Eve Chalom
Eve Chalom, a young deaf woman and a high school senior at Grove High School, Birmingham, Michigan, has been rated among the nation’s best figure skating dance team. She has been skating competitively with Mathew Gates, who is not deaf, for several years in the Championship Dance events. They won several tournaments and finished high in other tournaments. The biggest accomplishment was winning the 1995 U.S. Junior Ice Dance championship, which led them to an appearance on the Chrysler Exhibition of Champions program. It was their second national championship in three seasons. And it led to invitations to perform in skating shows out of state; previously they performed locally.
After successfully passing all compulsory skating tests in gold level dances and gold level free dances to move up a notch from junior level to senior level, their summer has been extremely hectic, skating in three big time senior events, while representing USA.
First they finished 1st, 1st, 5th, 3rd, 3rd, and 4th in respective free and compulsory dance events at the 1995 USA-Canadian competition at Lake Placid, NY in August. Their scores were higher than those posted by four different dance teams at the 1994 meet.
Next came up the Grand Prix International meet in St. Gervais, France, a week later, in which they finished 8th of 14 teams in combined events, topping pairs from England, Australia, Russia, Italy and Israel. Their efforts earned a standing room ovation from the French audience.
And then during first week of September they skated at Nebelhorn Trophy meet in Oberstdorf, Germany. Competition there was stiffer, but they finished 12th and 11th in two events out of 14 participating teams. What was even more impressive during these events at Lake Placid, St. Gervais and Oberstdorf was that the Chalom-Gates pair competed as an unranked seniors team, not yet able to compete as seniors in their own nation but still able to upstage some experienced international senior pairs! They then wound down the grueling summer months with a weekend training at the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Camp, which is restricted to elite athletes. After that it was on to Toronto to get outfitted with a new pair of skates.
Gates, a native of England, moved to America to form a skating team with Eve. They didn’t know each other previously until they met for the first time ma figure skating event in Boston. After watching both of them skate, their coaches felt they could be matched up as a strong team as their body lines would look good together in front of the judges. They also agreed Evens deafness wouldn’t be a problem for Gates to handle on the ice.
They practice together four hours a day, six days a week, under watchful eyes of two coaches – Elizabeth Coates and Igor Shpilband. Eve, while wearing her hearing aid, has no problems with musical rhythms, but may struggle with some pieces. This is where Mathew steps in and handles her. When not busy pract~ing their numbers on the ice, they take ballroom dance lessons to improve their dance skating.
When not busy skating Eve is thinking of her future. She is taking classes in ASL and is planning to enroll at Madonna College with hopes of becoming a teacher of the deaf. She was Bat Mitzvahed in 1992.
As this issue goes to press Eve is getting ready, along with Mathew, for the Nationals in January in San Jose, California.
