Christopher Martin Davis (born 1 March 1994) is a competitive

ice dancer Ice dance (sometimes referred to as ice dancing) is a discipline of figure skating that historically draws from ballroom dancing. It joined the World Figure Skating Championships in 1952, and became a Winter Olympic Games medal sport in 1976. A ...

for

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

. With partner

Mina Zdravkova Mina Zdravkova () (born 9 February 1999) is a competitive ice dancer for Bulgaria. With partner Christopher Martin Davis, she is the 2020 Bulgarian National Champion, Bronze Medallist at the 2019 NRW Trophy, Silver Medallist at the 2020 Jégv ...

, he is the 2020 Bulgarian Ice Dance Champion, Silver Medallist at 2020 Jégvirág Cup, Bronze Medallist at 2019

NRW Trophy The NRW Trophy (also known as the NRW Summer Trophy or the NRW Autumn Trophy) is an annual international figure skating competition organized by the Skating Union of North Rhine-Westphalia. Since 2007, it has been sanctioned by the Deutsche Eisla ...

, and the Bulgarian representative at the

2020 European Figure Skating Championships The 2020 European Figure Skating Championships were held in Graz, Austria, on 20–26 January 2020. Medals were awarded in the disciplines of single skating, men's singles, ladies' singles, pair skating, pairs, and ice dance. The competition det ...

and

2021 World Figure Skating Championships The 2021 World Figure Skating Championships were held from March 22 to 28, 2021, at the Ericsson Globe in Stockholm, Sweden. Sanctioned by the International Skating Union (ISU), the World Championships are considered the most prestigious event i ...

. Originally a U.S. citizen, Davis became a naturalized Bulgarian citizen in 2019 and has demonstrated his knowledge of the Bulgarian language in television interviews.

Personal life

Davis was born in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, Illinois. He studied communications at the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...

. He abides by a vegan diet and has collaborated with

Peta People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA; ) is an American animal rights nonprofit organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, and led by Ingrid Newkirk, its international president. Founded in March 1980 by Newkirk and animal right ...

to promote ethical eating. He believes that

figure skating Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, with its introduction occurring at the Figure skating at the 1908 Summer Olympi ...

should be a welcoming place for diverse groups of athletes, and advocates for adult skating, for inclusive programing for athletes with disabilities, and for the mitigation of elitism and exclusivity in the sport. He is a trustee of the charity Inclusive Skating.

Early career

Davis started skating in 1999 in hockey courses at The Robert Crown Community Center in Evanston Illinois. He started training in ice dancing in 2008 with Angelina Giordano under coach Christopher Hyland. With Giordano, Davis won the 2010 US Junior National Title at the juvenile level. Giordano and Davis terminated their partnership in 2012 due to different goals. His early career coaches included: Christopher Hyland, Jamie Whyte, Eve Chalom, Kendra Goodwin, Benjamin Delmas and Christophe Lecomte.

Career

In 2014 Davis partnered with

.Together they won the 2014/15 Bulgarian junior ice dance title. In 2015, Davis sustained a serious shoulder injury for which he underwent keyhole surgery in the USA. Post surgery, a significant recovery and rehab period was required away from the ice. The surgery was not successful, and the injury returned early in the 2016/17 season. A second surgery was conducted in Bulgaria in 2016 and was successful at abating any further problems. Starting in 2016 Zdravkova and Davis were coached solely by Marika Humphreys-Baranova and Vitaliy Baranov. Zdravkova and Davis returned to national level competition at the 2016/17 Bulgarian figure skating championships where they reclaimed their title.In 2018 Zdravkova and Davis first performed a program set to Bulgarian folk music. Their performance of this program at the

2019 Winter Universiade The 2019 Winter Universiade (), the XXIX Winter Universiade, was a multi-sport event for student and youth athletes which took place from 2 to 12 March 2019 in the Russian city of Krasnoyarsk. The 2019 Winter Universiade was the third Universia ...

went viral in Bulgaria in 2019, amassing millions of views. During the 2019/20 season, Zdravkova and Davis qualified and competed at the 2020 European Figure Skating Championships placing 25th. The team also qualified for the 2020 World figure skating championships, but the event was cancelled due to COVID-19.Due to COVID-19 Zdravkova and Davis were unable to train on the ice for over 7 months. During this time they trained off-ice and made several PSAs for Bulgarian media urging compliance with public health safety measures. In December 2020, the Bulgarian National Championships were postponed until February 2021. Zdravkova and Davis reclaimed their title and were named to the world team. Zdravkova and Davis competed at the

which were held in a bubble for the first time due to COVID-19 safety precautions, and placed 31st.

Programs - with Mina Zdravkova

Results - with Mina Zdravkova for Bulgaria

References

External links

Beauty in Sport Social Media Article from Winter Universiade 2019

www.iceskating.london
{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Christopher Martin 1994 births Living people Bulgarian male ice dancers Competitors at the 2019 Winter Universiade Figure skaters from Chicago 21st-century Bulgarian sportsmen