Vanessa James is a French figure skater in pair skating. Together with Morgan Sipre, they are bronze medalists in the European Figure Skating Championships and five-time champions of France. Also, this pair won medals in a series of international figure skating tournaments of the Grand Prix and Challenger.
With her previous partner, Yannick Boner, the skater represented France at the 2010 Winter Olympics. In the overall standings, the couple took the fourteenth place. The girl is also the 2006 UK champion in singles.
Biography
Vanessa James was born on September 27, 1987 in the largest city in Canada, Toronto. Until 10 years, the girl lived in Bermuda, while her family did not move to the United States. Vanessa lived in America until 2007, having a permanent residence permit. Then she flew to France, to Paris. Father James is from Bermuda, which allows her to have British citizenship. The girl received French citizenship only in December 2009, in order to be able to represent this country at the 2010 Olympic Games.
Vanessa has a twin sister, Melissa James. She also does figure skating, but less successfully.
Carier start
Vanessa James began figure skating with her sister after watching the 1998 Winter Olympics. Initially, she performed only at US national competitions and represented the Washington Figure Skating Club.
In 2005, the girl began to represent Britain at the international level. Having won gold in the 2006 UK Championship, Vanessa James became the first champion in this country in figure skating of African descent. In the same year, she performed in the series of Grand Prix among juniors, held in the UK, and a year later - at the World Championship among juniors. The last competition in singles for Vanessa was the International Nice Cup, where she won a bronze medal. At the end of 2007, she went on to pair skating, choosing Hamish Gaman as her partner in the British skater.
Partnership with Yannick Boner
Not working with her previous partner, Hamish Gaman, Vanessa James teamed up with Yannick Boner in December 2007. In 2008, they had already begun to perform in pairs at the international level. The James / Boehner duet debuted at the 2008 Grand Prix tournaments in the Trophée Eric Bompard competition (Eric Bompard Prize). Young skaters took 7th place. At the European Championships in 2009, they took 10th place and 12th at the World Championships. In the season 2009-2010. their first victory took place: the guys took first place in the French Championship. As a result, they were sent to the Olympics and then again to the World Cup, where they took 14th and 12th places, respectively. The James / Boner pair was the first duo of African descent performing at the Olympics. The collaboration ended in the spring of 2010.
After that, in May 2010, Vanessa tried to ride with Maximin Koya. The training was very successful, both partners agreed to work in Germany with the famous coach Ingo Stoyer. However, a few weeks later, Koya decided to end his career in sports.
Partnership with Morgan Sipre
In September 2010, Vanessa began skating with Morgan Sipre, who previously performed in solo skating. However, the couple did not participate in their first season, as Sipre had to learn several new elements. Their joint debut took place in the 2011-2012 season. After performing at the Andrei Nepela Memorial and the International Nice Cup in 2011, the couple appeared at the Trophée Eric Bompard - the first stage of the Grand Prix in figure skating. They took 8th place, and then won a silver medal at the 2012 French Championship.
In subsequent seasons, the guys also occupied worthy and first places in various competitions. Their latest achievement is a bronze medal at the 2017 European Championship in the Czech Republic. They became the first French duet in 14 years to win a medal in this competition. Now the guys continue to compete together and are very successful, they do not intend to stop there. Morgan Sipre and Vanessa James (photo) perfectly interact with each other and look great together on the ice, they will certainly expect many more victories in the future.
