Starr Andrews

Starr Andrews (born June 23, 2001) is an American figure skater. She is the 2022 Skate Canada International silver medalist, 2019 International Challenge Cup silver medalist, 2019 Egna Trophy silver medalist, and finished fourth at the 2023 U.S. Nationals. She has finished in the top ten at three ISU Championships and is the first African American woman to win a Grand Prix medal in the singles discipline.

Starr Andrews
Andrews in 2019
Personal information
Country represented	United States
Born	(2001-06-23) June 23, 2001 (age 21) Los Angeles, California
Height	1.50 m (4 ft 11 in)
Coach	Derrick Delmore, Peter Kongkasem
Former coach	Peter Betts
Choreographer	Derrick Delmore
Skating club	Los Angeles FSC
Training locations	Lakewood, California Torrance, California
Began skating	2005
ISU personal best scores
Combined total	191.26 2022 Skate Canada
Short program	66.60 2022 Four Continents
Free skate	126.57 2022 Skate Canada

Earlier in her career, Andrews is the 2017 U.S. national junior silver medalist.

Personal life

Starr Andrews was born on June 23, 2001, in Los Angeles, California.^[1] She is home-schooled.^[2] She has a brother and two sisters — Skylar, a gymnast, and Ashton, a baseball player.^[3][4] Their mother, Toshawa Andrews, has cardiac microvascular disease, which has led to a dozen heart attacks.^[4][5]

Career

Early years

Andrews became interested in figure skating after her mother brought her to the ice rink when she was three. She recalled in 2018: "I wanted to get on the ice really, really bad, but I was too small, so I had to wait."^[6] She began learning to skate in 2005.^[1] A video of nine-year-old Andrews skating to Whip My Hair went viral after appearing on YouTube in December 2010.^[7] By March 2018, it had reached 53 million views.^[4]

Derrick Delmore became her coach around 2013.^[8] Andrews placed 6th on the novice level at the 2016 U.S. Championships.

2016–2017 season

Andrews decided to move up to the junior level, coached by Delmore and Peter Kongkasem in Lakewood, California and Riverside, California.^[9] Making her international debut, she won the junior ladies title at the Golden Bear of Zagreb in October 2016.

In January, she received the junior silver medal at the 2017 U.S. Championships.^[10] After Amber Glenn withdrew, Andrews was added to the U.S. team to the 2017 World Junior Championships in Taipei, Taiwan.^[11] At the event, held in March, she qualified to the final segment by placing ninth in the short program and went on to finish twelfth overall.

2017–2018 season

Andrews began her season on the junior level, placing fifth at the ISU Junior Grand Prix in Austria. In December, making her senior international debut, she placed sixth at the 2017 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb, where she also obtained the minimum technical scores for both senior-level ISU Championships.

In January, Andrews finished sixth in the senior ladies' category at the 2018 U.S. Championships, having placed eighth in the short program and fifth in the free skate. She was assigned to the 2018 Four Continents, where she placed seventh, and the 2018 World Junior Championships, from which she withdrew. She was replaced by Emmy Ma.

2018–2019 season

In early August, Andrews competed at the 2018 CS Asian Open Figure Skating Trophy; she placed second in the short program with a personal best score but dropped to fifth after the free skate. In September, at the 2018 CS Autumn Classic International, she ranked fifth in the short and seventh overall. She attempted the triple Axel in the free program, but her jump had a two-footed landing and was downgraded due to insufficient rotation. She made her Grand Prix debut in October at the 2018 Skate America and placed ninth in the short program, tenth in the free skate, and tenth overall. She was also invited to the 2018 Skate Canada International, where she placed fourth in the short program, ninth in the free skate, and seventh overall.^[8]

Andrews placed eighth at the 2019 U.S. Championships.

2019–2020 season

 

Andrews performing short program at the 2019 Internationaux de France

Beginning on the Challenger series, Andrews placed fifth at both the 2019 CS Lombardia Trophy and the 2019 CS Finlandia Trophy. On the Grand Prix, Andrews placed fourth in the short program at the 2019 Internationaux de France with a new personal best.^[12] Fifth in the free skate, she placed fifth overall.^[13]

Andrews finished sixth at the 2020 U.S. Championships.^[14] Finishing the season at the 2020 World Junior Championships, Andrews placed eighth.^[15]

2020–2021 season

Andrews started her season competing at the ISP Points Challenge, a virtual US domestic competition. At the first opportunity, she placed fourth. She was assigned to compete at the 2020 Skate America in Las Vegas, an event attended only by skaters training in the United States due to the coronavirus pandemic.^[16] She placed eighth.^[17]

