Shepherd Clark

Shepherd Clark
Personal information
Country represented United States
Born (1971-03-01) March 1, 1971
Atlanta, Georgia
Height 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Coach Slavka Button, Diane Agle
Choreographer Iris Beven
Skating club SC of Boston
Began skating 1974

Shepherd Walton Clark (born March 1, 1971)[1] is the reigning World Figure Champion of The World Figure Sport Society. figure skater. In 2018 he defended his World Figure Championship Titles, becoming The 2018 World Figure & Fancy Skating Champion, as well as the overall World Figure & Fancy Skating Champion. Mr. Clark has a total of five World Figure Sport, World Champion Titles, and two Silver medals, making him the most decorated skater in World Figure Sport history. He is also the only skater to compete in all four World Figure Championships, 2015-2018. Mr. Clark is the only man to defend a World Figure title, to achieve the dual Figure & Fancy title, and the first to defend the dual titles in World Figure Sport history. World Figure Sport events are known to include the most difficult of Olympic figures, World Championship figures, and creative figures of skating's past, while providing a stage for sculptural artistic skating, where edge quality and positions are valued above numbers of rotations on skating jumps. Special Figures are the first Winter Olympic Sport, competed in 1908 at the Summer Olympic Games in London. Nickolai Pannin of The Russian Empire won the Olympic Gold Medal in 1908, becoming the first Winter Olympic Sport Champion.

Mr. Clark was presented the gold medal by Dorothy Hamill The 1976 US National, Olympic, and World Champion, at The 2017 World Figure Championships in Vail, Colorado. Mr. Clark is also The 2017 World Fancy Skating Champion, which is a blend of figure composition and artistic free skating. The gold medal was presented to Mr. Clark by Barbara Wagner, the 1960 Olympic Pairs Figure Skating Champion. He is also The 1994 Nations Cup Silver Medalist, placing second to Elvis Stojko, The ISU World Figure Skating Champion at that time. He is the 1989 World Junior silver medalist,[2] 1989 Nebelhorn Trophy champion, and 1996 Finlandia Trophy champion.[1] He was the first American to win the Finlandia Trophy in 1996. He is also the 1998 U.S. national pewter medalist and won seven sectional titles. He was coached by Slavka Button and Diane Agle in Boston.[1] At the 1988 and 1989 Junior World Figure Skating Championships, he placed 4th and 2nd respectively, and was The 1998 US Olympic Team Alternate and the 1998 & 1999 World Figure Skating Team Alternate. In 1999, at the first Four Continents Championships in Halifax Nova Scotia, Mr. Clark placed 6th, the highest US finish in the men's event. In 2003, Mr. Clark is believed to be the first skater to wear real gems on a skating costume, as a way to promote his jewelry designing.

In August 2015, and December 2016, he won the silver medal in men's figures at the World Figure Championship & Figure Festival in Lake Placid, New York. He set a world record by winning four World Figure & Fancy Skating medals, two gold and two silver. He is currently the most decorated skater of figures & fancy skating on record with The World Figure Sport Society, and he is the first and only skater who has earned the dual title of, "World Figure & Fancy Skating Champion".[3] He is an artist of jewel design and of jeweled art objects, a jewel historian, as well as an entrepreneur in various industries, and known for working with charities and ministries.[4] Mr. Clark has appeared in motion pictures such as "Ice Pawn", produced in 1990, books such as "Zero Tollerance" by Toller Cranston, and "The Sweater book" by Stephen Mosher, an assemblage of Hollywood, art, and entertainment personalities from around the world, as well as the biography of Trixi Schuba, the 1972 Olympic Figure Skating Champion known for her figure mastery. He appears in Christine Brennan's "Little Girls In Pretty Boxes", referenced as a jewelry designer in a meeting at The Olympic Training Center. Mr. Clark has also been in many TV broadcasts of figure skating competitions and exhibitions, and is the first skater to land the triple lutz - triple loop combination in competition.

In 2017, Shepherd Clark founded a museum, which seeks art talent from around the world, including figure skating artists, and awards them based upon relevance, originality, and mastery. He is also known to love cats, and to use them in promotional media, as well as to find homes for adoptable cats and kittens. In 2017, Mr. Clark completed a work of art entitled, "The Impossible Dream", which was inspired by the blue of Trixi Schuba's Olympic skating costume, and her music choice. This work of art, emphasizes the value and the metaphoric importance of the circle as a shape representing life coming "full circle" when one fully trusts God.

Programs

Season Short program Free skating
1998–99
[1]
    • Death and Transfiguration
    • Rosenkavalier
      by Richard Strauss

    Competitive highlights

    GP: Champions Series / Grand Prix

    International[1]
    Event 87–88 88–89 89–90 90–91 91–92 92–93 93–94 94–95 95–96 96–97 97–98 98–99 99–00 01–02 02–03
    Four Continents6th
    GP NHK Trophy6th
    GP Skate America9th
    GP Sparkassen11th
    Finlandia Trophy1st
    Nations Cup2nd
    Nebelhorn Trophy1st2nd10th
    Piruetten2ndWD
    Schäfer Memorial2nd
    St. Gervais2nd
    International: Junior[1]
    Junior Worlds4th2nd
    National[1]
    U.S. Champ.4th J1st J7th7th9th5th6th6th10th4th5thWD11thWD
    Eastern Sect.1st4th1st1st1st4th3rd
    Midwestern Sect.2nd1st1st1st
    J: Junior level; WD: Withdrew

    References

    1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Shepherd CLARK". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on May 7, 2016.
    2. ↑ "World Junior Figure Skating Championships: Men" (PDF). International Skating Union. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 16, 2011.
    3. ↑ Sausa, Christie (September 1, 2015). "Figures revival". Lake Placid News.
    4. ↑ Stevens, Ryan (March 16, 2013). "Interview With Shepherd Clark". Skate Guard.


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