<P>The USA's Kimberly Meissner has moved rapidly up the ladder since she burst on the scene in her first U.S. national event by winning the novice ladies title in 2003. Meissner, who prefers to be called Kimmie, followed up with a win at the 2004 U. S. Nationals in junior ladies. This season, she'll be moving to seniors at Nationals with two seasons to go before the 2006 Olympic Games in Torino, Italy. Meissner will be 16 in Torino, about the same age as recent Olympians Tara Lipinski and Sarah Hughes. But if she doesn't make it into 2006, the talented youngster plans to stay around for at least the 2010 Olympics and maybe beyond. "I want to skate for a long time," she said, "until I can't skate any more." </P>
<P>Meissner is still too young to do any international senior events, however, she won both the short and long programs at the Liberty Open in Delaware. Earlier this month, she finished fifth at the Campbell's International Figure Skating Classic.</P>
<P>Meissner was one of 27 ladies who competed in the eight-event Junior Grand Prix beginning in Courchevel, Francein August and ending in Miercurea Ciuc, Romania in October. She earned a total of 26 points, giving her the fourth of only eight slots for the upcoming Junior Grand Prix Final. </P>
<P>The 15-year-old had a very successful international season last year, placing second at the Sofia Cup in Bulgaria, first at Skate Bled in Slovenia, third at the Triglav Trophy and fifth at the Junior Grand Prix Final in Malmo, Sweden. "My goals changed through the season," she noted. "First I just wanted to do well at my first international and Nationals, then I wanted to make the Junior Grand Prix Final and skate my best there, and then I wanted to go to Junior Worlds and skate well there." Meissner exceeded her goals each time, ending the season by placing second at her first Junior Worlds. "I wanted to be in the top ten," Meissner said, "but I didn't expect to be second. Those were the highest marks in my career. My best before was a 5.5."</P>
<P>Meissner began skating when she was six years old. "My older brothers all played hockey and I was at the rink with them," she stated. "I had seen figure skating on television and wanted to try it." She was actually more involved in ballet when she was younger, starting when she was four. "I used to do all the recitals and travel to the competitions," she noted, " but once I started skating, I liked skating more. I danced in the Nutcracker and some other ballets, but not Swan Lake."</P>
<P>The petite brunette landed her first triple jump, a triple salchow, six years after she first stepped on the ice, but calls the triple lutz her favorite jump. "World Juniors was the first time I landed a triple lutz-triple toe in competition," noted Meissner, who has also been working extensively with the triple Axel. "This year, I want to make my skating a lot better," she said. "I want to have a good triple Axel and maybe a quad later." </P>
<P>Pam Gregory has coached Meissner for the past four years at the University of Delaware in Newark. "Kimmie's a great kid," Gregory stated. "She's a hard worker and has a lot of star quality. She's really good at stepping up when the pressure is on." Meissner trains for two hours a day on ice and an hour a day off ice, five days a week. Her off ice routine includes weights, cardiovascular work, jazz and modern dance, and ballet. Each day, she does a complete run-through of her short and long programs.</P>
<P>Gregory usually selects the music for Meissner's programs and usually changes both each year. "I have quite a collection of CDs to pick from," Gregory explained. "I like to skate to fast, big music," Meissner said, "but I just listen to radio music outside." This season, Meissner is using <EM>Reverie</EM> by Debussy for the short and <EM>Daphnis and Chloe</EM> by Ravel for the long. </P>
<P>Although she's only traveled to a few events, she most enjoyed Sweden and hopes to go to Japan.</P>
<P>Meissner collects charms and anything with stars and k <P>咱们 给她建一个吧，怎样？-</P>
<P>她竟然想学海洋生物学，抽象啊！还喜欢哈里波特，指环王，真是跟普通女孩儿没什么区别．</P>
<P>真篇，挺好的，等一两天，我再翻啊！</P>
<P>对啊！我第一次见她就觉得她前途无量，所以就立即爱上她了。不过就是觉得她的燕式怎么是弯的。不太明白这一点。她的进步如此之快，看来06年的奥运和世锦赛她都很有机会参加啊！太好了。</P>
<P>我也想咱们给她弄个网站，可惜我对电脑这方面的认识很少，还请大家帮忙。其实美国方面是有一个关于她的网站的，可是就是不容易上去，我也只是上了几回。现在又不行了。</P> <P>我第一次见到她是在JAYADEFF的网站下照片的时候,当时我想看看全美少年组的女孩吧,一眼就发现这个女孩很有气质,后来看到颁奖的照片才知道原来她是冠军!</P> 还能完成3lutz-3toe，真是前途无量啊，我看了她全美的比赛还以为她腿部力量不强呢 她04青少年世锦赛的LP就完成3lutz-3toe了，应该是比较稳定的了。 <P>希望KIMMIE能在世青赛上成功做出这些高难度动作，获得冠军！！！</P>
<P>Kimmie Meissner proved she's American figure skating's future star. </P>
<P>Her stunning triple axel in Saturday night's senior ladies long program not only propelled the 15-year-old to a third-place finish, it put her atop the nation's Ones to Watch list for the Turin Olympics next winter.</P>
<P>Why? The triple axel is a jump of near-mythic proportions in women's figure skating. Tonya Harding is the only other American woman to attempt one, and she did it three times way back in 1991.</P>
<P>At the time, Japan's Midori Ito was the only other woman in the world to do it.</P>
<P>What makes the triple axel so difficult is that it's 3 1/2 times around.</P><!-- cdaFreeFormDetailByName.strSQL = FreeForm_GetTextBySectionIDPaperID @Name = 'ArticleAd', @PaperID = '36', @SectionID = '33084', @ArticleID = '2657410', @Filter = 'Section', @LiveFilter = '1', @DateTimeContext = '1/23/2005 9:21:29 PM' --><!-- ArticleAd not found -->
<P>Harding, now doing appearances at minor-league sports events and working on her boxing career, recently told The (Portland) Oregonian, "If you don't have the guts to throw yourself up in the air and know that when you land, it will hurt if you don't do it right, you won't do it."</P>
<P>That jump launched Harding to the 1991 national title and then to second in the world championships. It won't do that for Meissner. She turned 15 in October, three months too late to qualify for the world championships in Moscow in March. However, she'll take it to the world junior championships in Kitchener, Ontario, and certainly points beyond.</P>
<P>Even her idol took notice.</P>
<P>Meissner, a rail-thin 5-footer, started landing them consistently in practice last week and decided to include it in the program Saturday morning.</P>
<P>"Even if I had been eligible for the worlds, I still would've tried the triple axel," she said. "This is my first year in seniors, so I felt I had nothing to lose. I really wanted to try it."</P>
<P>Meissner may have an even more impressive r¨¦sum¨¦ than Harding, not to mention disposition. The native of Bel Air, Md., a Baltimore suburb, Meissner has racked up national titles at nearly every level, taking the novice championship in 2003, as well as a first and a second at two junior world Grand Prix events that year, the junior national championship in 2004 and runner-up at World Juniors.</P>
<P>If the perennial runner-up to Kwan, Sasha Cohen, is unable to handle the torch when Kwan retires, Meissner appears ready to try. After all, she already has made history.</P>
<P>"I thought about it but I didn't really think too much about it," she said. "Now that I'm answering questions, it has sunk in that I did it."</P>
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