Post by lanie on Oct 12, 2008 0:45:15 GMT -5
Basic Information
Character's Full Name: Christian Andrew Dwight
Nickname: Chris
Date of Birth: December 25, 1978
Place of Birth: Aberdeen City, Scotland
Hometown: Bieldside, Aberdeen, Scotland
Height: 6'1"
Eye Color: Green
Hair Color: Dark blond
Family: Father Thomas (December 1, 1945), Mother Helen (September 5, 1947). Sister Moira (May 24, 1974).
Education: MA Hons English, The University of St Andrews (2000); PhD English, The University of St Andrews (2009)
Personality: Christian comes off as cold and aloof to most people, an intellectual who doesn't like to spend a lot of time with others. This is partially true. He is mostly shy, and the aloofness is a defense mechanism; he just likes to be by himself and avoid awkward situations that could lead to, gasp, spontaneous human contact. He has a dry sense of humor and thinks himself pretty witty, though it only shows around people he knows well. To friends and family he can be quite good-natured and fun to be with, though still only speaks up if he feels he has something to say. Otherwise he's fairly quiet.
Skating
Started Skating: 1984
Discipline (men, ladies, pairs, dance): Pairs
Competitive Status (Eligible, Professional, sitting out): Professional
Country Represented: Great Britain
Competitive Highlights: two time Olympic gold medalist (2006, 2008), two time Olympic bronze medalist (2002, 2004), three-time World champion (2005-2008), five-time European champion (2003-2008), ten-time British national champion (1998-2008)
The second child of Dr Thomas Dwight and his wife Helen, Christian joined his sister Moira on Christmas Day, 1978. He grew up in a wealthy suburb of Aberdeen called Bieldside, and only started skating because he followed his sister. Cold and bored, he asked to join her in her lesson. It became something for him to do occasionally. He was privately educated in expensive academies, his parents wanting Moira and Christian to be well-educated. In a way there was a lot of pressure on the two to succeed academically. Moira was lazier and didn't care, but Christian had the brain she lacked as well as the intense sense of responsibility even as a young boy. In 1992, at the age of 14, he was still skating and working on getting his triple toe loop when his coach recommended his mother take him down to Edinburgh. NISA was doing a clinic on pairs skating. Christian was already tall for his age, and didn't like competing much because he hated everyone staring at him. He started skating with tiny ten year old Alice Ordway, a chatterbox who gave him a headache, that summer.
The following year it became clear that they would continue skating together, mostly because they had become such fast friends, despite their age and personality differences. Christian's saintly mother kept driving him back and forth for skating, and soon enough they were competing internationally as Juniors. They didn't do so well, but they did win the British National title in 1996, when Alice was 14 and Christian was 18. They won the World Junior title that year. After that, things got more complicated. In 1996, Christian moved to St Andrews to attend university, mostly because it was a prestigious school and also because of its proximity to Alice's hometown of Edinburgh. They won their first senior national title in 1997, went to the European and World Championships, having dismal finishes in both events--but the most important thing was, there was a lot of potential. They were being touted as possibly the next "big ones" in pairs skating, perhaps by the 2002 Olympics. They attended the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, finishing a very respectable seventh, when Christian was 19 and Alice was just 16.
Their first international medal came in 2000, when they won the silver medal at the European Championships and placed fourth at the World Championships. It was impressive. Christian graduated that year with a Master of Arts in English, graduating at the top of his class. Their skating career carried on in the same vein, as they started winning medals--mostly bronzes--in most of the events they entered. At the 2002 Olympics, they won the bronze medal, the first medal ever to be won by a British pair since 1908. It was a big deal. An even bigger deal, at least in Christian's personal life, also happened at those Olympics. Although he had his fair share of girlfriends and one night stands, he'd always had romantic feelings for his perky partner, but ignored it because he thought it was a bad idea. She was naive, religious, constantly chipper: everything he was not. He couldn't help but love her optimism and cheerfulness. The night of their long program, after the medal ceremony and the interviews, they were talking in his room in the Athletes' Village. She was the one who told him she liked him (she didn't use the word love), but he told her he was pretty sure he was in love with her. They decided the best thing would be to be in a relationship, but not tell anyone. They kissed. A few days later, caught up in the moment, they slept together. When their relationship off the ice took off, their career did too: they won just about everything they entered starting in the fall of 2005, including the Olympic gold medal twice in 2006 and 2008. By the time of their retirement in 2008, they had won the British national title ten times, the European title four times, and the World title three times. Who would have thought two kids from Scotland would have been named among the greatest pair skaters ever?
Christian is currently teaching as an Associate Professor at Penn State in English. Once his skating career was over, he wanted to distance himself as much as possible from those accomplishments; it's as if he lives a completely different life now, though he still skates for enjoyment and will occasionally show up in a charity show if asked.
In regards to his relationship with Alice, it has been a tumultuous one. After their retirement, she expected to get married. Christian did not feel the same need, and so they broke up for six months until Christian realized that he wanted to be with her. If she wanted to get married, fine. They were married in St Andrews, Scotland, on August 15, 2009. He hated to admit he wanted to settle down, considering his former playboy image before he got involved with Alice. They eventually intend on having children.