Skater Profile: James Abbott

[lanie]

Basic Information
Character's Full Name: James Anthony Abbott
Nickname: Jamie
Date of Birth: April 25, 1984
Place of Birth: London, England
Hometown: London, England
Height: 6'0"
Eye Color: Blue
Hair Color: Brown
Family: Mother Claire-Marie Elisabeth (November 14, 1947), Father Commodore John William Abbott (September 17, 1945). Siblings Henry Christopher (January 1, 1974), Charles Paul (December 31, 1976), William Alexander (July 19, 1978), Nicholas John (March 8, 1980), and Elisabeth Anne (April 26, 1990).
Education: Bachelor of Science Mathematics and Economics, The London School of Economics and Politcal Science (2002-2005)
Personality: Unassuming and mellow, Jamie's personality is at odds with how he looks. One could expect him to be arrogant or walk with a swagger. Instead, he is good-humored, gentlemanly, and humble. He'll give you the shirt off his back, he'll open doors for you, he'll pull out a chair and make sure you're comfortable before he is. Other people always go first in Jamie's mind. He's pretty laid back, and not much bugs him; he goes with the flow. He's fairly extroverted and likes to spend time doing things, preferably with other people. Being so mellow has also made him a doormat and easily manipulated. He has never raised his voice at anyone in his life and hardly ever swears. He has a good thing to say about anyone, even people he really doesn't like, because saying mean things about people is simply impolite. Basically he's your stereotypical English gentleman.

Skating
Started Skating: 1990
Discipline: Men's
Competitive Status: Amateur
Country Represented: Great Britain
Competitive Highlights: 2010 Europeans - 1st, 2010 Olympics - 2nd, 2010 Worlds - 2nd. He has medaled reliably in the last few seasons at Europeans and Worlds, and has won the British national title five times from 2006 to 2010.

Born on 1984 to an English military family, Jamie was for awhile the youngest of five boys until the arrival of his sister Elisabeth when he was six years old. With his father an Englishman and mother from Jersey of French descent (his father met his mother when he was visting Jersey during a break in his service with the Royal Navy in the 1970s), he grew up in the suburb of Blackheath in London, his family life fairly placid and boring. His father was often away on various tours, including serving during the Gulf War in the early 90s and the Kosovo conflict in the late 90s; earlier his father had been involved with the Falklands Wars. He started skating when they went on a family outing just for fun when Jamie was six. The only one of the boys to not get into a rough and tumble sport, his mother put him in lessons immediately, since he asked.

Skating turned out to be the one thing he really liked. He kept with it even when everyone expected him to drop it, thanks to teasing from his older brothers who one by one entered various branches of the Royal Armed Forces. His little sister started after seeing how much fun her older brother had. He went to school, of course; he made friends outside the rink; but his main preoccupation was skating. At the age of eight he started working with a coach, Michael Sutton, who finished second place often to Robin Cousins in the 1970s and 1980s. He started competing for fun at thirteen once he landed his first triple, a Salchow. He attended British Nationals for the first time at the age of fifteen, in 1999. He finished second in the junior division and was sent the following fall to compete on the Junior Grand Prix circuit. He wasn't impressive. He bombed at the Junior Worlds in 1999 and 2000. Without a reliable triple Axel, well, there was nothing he could do for his poor results. Over the summer of 2001 he worked to get a consistent triple Axel, and while he landed it a few times, it would always be his bugbear--even when he had quads under his belt. He made the jump to seniors, did not place in the top three at 2001 Nationals, and was thinking of giving up. Instead, he went to university.

In the fall of 2002, he started at the prestigious London School of Economics and Political Science and skating was on hold for those three years while Jamie focused on his studies and a social life that didn't revolve around skaters. He found school more stressful than competing had been, even though he never enjoyed competing very much except the social part (and the performing part); worrying constantly about doing well in a cut throat academic environment made him get into smoking and drinking as a way to cope, though he was never as much of a partier as the friends he made were. He had a few girlfriends, nothing serious, who just were either friends with benefits or girls who just saw him as arm candy. Upon graduating in July of 2005, he had two options: skate, or take that job offer at that accounting firm in London's financial district.

He decided to do a bit of both. Although skating was his main focus, Jamie took the time to work part-time considering he could make money to live on his own, away from his parents (as all his siblings except Elisabeth had moved out and were making their own families). He had a tiny little apartment in London. In the morning he would skate. He would go back to his place, shower, change, and work until late in the night, sometimes stopping by the rink before home for another session. It wasn't like he was other skaters. He didn't think skating was going to be the most important thing in his life, as much as he loved it, because he feared that if he took it seriously, there went the fun. It became a job. So he had a real job instead, stressed himself out, but he liked being busy constantly.

This went on for a few years. In the fall of 2007, he seemed to hit his stride, picking up medals on the Grand Prix circuit and then at Europeans and Worlds. The next few seasons followed in that vein. His personal life was more interesting, when he broke things off with his second long time girlfriend, this time because she was cheating, in the spring of 2009. In the summer of 2010, after grabbing an Olympic medal and a World silver to match his European title the same year, sick of training conditions in England and the fact that despite popularity of the sport athletes got little attention and help, he decided to move to America where it seemed everyone was going. Pittsburgh was the choice he made, thanks to the DeVito Skating Club's location and international praise for the place. Having been coached by the same man for eighteen years, it was a hard decision, but Jamie went with both the blessing of his family and his coach, who had become like a second father to him. Now intent on working with Evgeny Potemerenko, he wants to really see how far he can take this hobby of his, maybe stick around for another Olympiad, though he will be almost 30 by the 2014 Olympics.