Meryl Davis
Meryl Davis (born January 1, 1987)[1] is a former competitive American ice dancer. With partner Charlie White, she is the 2014 Olympic champion, the 2010 Olympic silver medalist, a two-time (2011, 2013) World champion, five-time Grand Prix Final champion (2009–2013), three-time Four Continents champion (2009, 2011, 2013) and six-time U.S. national champion (2009–2014). They also won a bronze medal in the team event at the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Meryl Davis
Davis and White teamed up in 1997 and they are currently the longest lasting dance team in the United States. They are the first American ice dancers to win the World title, as well as the first Americans to win the Olympic title. At the 2006 NHK Trophy, they became the first ice dancing team to earn level fours on all their elements.[2]
In 2014, Davis won the eighteenth season of Dancing with the Stars with partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy.
Personal life[edit]
Meryl Davis was born in Royal Oak, Michigan, and raised in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan, the daughter of Cheryl and Paul D. Davis. She has one younger brother, Clayton.[3] She is of English, Irish, Scottish and German descent.[4] Her paternal grandmother was born in Regina, Saskatchewan.[5] Davis has difficulty seeing out of her right eye and lacks depth perception.[6] She was diagnosed with dyslexia in the third grade and she struggled with reading until the 11th grade.[7][6] In June 2005, Davis graduated from Wylie E. Groves High School.[8]
Davis previously lived in Birmingham, Michigan.[9] She attended the University of Michigan,[8] where she majored in cultural anthropology[10] and also studied Italian.[11][12] She was an active member of the sorority Delta Delta Delta and plays the flute.[11] Davis joined UNICEF Kid Power as a brand ambassador in March 2016.[13][14][15]
On July 13, 2017, Davis became engaged to former figure skater Fedor Andreev, whom she had been dating for over six years.[16][17] They married in Provence, France, in June 2019.[18]
Career[edit]
Early career[edit]
Davis began skating at age five on a local lake in the winter.[19] Due to her vision problems, Davis often hugged the boards when she first started skating.[6] She started out as a single skater, but began doing ice dance at age eight.[19] She got as high as Midwestern sectionals in novice ladies before quitting singles to focus on ice dancing.[19]
She was teamed up with Charlie White by her coach, Seth Chafetz, in 1997. In 2009, Davis said: "Charlie and I grew up 10 minutes apart from each other. Our parents are best friends. We've grown together and know each other so well."[20]
In their first season together, Davis and White won the silver medal at the Junior Olympics in the Juvenile division. In 1999–00, they won gold at the Junior Olympics on the intermediate level.[21] In the 2000–01 season, they qualified for the 2001 U.S. Championships, placing 6th as Novices. In 2001–02, they won the silver medal as novices and then moved up to the junior level. In the 2002–03 season, they did not win a medal at either of their two Junior Grand Prix assignments and placed 7th at the 2003 U.S. Championships in their junior debut.
Junior career[edit]
In the 2003–2004 season, Davis/White won their sectional championship and then won the junior silver medal at Nationals. This earned them a trip to the 2004 Junior Worlds, where they placed 13th.
In the 2004–2005 season, Davis/White won two bronze medals on the ISU Junior Grand Prix series. However, White broke his ankle before Sectionals and so Davis/White were unable to qualify for the 2005 U.S. Championships. Their season ended there.
In the 2005–2006 season, Davis/White medaled at both their Junior Grand Prix events and placed second at the Junior Grand Prix Final. They won the junior national title at the 2006 U.S. Championships and then won the bronze medal at the 2006 Junior Worlds. Following that season, Davis aged out of Juniors. They lost some training time after White broke his ankle at a hockey tournament in 2006.[12]