Competing at the 2021 U.S. Championships, also held in Las Vegas, Andrews placed twelfth.^[18]

2021–2022 season

Beginning the Olympic season on the Challenger series, Andrews placed fifth at the 2021 CS Autumn Classic International.^[19]

Following Bradie Tennell's withdrawal from the 2021 Skate America, Andrews was named to replace her.^[20] She placed tenth at the event. She finished in fifth at the 2021 CS Cup of Austria. She had to withdraw from the 2021 Internationaux de France due to an injury in the warmup.^[21]

Andrews finished ninth at the 2022 U.S. Championships.^[22] This result earned her an assignment to the 2022 Four Continents Championships, where she came ninth as well.^[23]

2022–2023 season

Andrews finished in sixth place at the 2022 CS Nebelhorn Trophy to start the season.^[21] At her first Grand Prix assignment, the 2022 Skate Canada International, she finished fifth in the short program in a close field.^[24] She then "surprised" many by finishing second in the free skate, rising to take the silver medal.^[25] She became the first African American woman to medal in singles in the Grand Prix era that began in 1995, and the second Black woman after Frenchwoman Surya Bonaly.^[26][27] Andrews noted the significance, saying "it is a huge deal for me. I am one of the few people of color in the sport, and to bring home a medal is even more special."^[26] Heading into the 2022 NHK Trophy, she planned to add a second flip to her free skate, having recovered from an ankle "tweak" that had necessitated lessening her content in the early events.^[28] Fifth in the short program, she dropped to ninth after the free skate, where she singled her planned second flip.^[29]

At the 2023 U.S. Championships, Andrews placed narrowly third in the short program.^[30] In the free skate she made two jump errors and was overtaken for the bronze medal by Amber Glenn, but still won the pewter medal and stood on the senior podium for the first time in her career. She was the first African-American woman to stand on the US podium since Debi Thomas in 1988, which Andrews acknowledged as "amazing."^[31]

Programs

Season	Short program	Free skating	Exhibition
2022–2023 ^[32]	Dancing With the Devil by Demi Lovato choreo. by Derrick Delmore	Je suis malade by Serge Lama performed by Lara Fabian and Hugo Silver choreo. by Derrick Delmore	Free Your Mind by En Vogue
2021–2022 ^[33]	At Last by Mack Gordon, Harry Warren performed by Starr Andrews choreo. by Derrick Delmore	Bigger by Beyonce I Was Here by Beyonce choreo. by Derrick Delmore
2020–2021 ^[34]	It's a Man's Man's Man's World by James Brown performed by Jurnee Smollett Joke's on You from Birds of Prey performed by Charlotte Lawrence choreo. by Derrick Delmore	Finally by Fergie choreo. by Derrick Delmore
2019–2020 ^[35]	You Lost Me by Christina Aguilera choreo. by Derrick Delmore	Dance of the Seven Veils (from Salome) by Richard Strauss choreo. by Derrick Delmore
2018–2019 ^[1]^[36]	Summertime by George Gershwin performed by Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong choreo. by Derrick Delmore	African Tribal Xotica Desert Spirit by John Herberman Under African Skies by John Herberman Tribal Gathering by Vanessa-Mae Xotica: Journey of the Heart by René Dupéré Minus One by Greg Ellis choreo. by Derrick Delmore
2017–2018 ^[37]^[38]	Fever performed by Beyoncé choreo. by Derrick Delmore	One Moment in Time performed by Whitney Houston, Starr Andrews choreo. by Derrick Delmore
2016–2017 ^[9]	The Pink Panther Theme by Henry Mancini	Black Swan by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Clint Mansell Perfection A Swan Is Born Nina's Dream Perfection

Competitive highlights

GP: Grand Prix; CS: Challenger Series; JGP: Junior Grand Prix

International^[21]
Event	13–14	14–15	15–16	16–17	17–18	18–19	19–20	20–21	21–22	22–23
Four Continents					7th				9th
GP France							5th		WD
GP NHK Trophy							8th			9th
GP Skate America						10th		8th	10th
GP Skate Canada						7th				2nd
CS Autumn Classic						7th			5th
CS Asian Open						5th
CS Cup of Austria									5th
CS Finlandia							5th
CS Golden Spin					6th
CS Lombardia							5th
CS Nebelhorn										6th
Egna Spring Trophy						2nd
Challenge Cup						2nd
Philadelphia							4th
International: Junior^[21]
Junior Worlds				12th	WD		8th
JGP Austria					5th
Golden Bear				1st
Golden Spin							2nd
National^[39]^[40]
U.S. Championships	4th V		6th N	2nd J	6th	8th	6th	12th	9th	4th
Pacific Coast	1st V	5th I	2nd N	2nd J	1st
Southwest Pacific	3rd V	2nd I	1st N
ISP Points Challenge								7th
USCS Minnesota									1st
TBD = Assigned; WD = Withdrew Levels: V = Juvenile; I = Intermediate; N = Novice; J = Junior

Detailed results

Senior level

ISU Personal best highlighted in bold.

