Matej Silecky (born April 15, 1994) is an American figure skater and documentary film director.

Matej Silecky
Born (1994-04-15) 15 April 1994 (age 30)
Verona, New Jersey, United States
HometownBerkeley, CA
Height1.85 m (6.1 ft)
Figure skating career
CountryUnited States United States
Skating clubThe Skating Club of New York
Began skating1998

Early life and education

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Matej was born on April 15, 1994, and was raised in Verona, New Jersey and Kyiv, Ukraine.

He is a 2015 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley where he received the Charlene Conrad Liebau Library Prize for Undergraduate Research for The Post-Soviet Development of Elite-Level Athletics in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.[1][2]

Figure Skating Career

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Matej competed in singles and pairs and was the 2012 U.S. Collegiate Figure Skating Championships Junior Men's Champion.[3] He left competitive skating due to a shoulder injury sustained during the 2015 – 2016 season.[4] At that time, he was partnered with Elizaveta Usmantseva, competing in Senior Pairs at the 2016 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. After a six-year hiatus from competitive skating, Matej and his partner, Kate Finster, competed at the 2022 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Championship Pairs, where they placed 7th.[5]

Competitive Programs

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Season Short program Free skating
Pairs

2021-2022

choreo. by Sinead Kerr, John Kerr[6]
 choreo. by Sinead Kerr, John Kerr
Pairs

2015–2016

 choreo. by Matej Silecky
 choreo. by Matej Silecky
Singles

2012–2013

 choreo. by Phillip Mills

Professional Skating

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In 2017 - 2018, Matej joined ITV's Dancing On Ice (series 10) in the United Kingdom. He was partnered with Coronation Street actress Brooke Vincent, and they finished as Runners-up in the series. In 2019 – 2020, Matej was a skating professional in Dancing on Ice (Netherlands and Belgium), where he and his partner, Olympic gold medalist in snowboarding, Nicolien Sauerbreij, made the semifinals.[7][8] He also skated in the first ice skating event in Nepal, Skate Nepal, led by Dawa Steven Sherpa, as part of the Visit Nepal 2020 campaign, at Gokyo Lakes (4750 m) on February 14, 2020, along with Elizabeth Putnam, Patrick Chan, Jeremy Abbott, Sergei Voronov and others.[9]

Film career

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Whilst recovering from an injury, Matej established a production company, Kitsune Tale Productions, and made the documentary, Baba Babee Skazala [Grandmother Told Grandmother] about Ukrainian children torn from their homes in the crush between the Nazi and Soviet fronts in World War II.[10][11]

In 2022, Matej played the role of Ice Skater in the independent feature film Goodbye, Petrushka.[12]

References

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  1. ^ https://www.lib.berkeley.edu/researchprize/winners2013 (Retrieved 14 Feb. 2022)
  2. ^ https://escholarship.org/content/qt139693wt/qt139693wt.pdf (Retrieved 14 Feb. 2022)
  3. ^ http://ukrweekly.com/archive/2012/The_Ukrainian_Weekly_2012-49.pdf (Retrieved 14 Feb. 2022)
  4. ^ "Matej Silecky's Story - HSS Back in the Game". Back in the Game - Hospital for Special Surgery. Retrieved 2024-03-08.
  5. ^ "2022 U.S. Figure Skating Championships scores, results". NBC Sports. 2022-01-09. Retrieved 2024-03-08.
  6. ^ US Figure Skating Championships (Pairs Skating Kate and Matej), 6 January 2022, retrieved 2024-03-08
  7. ^ Dancing on Ice (Netherlands) (Reality-TV), Tommie Christiaan, Elske DeWall, Roy Donders, SBS6, 2019-12-07, retrieved 2024-03-08{{citation}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  8. ^ https://www.kijk.nl/programmas/dancing-on-ice (Retrieved 14 Feb. 2022)
  9. ^ Hub, Nepal Trek (2020-02-21). "Ice Hockey and Skating in Gokyo Lake Nepal". Nepal Trek Hub. Retrieved 2024-03-08.
  10. ^ Krushelnycky, Askold (2020-05-12). "Ukrainians uprooted as children by World War II recall their journeys of survival". Kyiv Post. Retrieved 2024-03-08.
  11. ^ "An Interview with Matej Silecky, director of Baba Babee Skazala: Grandmother Told Grandmother". NewJerseyStage.com. 2018-10-06. Retrieved 2024-03-08.
  12. ^ "Matej Silecky | Additional Crew, Director, Actor". IMDb. Retrieved 2024-05-12.