Tiffany Chin

Tiffany Chin

Personal information
Full name	Tiffany Chin
Country represented	United States
Born	October 3, 1967 (1967-10-03) Oakland, California
Home town	San Diego, California
Height	5 ft 3 in (1.60 m)
Medal record Competitor for the United States Ladies' Figure skating World Championships Bronze 1986 Geneva Ladies' singles Bronze 1985 Tokyo Ladies' singles World Junior Championships Gold 1981 London, ON Ladies' singles

Tiffany Chin (Traditional Chinese: 陳婷婷, Simplified Chinese: 陈婷婷; pinyin: Chén Tíngtíng, born October 3, 1967) is an American figure skater who grew up in San Diego, California. She dominated the junior circuit in ice skating prior to her Olympic career, winning the US Junior National title as well as the World Junior title. Chin made the United States Winter Olympic team in 1984 after winning the free skate at the 1984 Nationals. She finished fourth at Sarajevo despite placing second in the short program and third in the free program. She went on to win two world bronze medals as well the 1985 U.S. National title, a first for an Asian American or anyone who was not Caucasian. By breaking these barriers she inspired a new generation of skaters, such as Kristi Yamaguchi.^{[citation needed]}

During her career she had many coaches, which was uncommon back then and was heavily criticized by commentators such as Scott Hamilton. This has since become more common, with skaters such as Christopher Bowman, Nicole Bobek, and Sasha Cohen, switching coaches many times. Originally trained by Mabel Fairbanks as a young child, Chin switched to Janet Champion under the recommendation of Fairbanks. Her mother, Marjorie, later fired Champion and had her daughter train with Frank Carroll, who led Tiffany to her World Junior title. However, Marjorie had some serious disagreements with Carroll which led Carroll to resign. Tiffany Chen then worked with John Nicks and was seen landing triple axels. After a growth spurt and a recurring injury (a muscle imbalance affecting her legs, arms, and hips) that caused her to lose many of her triple jumps, she left Nicks in 1985 and went on to train with Don Laws. Tiffany Chin was one of the few skaters in the 1980s who had all five triples, but she never regained her triple flip jump or her triple loop jump after 1985.

At the 1985 World Championships, Chin had a realistic shot at the title, particularly after placing 2nd in the compulsory figures, her nemesis from Sarajevo. However, in her free skate, she popped her triple Salchow into a single and fell on the double axel, finishing with the bronze medal behind Katarina Witt and Kira Ivanova. After the event, Chin's mother pulled her off the ice for eight months to address the muscle imbalance in her hips and legs. Using traditional medicine and chiropractic treatments, Tiffany Chin had to relearn all of her jumping passes. She entered the 1986 U.S. Championships as an underdog, and although she had a strong short program and excellent compulsories again, she dropped to third entering the long program. Chin made the Worlds team and arrived at Geneva as a long shot for a medal. There, she placed fourth in the compulsories and second in the short program to enter the long program in third place. A program with two triples and many doubled jumps was enough to give her the bronze medal.

In the fall of 1986, she returned to Nicks, and eventually back to Carroll in 1987. After failing to qualify for the 1987 World Championships, she retired from skating and went to college at UCLA, graduating with a BA in English.

After her amateur skating career ended, Chin became an established coach for figure skaters. Many of her students have qualified for Junior Nationals, Pacific Coast Sectionals, the US Figure Skating Nationals, and various international competitions, including, but not limited to, Beatrisa Liang, Melanie Diggs, Victoria Rackohn, Dustin Perini, Song King and Hounsh Munshi. Liang left Chin in 2004 when Chin took some time off from coaching because she was expecting a child, and Munshi moved from her California home to Texas for personal reasons. As of 2009, Perini and King are still coached by Chin.

Chin became a skating technical specialist in 2006 and received national status in 2007. On May 3, 2009, she was honored by the Los Angeles Chinese Historical Society of Southern California in "Celebrating Chinese Americans in Sports".

Competitive highlights

Event	1980-81	1981-82	1982-83	1983-84	1984-85	1985-86	1986-87
Winter Olympics				4th
World Championships			9th		3rd	3rd
World Junior Championships	1st
U.S. Championships		5th	3rd	2nd	1st	3rd	4th
Skate America				1st			1st
Skate Canada International					2nd
NHK Trophy			3rd