2022–23 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total
January 23–29, 2023	2023 U.S. Championships	3 68.97	7 119.27	4 188.24
November 18–20, 2022	2022 NHK Trophy	5 64.13	12 109.93	9 174.06
October 28–30, 2022	2022 Skate Canada International	5 64.69	2 126.57	2 191.26
September 21–24, 2022	2022 CS Nebelhorn Trophy	7 53.31	6 103.29	6 156.60
2021–22 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total
January 18–23, 2022	2022 Four Continents Championships	6 66.60	12 106.41	9 173.01
January 3–9, 2022	2022 U.S. Championships	11 59.43	9 113.61	9 173.04
November 11–14, 2021	2021 CS Cup of Austria	7 53.78	6 103.57	5 157.35
October 22–24, 2021	2021 Skate America	10 61.94	11 115.69	10 177.63
September 16–18, 2021	2021 CS Autumn Classic International	4 59.21	7 96.04	5 155.25
2020–21 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total
January 11–21, 2021	2021 U.S. Championships	17 45.93	10 106.20	12 152.13
October 23–24, 2020	2020 Skate America	10 57.20	7 114.50	8 171.70
2019–20 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total
January 20–26, 2020	2020 U.S. Championships	7 65.86	6 115.92	6 181.78
November 22–24, 2019	2019 NHK Trophy	9 58.92	9 107.80	8 166.72
November 1–3, 2019	2019 Internationaux de France	4 66.59	5 113.95	5 180.54
October 11–13, 2019	2019 CS Finlandia Trophy	6 57.25	5 111.85	5 169.10
September 13–15, 2019	2019 CS Lombardia Trophy	4 66.38	6 114.80	5 181.18
July 31 – Aug. 3, 2019	2019 Philadelphia Summer International	4 53.91	4 94.05	4 147.96
2018–19 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total
March 28–31, 2019	2019 Gardena Spring Trophy	1 64.83	2 105.96	2 170.79
February 21–24, 2019	2019 Challenge Cup	3 64.76	3 122.93	2 187.69
January 18–27, 2019	2019 U.S. Figure Skating Championships	8 58.66	7 117.04	8 175.70
October 26–29, 2018	2018 Skate Canada	4 64.77	9 108.95	7 174.72
October 19–21, 2018	2018 Skate America	9 56.03	10 94.53	10 150.56
September 20–22, 2018	2018 CS Autumn Classic	5 56.70	7 102.93	7 159.63
August 1–5, 2018	2018 CS Asian Open Trophy	2 62.60	5 97.16	5 159.76
2017–18 season
Date	Event	SP	FS	Total
January 22–27, 2018	2018 Four Continents Championships	7 60.61	7 112.04	7 172.65
Dec. 29, 2017 – Jan. 8, 2018	2018 U.S. Championships	8 62.55	5 127.36	6 189.91
December 6–9, 2017	2017 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb	4 60.80	7 102.69	6 163.49

Junior level

 

Andrews at the 2017 World Junior Championships

2017–18 season
Date	Event	Level	SP	FS	Total
August 31 – September 2, 2017	2017 JGP Austria	Junior	4 59.93	5 99.35	5 159.28
2016–17 season
Date	Event	Level	SP	FS	Total
March 15–19, 2017	2017 World Junior Championships	Junior	9 55.83	12 93.22	12 149.05
January 14–22, 2017	2017 U.S. Championships	Junior	2 57.83	2 97.31	2 155.14
October 27–30, 2016	2016 Golden Bear of Zagreb	Junior	1 63.27	1 108.75	1 172.02
2015–16 season
Date	Event	Level	SP	FS	Total
January 15–24, 2016	2016 U.S. Championships	Novice	4 42.77	6 80.00	6 122.77

