Vanessa James is a French pair figure skater. Together with Morgan Sipre, they are bronze medalists of the European Figure Skating Championships and five-time French champions. Also, this couple won medals in a series of international Grand Prix and Challenger figure skating tournaments.
With her previous partner Yannick Boner, the figure skater represented France at the 2010 Winter Olympics. In the overall standings, the couple took fourteenth place. She is also the 2006 British Singles Champion.
Biography
Vanessa James was born on September 27, 1987 in Canada's largest city, Toronto. Until the age of 10, the girl lived in Bermuda until her family moved 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 Olympics.
Vanessa has a twin sister, Melissa James. She also skates, but less successfully.
Startcareers
Vanessa James started skating with her sister after watching the 1998 Winter Olympics. Initially, she competed only in national competitions in the United States and represented the Washington Figure Skating Club.
In 2005, the girl began to represent the UK at the international level. By winning gold at the 2006 UK Championships, Vanessa James became the country's first figure skating champion of African descent. In the same year, she competed in the Junior Grand Prix series, held in Great Britain, and a year later, at the World Junior Championships. The last competition in single skating for Vanessa was the International Cup of Nice, where the girl won a bronze medal. At the end of 2007, she switched to pair skating, choosing British figure skater Hamish Gaman as her partner.
Partnership with Yannick Boner
Failing with previous partner Hamish Gaman, Vanessa James teamed up with Yannick Boehner in December 2007. In 2008, they already began to perform as a couple at the international level. The duo James/Boehner made their 2008 Grand Prix debut in the Trophée Eric Bompard. Young skaters took 7th place. At the European Championship in 2009 they took 10th place and 12th at the World Championship. In the 2009-2010 season 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 Championship, where they took 14th and 12th places, respectively. PairJames/Boehner became the first duo of African descent to compete in the Olympics. The collaboration ended in the spring of 2010.
After that, in May 2010, Vanessa tried skating with Maximin Koya. The trainings were very successful, both partners agreed to work in Germany with the famous trainer Ingo Steuer. However, a few weeks later, Koya decided to retire from the sport.
Partnership with Morgan Sipre
In September 2010, Vanessa began skating with Morgan Sipre, who previously competed in singles. However, in their first season, the couple did not participate, 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 Cup of Nice in 2011, the pair appeared at the Trophée Eric Bompard, the first stage of the Figure Skating Grand Prix. They placed 8th and then won the silver medal at the 2012 French Championships.
In subsequent seasons, the guys also took 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 duo in 14 years to win a medal at this competition. Now the guys continue to compete together and very successfully, they do not intend to stop there. Morgan Sipre and Vanessa James (photo) interact well with each other andthey look great together on the ice, they will certainly have many more victories in the future.
Note
Don't confuse the figure skater Vanessa James with the fashion model of the same name, who is the girlfriend of Hollywood Undead member Jay Dog. Vanessa James, who was discussed in this article, has nothing to do with them.
