi Wilkes has two children, I'm pretty sure. A boy and a girl. One of my friends went to elementary school with them. Sandra Bezic has a son, his name is Dean if I'm not mistaken.

[serpentine]

Sean Wirtz is related to Kris and Paul through his mother's side of the family. He used to go by the name Sean Kelly.

[leap of faith]

I believe Sean Wirtz's connection is his mom is Kris and Paul's sister. In earlier competitions (1999 Canadian) he used to go by Sean Kelly-Wirtz and at 1997 Canadians he was Sean Kelly. I could easily be wrong on this. I'm going on what I was told once a few years ago.

[ophelia]

Kristy Wirtz has one daughter with Kris and one daughter with Jason Turner (Jamie Sale's partner from 94 Olympics)

[cupcake728]

Didn't Josef S have Blade with Tracy Wainman? Were they ever married? I believe Blade is in his early teens by now...is he not?

[Gaela]

Kristy must have been like. . .15 or 16?. . .when she had Tristan? I guess her mom helped her out?

[leap of faith]

According to Skate Talk, Kristy had Tristan and one month later turned 17.

[Norlite]

Yes, Blades mother is Tracey Wainmen...........I believe she is coaching in Toronto now.

[jcspkbfan]

Daria seemed to be more interested in gymnastics a couple of years ago, but it sounds like she's taking skating more seriously now--Ilia's helping her with her jumps and Katia's helping with Daria's choreography, if I remember correctly. There was also a "blink and you'll miss it" clip of Daria trying a waltz jump during the 2001 Brian Boitano holiday special where Katia skated.

I'm pretty sure Jozef and Tracey were married--I remember Tracey talking about their marriage and divorce on Retro Ice Time a couple of years ago. Last I saw him, Blade looked to be about the same age as Daria, so I'm guessing he's probably no older than 9 or 10 years old now.

I also remember someone said Kris legally adopted Tristan (Kristy Sargent's first daughter) a couple of years ago. Their younger daughter is named Brianna.

[icemum]

Somewhat off topic, but ... does anyone know about the father of Sean Wirtz? Both Kris and Paul are his uncles, so there must be another, presumably older, Wirtz brother out there somewhere. Was he ever a skater?

Sean started life as Sean Kelly and even won the Novice Men's Single title under that name in either 1995 or 1996. At some point he changed his name to his mother's maiden name of Wirtz. So the answer to your question is not another brother but in fact a sister.

[RachelSk8er]

Tonya Kwiatkowski has a daughter Maddie who is about 4, she skates. She's incredibly adorable. Last time I saw her on the ice was probably about a year ago (since Tonya usually has her at the rink during the day when I'm at work) and she was just starting to skate around on her own. (Holy crap I just noticed how old this recently resurrected thread is!)

[Buzzz]

Arthur Dimitriev Jr. is currently a junior competitor in Russia. :)