References

1. . International Skating Union. Archived from the original on October 23, 2018.
2. Lutz, Rachel (December 27, 2017). "Rising Starr: Andrews shooting for a place among figure skating's best". nbcolympics.com. from the original on December 28, 2017.
3. Lewis, Amber (January 10, 2017). "Andrews ready to shine in Kansas City". icemusings.com.
4. Elfman, Lois (January 12, 2017). "Starr Andrews aims to shine on the ice". New York Amsterdam News. from the original on January 13, 2017.
5. "After 11 heart attacks – yes, 11 – former skater savors life". American Heart Association News. June 11, 2015. from the original on April 15, 2017.
6. Miller, Darci (October 10, 2018). "Starr Andrews: From Viral Fame to National Contender". U.S. Figure Skating. from the original on October 23, 2018.
7. "Starr Andrews, 12-Year-Old Figure Skater, Will Blow Your Mind". Huffington Post. February 17, 2014. from the original on October 8, 2015.
8. McCarvel, Nick (October 19, 2018). "Starr Andrews, 17, could be a figure skating star in the making". NBC Sports. from the original on October 23, 2018.
9. . International Skating Union. Archived from the original on May 21, 2017.
10. McKinnis, Mimi (January 20, 2017). . IceNetwork.com. Archived from the original on February 2, 2017.
11. "Andrews to Represent Team USA at World Junior Championships". U.S. Figure Skating. March 3, 2017. from the original on March 4, 2017.
12. Slater, Paula (November 1, 2019). "Alena Kostornaia of Russia leads ladies in Grand Prix debut". Golden Skate.
13. Slater, Paula (November 2, 2019). "Russia's Alena Kostornaia takes gold in Grand Prix debut". Golden Skate.
14. Slater, Paula (January 25, 2020). "Alysa Liu defends national title in Greensboro". Golden Skate.
15. Slater, Paula (March 7, 2020). "Kamila Valieva captures Junior World gold in season debut". Golden Skate.
16. "2020 Skate America". International Figure Skating. October 20, 2020.
17. "ISU GP 2020 Guaranteed Rate Skate America". U.S. Figure Skating.
18. "2021 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships". U.S. Figure Skating.
19. Capellazzi, Gina (September 18, 2021). "Cyprus' Marilena Kitromilis wins surprising gold medal at Autumn Classic". Figure Skaters Online.
20. "Starr Andrews Added to 2021 Guaranteed Rate Skate America" (Press release). U.S. Figure Skating. October 18, 2021.
21. "Competition Results: Starr ANDREWS". International Skating Union. from the original on October 23, 2018.
22. Slater, Paula (January 8, 2022). "Mariah Bell takes first National title". Golden Skate.
23. Slater, Paula (January 22, 2022). "Japan's Mai Mihara reclaims Four Continents title". Golden Skate.
24. McCarvel, Nick (October 28, 2022). "Home hopes lead women's event at Skate Canada with Schizas, Daleman going 1-2 in short program". Olympic Channel.
25. McCarvel, Nick. "In Grand Prix debut, Japan's Watanabe Rinka stuns for Skate Canada title". Olympic Channel. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
26. "Starr Andrews rallies for Skate Canada runner-up with career-best performance". NBC Sports. October 29, 2022.
27. Rutherford, Lynn (October 29, 2022). "Starr Andrews skates to historic silver medal at Skate Canada". United States Olympic Committee.
28. Lutz, Rachel (November 17, 2022). "Sassy and Focused, Starr Andrews Looks for her Second Grand Prix Medal". U.S. Figure Skating Fan Zone.
29. Lutz, Rachel (November 19, 2022). "U.S. Earns Two Ice Dance Medals, One Pairs Medal at NHK Trophy with Spots at the Grand Prix Final on the Line". U.S. Figure Skating Fan Zone.
30. Walker, Elvin (January 27, 2023). "Knierim and Frazier, Levito, Chock and Bates Take First Step Toward Gold". U.S. Figure Skating.
31. Flett, Ted (January 28, 2023). "Teen sensation Isabeau Levito secures women's title at 2023 US Nationals". Golden Skate.
32. . International Skating Union. Archived from the original on November 17, 2022.
33. . International Skating Union. Archived from the original on October 23, 2021.
34. . International Skating Union. Archived from the original on November 18, 2020.
35. . International Skating Union. Archived from the original on October 13, 2019.
36. Rutherford, Lynn (September 23, 2018). "Marvel superheroes inspire Bradie Tennell, Starr Andrews". NBC Sports. from the original on October 23, 2018.
37. . International Skating Union. Archived from the original on May 29, 2018.
38. Capellazzi, Gina (June 23, 2017). "U.S. junior silver medalist Starr Andrews sets her sights high for next season". figureskatersonline.com.
39. "Starr Andrews". U.S. Figure Skating. from the original on October 23, 2018.
    . IceNetwork.com. Archived from the original on June 9, 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
40. "Starr Andrews". rinkresults.com.

External links

• Starr ANDREWS at the International Skating Union
• Official website