Todd Sand (born October 30, 1963) is an American pair skater. With his wife Jenni Meno, he is the 1998 World silver medalist, a two-time World bronze medalist (1995, 1996), and a three-time U.S. national champion (1994–96). With his previous partner Natasha Kuchiki, he is the 1991 World bronze medalist.

Personal life

Sand was born in

Burbank Burbank may refer to: Places Australia * Burbank, Queensland, a suburb in Brisbane United States * Burbank, California, a city in Los Angeles County * Burbank, Santa Clara County, California, a census-designated place * Burbank, Illinois, ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. He has dual American and Danish citizenship, since his father is Danish. He is married to Jenni Meno, with whom he has two sons, Jack, born in 2004, and Matthew Kenneth, born in 2006. In March 2023, while attending the 2023 World Junior Figure Skating Championships with his students, Sophia Baram / Daniel Tioumentsev in

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, Sand suffered a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

and was hospitalized for an extended period.

Skating career

Early career

Early in his career, Sand represented

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

as a single skater. He competed for that country at the

World The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that Existence, exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk ...

and European Championships in the early 1980s. In 1985, Sand began competing as a pair skater with Lori Blasko, representing the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. They were the 1985 U.S. national bronze medalists on the junior level.

Career with Kuchiki

Sand teamed up with Natasha Kuchiki in spring 1989. They won three senior pairs medals at the U.S. Championships, including gold in 1991, and competed at three World Championships, winning a surprising bronze in

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

. They also competed at the

1992 Winter Olympics The 1992 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVI Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Albertville '92 (Franco-Provençal, Arpitan: ''Arbèrtvile '92''), were a winter multi-sport event held from 8 to 23 February 1992 in and aroun ...

, where they placed 6th. Kuchiki and Sand announced the end of their partnership in April 1992.

Career with Meno

Meno and Sand teamed up on the ice in April 1992. They had immediate success, qualifying for the 1993 World Figure Skating Championships in their first season with a 2nd-place finish at the U.S Nationals, and were the top Americans there placing 5th, qualifying three teams for the

1994 Winter Olympics The 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games (; ) and commonly known as Lillehammer '94, were an international winter multi-sport event held from 12 to 27 February 1994 in and around Lillehammer, Norway. Hav ...

in Lillehammer, Norway. They became U.S Champions in 1994, then placed 5th in arguably the strongest pairs field assembled in history in Lillehammer with two clean skates. In 1995, they won their second consecutive U.S title with perhaps their finest performance ever, gaining 6 perfect 6.0s for artistic impression. They then came from 5th after the short program to win the bronze medal at the 1995 World Figure Skating Championships. In 1996, they won their third consecutive U.S title, and again climbed from 5th to 3rd, and won their second consecutive World bronze medal. In 1997, they set themselves up as possible contenders for the World title early in the season, beating both the World gold and World silver medallists Marina Eltsova / Andrei Bushkov and Mandy Woetzel / Ingo Steuer in fall competitions. They had also gained the necessary side by side triple toes that had prevented them from a higher finish than 3rd place at the previous two World Championships. They however lost their form and suffered a last place finish at the Champions Series final in Hamilton, Ontario, and lost their U.S title to Kyoko Ina / Jason Dungjen. With a chance for the World title after major mistakes by the other top teams, they suffered another lacklustre outing and dropped to 5th at the 1997 World Figure Skating Championships. They missed much of the 1997–1998 competitive season with injury, and had to withdraw from the U.S Championships after the short program, but on their past record were named to the team for the

1998 Winter Olympics The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the and commonly known as Nagano 1998 (), were a winter multi-sport event held from 7 to 22 February 1998, mainly in Nagano, Nagano, Nagano, Nagano Prefecture, Japan, with some events ...

in Nagano, Japan. After a dismal performance in Nagano in finishing 8th, they ended their career on a high on home ice in Minneapolis at the 1998 World Figure Skating Championships, winning the short program, and taking the silver medal, their highest finish ever at Worlds. Following their retirement from competitive skating, they skated professionally in the Stars on Ice tour for six seasons.

Post-skating career

Sand appeared in the ITV series '' Dancing on Ice'' with double Olympic gold medallist

Kelly Holmes Dame Kelly Holmes (born 19 April 1970) is a retired British Middle-distance running, middle distance Track and field, athlete and television personality. Holmes specialised in the 800 metres, 800 and 1500 metres events and won gold medals for ...

. They were eliminated in quarterfinal (Week 6) after the judges' votes to save

Bonnie Langford Bonita Melody Lysette Langford (born 22 July 1964) is an English actress, dancer and singer. She came to prominence as a child star in the 1970s, when she had a notable role in the TV series '' Just William''. In the 1980s, she played companio ...

and her partner Matt Evers. Sand works as a coach with his wife. They previously coached John Baldwin / Rena Inoue, Mary Beth Marley / Rockne Brubaker, and Jessica Calalang / Zack Sidhu. Currently, they coach Alexa Knierim / Brandon Frazier. Sand is an ISU Technical Specialist. He was a technical specialist for the men's event at the 2005 World Championships.ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships
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Competitive highlights

Pairs career for the United States

With Jenni Meno

With Natasha Kuchiki

With Lori Blasko

Singles career for Denmark

References

External links

Official site

The Figure Skating Corner profile

Pairs on Ice: Blasko & Sand

Pairs on Ice: Kuchiki & Sand

Pairs on Ice: Meno & Sand

Meno, Sand to coach Inoue, Baldwin
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sand, Todd 1963 births American male pair skaters Danish male single skaters Figure skaters at the 1992 Winter Olympics Figure skaters at the 1994 Winter Olympics Figure skaters at the 1998 Winter Olympics Figure skating reality television participants International Skating Union technical specialists Living people Olympic figure skaters for the United States World Figure Skating Championships medalists Competitors at the 1990 Goodwill Games Sportspeople from Burbank, California 20th-century American sportsmen 20th-century Danish sportsmen