Eliot Halverson
Eliot Jon Halverson (born November 8, 1990) is an American figure skater. As a men's singles skater, she is the 2007 US Junior National Champion. Personal life Halverson was born in Bogotá, Colombia and was adopted from Colombia at age five months. She lived and trained in Saint Paul, Minnesota from her move to the United States until 2008, when she began training in Ann Arbor. Halverson's parents are divorced and she lives with her mother. She has been homeschooled from a young age. In 2019, Halverson came out as nonbinary and began using she/her pronouns. Career Halverson began skating at age six on a frozen pond behind her house. When the World Figure Skating Championships came to Minneapolis in 1998, Halverson skipped school for a week to watch them. This encouraged her to take private lessons and become a more serious skater. She landed her first triple at age eleven. Although she is coached primarily by Ted Engelking, Halverson has also worked with Alexei Mishin and Kathy Casey. She competed in the men's singles division. Halverson can perform a Biellmann spin. Halverson is the 2003 U.S. Juvenile bronze medalist, 2004 Intermediate champion, and 2005 Novice pewter medalist. Her fourth-place finish at the 2005 United States Figure Skating Championships earned her a trip to the 2005 Triglav Trophy at the novice level, which she won. Halverson stayed novice for the 2005–2006 Olympic season and won the novice title at the 2006 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. In her novice free skate, she landed six triple jumps, including two triple-double combinations. In the 2006–2007 season, Halverson made her junior debut. She won two bronze medals on the ISU Junior Grand Prix circuit and was second alternate to the 2006–2007 Junior Grand Prix Final. She went on to the 2007 Nationals and won the junior title. Halverson was the first men's skater since Evan Lysacek to win back-to-back novice and junior national titles and is one of only nine skaters to do it since 1932. Her placement at nationals earned her a trip to the 2007 World Junior Figure Skating Championships, where she placed 10th. Until Junior Worlds, Halverson had never placed off the podium in a major event in her career. Due to her success at the junior level, April 21, 2007 was declared to be "Eliot Halverson Day" in St. Paul, Minnesota. Halverson began the 2007–2008 season at the Junior Grand Prix Harghita Cup. After placing 6th in the short program, she attempted her first triple axel jump in competition in the free skate. Although she fell on the landing, she rotated it successfully and was given credit for the jump officially. She placed 5th in the long program, placing 5th overall. At her second event, the Pokal der Blauen Schwerter in Germany, she placed 7th overall, after placing 4th in the long program and being credited with her first triple axel of her career. Halverson made her senior debut at the 2008 Midwestern Sectional Championships, where she won the pewter