2017 U.S. ADULT CHAMPIONSHIPS
CHAMPIONSHIP MASTERS JUNIOR-SENIOR MEN
Champion Palmeri reaching new heights with his skating
BY BARB REICHERT Full-time student. Full-time skating
director. Full-time entertainer. T at’s Daniel Palmeri (Onyx-Suburban Skat- ing Academy) in a nutshell. Palmeri, 27, put on an un-
forgettable performance to easily repeat as champion with 66.79 points.
A former professional show
skater with Disney on Ice, Palmeri skated to Sia’s version of “Unforget- table” and “One Day I’ll Fly Away” from Moulin Rouge! After opening with an eff ortless double Axel that earned him 4.0 points followed by a triple Salchow-double toe loop combination, there was little doubt this performance would be another showstopper. One of the few adult competitors to have a triple jump in his arsenal, Palmeri credits his professional show experience, which ended in 2013, with performing his big jumps without a second thought.
(l-r) Grant Chien-Hao Huang, Daniel Palmeri, Davin Grindstaff, Edward E. VanCampen
“When I skated with Disney on Ice, we did so many shows where I
didn’t even think about it,” he said. “To be honest, I’ve never shown up [at this competition] like, ‘Oh, I got this.’ Everyone is very talented and skating is much more than a triple.” Palmeri is a skating director at the On-
yx-Suburban Skating Academy in Rochester, Michigan, but trains with coach Mindi Priskey about 30 minutes east at the Mount Clemens Ice Arena. “It’s my second home,” he said of Mount
Clemens. “Everyone there supports me and Mindi has been instrumental to my skating. People come up to me that remember me from back in the day and say, ‘Daniel, you’re such a diff erent skater.’ Yeah, the Disney on Ice got me there, but Mindi’s really brought something diff erent to my skating. Honestly, the last three seasons and what I’ve accom- plished, there’s no way I would have done it without her.”
Coming into these Adult Champion-
ships, Palmeri was busy training and studying for his fi nals. In addition to another adult gold medal, he now has a public relations degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. “T at’s why I quit Disney,” he said. “I came back to get my degree.” Grant Chien-Hao Huang (Kansas City FSC) also turned in a strong performance, scoring 53.35 points while skating to Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” and “Someone Like You.”
A fi gure skating coach, Huang, 31, 20 JUNE/JULY 2017
doubled down on his double jumps (Lutz, Sal- chow, fl ip, toe) and skated cleanly throughout. “At sectionals, I got one spin all dashed and the other combination spin with a basic and a V, so here I was just trying to do clean spins,” he said. “I was going for all three Level 3s, but I got tired at the end and couldn’t just quite do it. I’m just glad it’s over,” he said laughing.
Competing at his seventh-consecutive
Adult Championships, Huang earned his fi rst silver medal after three bronze fi nishes. Davin Grindstaff (Burnsville-MN Valley FSC) took home the bronze medal with 48.18 points. Grindstaff , 47, performed to a selec- tion from the Broadway musical Hamilton, which he plans to fl esh out even more next season. “When I fi rst heard the music, it was the passion, the compelling story that drew me to it,” Grindstaff said. “Now that we can skate to music with words, it just opens up so many possibilities, and I love skaters who do things that are just more current. I feel like even though this is a historical piece, it really speaks to our social, political, cultural climate right now.”
Grindstaff , a communications instructor
at Georgia State University and part-time actor, has a small role in the upcoming movie I, Tonya.
“I get to play a U.S. Figure Skating
judge,” he said with a knowing grin. Edward E. VanCampen (Ice House of
New Jersey FSC) collected the pewter medal with 44.13 points.
JAY ADEFF/U.S. FIGURE SKATING
PHOTO BY JAMES GODWIN
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