Eliot Halverson

The 2008 U.S. Championships will feel like home for Eliot Halverson. Although he was born in Bogota, Colombia, the reigning U.S. Champion in junior men's trains at the St. Paul Figure Skating Club, host of the upcoming nationals.

Halverson is no stranger to success on the national level. Last year, he won the gold medal in the junior men’s competition only a year after winning the novice men’s competition. He also won the pewter medal at the 2005 U.S. Championships as novice. But St. Paul marks his first senior nationals.

"I tried to put all the pressure to qualify for nationals off my mind. I actually think I did a pretty good job too," Halverson wrote in a December notebook entry about his preparation for the Midwestern Sectional Championships, the qualifying event for nationals.

"Even though I never saw or heard the advertisements for the 2008 US Figure Skating Championships all around St. Paul, I was certainly told about them. '‘Evan Lysacek, Kimmie Meissner, Johnny Weir, Emily Hughes, and St. Paul's very own Eliot Halverson,'" Halverson also said. "Wait a second, did I miss the memo that I'm competing at the Xcel in January without qualifying through Sectionals?"

Halverson clinched a spot by finishing fourth at sectionals—just months after St. Paul declared April 21 "Eliot Halverson Day" in the city. He also finished fifth at 2007 Junior Grand Prix Romania, seventh at 2007 Junior Grand Prix Germany, third at 2006 Junior Grand Prix The Hague and third at 2006 Junior Grand Prix Hungary.

Off the ice, Halverson enjoys playing with my two dogs Cal and Achilles. He also enjoys reading and excels in English, spelling and writing as a student at the YEAH Academy.

For more information on Halverson, visit figureskatersonline.com/eliothalverson/.

— Jamie M. Blanchard

Figure Skaters Online's Guide to the 2008 U.S. Championships is
written and produced by Figure Skaters Online in cooperation with the athletes and staff.

Photographs are courtesy of Leah Adams unless otherwise noted.