page_title: Kimmie Meissner
section_title: Post-2008 career
hierarchical_section_title: Kimmie Meissner / Competitive career / Post-2008 career
caption_attribution_description: English: Kimmie Meissner at the 2008 Skate America.
context_page_description: Kimberly Claire "Kimmie" Meissner is an American former competitive figure skater. She is the 2006 World champion, the 2007 Four Continents champion, and the 2007 U.S. national champion. She is the first American and the first woman to simultaneously hold the World, Four Continents, and national titles. In 2005, Meissner became the second American woman to land the triple Axel jump in national competition. She was the youngest American athlete to compete at the 2006 Olympics, coming in sixth place. She won the World Championships the following month, and the U.S. Nationals the following season. She was inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2020.
  Meissner was one of the best technical figure skaters of her time, but was an inconsistent skater, especially towards the end of her career. She was compared to Olympic skater and U.S. champion Michelle Kwan, who called her "the new face of figure skating". By 2020, she worked in the medical field and coached young skaters in Maryland. Meissner was the spokesperson for the "Cool Kids Campaign", a pediatric oncology charity.
context_section_description: Going into the 2008–2009 season, Meissner worked to get her career back on track with Callaghan and former figure skater and World Champion Todd Eldridge.  She also worked with a ballet instructor.  She later said that her arrangement with Callaghan did not work and that his approach "robbed her of the joy that had always fueled her best performances".
  At 2008 Skate America, despite being well-prepared and having good practices and warm-ups, her comeback was "derailed in a series of falls and poorly executed jumps".  She came in eighth place overall.  In her short program, she rushed the entrance to her triple flip and fell, although Elvin Walker of Golden Skate reported that she "skated with a newfound maturity and a happiness that has been absent from her skating at recent competitions" and that her results kept her in contention for a medal, anyway.  She came in sixth place, earning 54.90 points.  The New York Times reported that in the free skate, she seemed to be "struggling with the same demons that wrecked her confidence last season".  Walker called her free skate "disastrous"; she slipped on the landings and fell on her opening two jumps, a triple Lutz and a double Axel, changed or eliminated five other jumps, and completed none of her planned three combination jumps.  She came in ninth place in the free skate, earning 81.02 points, with 135.92 points overall.  Despite her low results, Olympic champion and figure skating commentator Scott Hamilton, who blamed Meissner's difficulties on her recent growth spurt, said that she should not be counted out of consideration for future success.  The Associated Press called Meissner's performance during her short program at 2008 Cup of Russia "disappointing".  She came in eighth place, with 48.08 points.  She came in seventh place in the free skate, with 83.28 points, and eighth place overall, earning a total of 131.36 points.
  Meissner withdrew from the 2009 U.S. Nationals due to a hip flexor injury that occurred during an off-ice training session, while sprinting on a treadmill, and exacerbated while training jumps on the ice.  She went through physical therapy back in Baltimore, but the pain was too much to complete her jumps and fully compete.  She stated that she hoped that she would recover in order to compete at the 2010 Nationals.
  In August 2009, Meissner watched a beloved aunt and an 8-year old friend from the Cool Kids Campaign die of cancer.  Also in August, Meissner sustained an injury while training, when she pulled out of a jump to avoid colliding with a younger skater.  She landed on her right knee, which became chronically inflamed, swollen, and painful.  After six weeks of physical therapy back home in Maryland, she was diagnosed with severe patellar tendonitis and a partial dislocation in her right kneecap.  After consulting with an orthopedic specialist, she decided to withdraw from her two Grand Prix assignments, the Rostelecom Cup and the NHK Trophy.  Although her withdrawal meant that she would not be eligible for Nationals and thereby not eligible for the Olympics, she told the Baltimore Sun she was not retiring from skating.  She told the press, "For the United States to be represented properly, especially during an Olympic year, I feel I must put my personal desire to compete aside". Callaghan said that training had gone well over the summer before her injury and that Meissner was upset about the situation, but he was confident that she would be able to compete at the 2014 Olympics.
  In early 2010, Meissner changed coaches again, to Baltimore-based coach Chris Conte, who had previously worked with Sasha Cohen, Emily Hughes, Miki Ando, and Timothy Goebel.  Conte helped her rebuild her jumping technique and make it more efficient, add rotation to her takeoffs and stability to her landings, and choreograph her ice show programs.  She also began working as a physical therapist, performing in ice shows, and taking college courses.  Meissner retired from competitive skating in 2010.
  In 2016, Meissner told figure skating reporter Sarah Brannen that the end 
caption: Meissner at 2008 Skate America
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