Doug Mattis

Mattis was born on April 26, 1966, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.^[1] He won the junior men's title at the 1985 U.S. Championships.^[2]

From 1986 to 1991, Mattis competed in the senior men's division at the U.S. Championships. He won three international medals — gold at the 1985 Grand Prix International St. Gervais in France, silver at the 1985 Nebelhorn Trophy in Germany, and silver at the 1986 Novarat Trophy in Hungary.^[3] He never included the triple Axel in competition, having a low success rate in practice, but did perform a one-footed back flip.^[2] In the later years of his Olympic-eligible career, he was coached by Robin Cousins and Frank Carroll.^[4][2][5] He received financial support from the Foundation for International Ice Skating Advancement.^[6] In the 1990–91 season, he also trained in pair skating; his partner was Liberte Sheldon and was coached by Irina Rodnina.^[7] During his long program at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in 1991, Mattis protested what he thought was underscoring from the judges by executing a backflip, an illegal movement in national and international competitions. Despite landing 6 clean triple jumps in the program, the judges took significant deductions for the backflip, resulting in a 13th-place finish in his final eligible competition.^[8]

Mattis retired from amateur competition after the 1991 U.S. Championships.^[2] He then competed in professional events, including the U.S. Open Championships and World Professional Championships in Jaca, Spain.^[9][10] Mattis unsuccessfully tried to return to amateur skating after Rudy Galindo won the U.S Nationals title in 1996, citing Galindo as an inspiration that openly gay skaters could win competitions.^[11] He worked as a choreographer and coach.^[12][13][14] He supported the Young Artists Showcase at the American Ice Theater.^[15]

His programs included Hypnotized, Imitation, Nightmare/It's No Good, and Can't Cry Hard Enough.^[12][9]

As a writer, he published poems, essays and short stories and worked for Disney and Universal Studios.

Mattis was openly gay and performed an exhibition at the 1994 Gay Games in New York.^[16][2] He died on February 9, 2023, at the age of 56 in New York City.^[1][17] His life partner was clarinetist, Neil Rynston.