Drew Meekins

Drew Meekins
Drew Meekins with Jessica Rose Paetsch in 2008.
Personal information
Full name	Drew Meekins
Country represented	United States
Born	(1985-04-10) April 10, 1985 Juneau, Alaska
Home town	Wellesley, Massachusetts
Residence	Colorado Springs, Colorado
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Former partner	Jessica Rose Paetsch Julia Vlassov
Coach	Dalilah Sappenfield Laureano Ibarra
Former coach	Alexander Vlassov
Choreographer	Zuzanna Szwed Tom Dickson
Skating club	Skating Club of Boston

Drew Meekins (born April 10, 1985) is an American pairs skater. With former partner Julia Vlassov, he is the 2006 World Junior Champion.

Early life and family

Drew's father, Russ Meekins, Jr., and aunt, Susan Meekins Sullivan, as Alaska state legislators in the mid 1970s.

Andrew Meekins, known as "Drew", was born in Juneau, Alaska on April 10, 1985. He is one of five children (four sons and one daughter) born to Edward Russell "Russ" Meekins, Jr. (born 1949) and his wife Nancy Harvey (he also has a half-brother from his father's earlier marriage).^[1][2] All four of his grandparents moved to Anchorage, Alaska from the Northeastern United States during the tail end of World War II and were active in business and civic affairs in Anchorage throughout the middle and late 20th century. His father, aunt and grandfather all served in the Alaska House of Representatives as Democrats representing Anchorage. His father, the only one of the three to serve more than one term, was the House's majority leader in his last term (1981–1983). In that term, he played a key role in two events which rank amongst the most significant in the history of the Alaska Legislature: the mid-session overthrow of the Democratic House leadership and its replacement with a multi-party coalition, and the bribery conviction and subsequent expulsion of a member of the Alaska Senate. As a result of the fallout from these events, he soon found himself on the outs with Alaska's political establishment. The family left Alaska ca. 1990 and moved to Massachusetts, the home state of Nancy Harvey's parents, settling on Cape Cod. One of his brothers, Cam Meekins, is a rapper.^[3]

Career

Meekins began skating at age twelve because his sister was already skating. He started out as a single skater, but he switched to pair skating when he was sixteen.

Meekins and Vlassov won the 2006 World Junior Championships. In their first season of senior international competition, they won the silver at the Nebelhorn Trophy, placed sixth at the 2006 Cup of China, and placed 5th at the 2006 NHK Trophy.^[4] Vlassov and Meekins finished in 7th place in their senior debut at the 2007 U.S. Championships. They were fifth in the free program.

Vlassov and Meekins were assigned to two Grand Prix events for the 2007-2008 season; however, they were forced to withdraw from the 2007 Skate Canada International before the event began due to an injury to Meekins's shoulder which occurred during an attempted lift in practice. Vlassov and Meekins announced the end of their partnership on November 8, 2007.^[5]

U.S. Figure Skating announced on July 14, 2008 that Meekins had teamed up with Jessica Rose Paetsch.^[6] Paetsch and Meekins placed 10th at the 2009 U.S. Championships.

After qualifying for the 2010 U.S. Championships, Paetsch & Meekins announced the end of their partnership in December 2009. Meekins is now a figure skating coach at the Broadmoor skating club in Colorado Springs, CO, but hopes to find another partner so he can compete again.

Programs

(with Vlassov)

Competitive highlights

With Paetsch

With Vlassov

References

• "World Junior Figure Skating Championships: ISU Results: Pairs" (PDF).  (10.5 KB)
• Paetsch & Meekins at the U.S. Figure Skating
• Vlassov & Meekins at the U.S. Figure Skating
• Vlassov & Meekins at the International Skating Union

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Drew Meekins.

• Vlassov & Meekins official site