Valentina Matos
Spanish figure skater (born 2000)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Valentina Matos Romero (born 28 September 2000) is a figure skater. Born in the Dominican Republic, she represents Spain in ladies singles. She is the 2019 Open d'Andorra champion and a three-time Spanish national champion (2016, 2018, 2019). She has competed in the final segment at one ISU Championship.
Valentina Matos at the 2019 Challenge Cup | ||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Valentina Matos Romero | |||||||||||
| Born | 28 September 2000 | |||||||||||
| Height | 1.76 m (5 ft 9+1⁄2 in) | |||||||||||
| Figure skating career | ||||||||||||
| Country |  Spain | |||||||||||
| Discipline | Women's singles | |||||||||||
| Began skating | 2007 | |||||||||||
| Medal record | ||||||||||||
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Personal life
Valentina Matos Romero was born on 28 September 2000 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.[1][2] She is of Venezuelan descent and arrived in Spain as a one-year-old.[3] After finishing secondary school, she began studying at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid through distance education. In 2022 she stepped away from professional figure skating, studying abroad at Hanyang University in South Korea. In 2023, Matos began a PhD in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Her research focuses on leveraging AI for digital pathology to identify precursor lesions in pancreatic cancer.[4]
Career
Early years
Matos began learning to skate in 2008.[2] She won the novice ladies' title at the Spanish Championships in December 2014. Her junior international debut came in September 2015, at the Lombardia Trophy. In December 2015, she became the Spanish national junior silver medalist.
2016–2017 season
In October 2016, Matos competed for the first time on the ISU Junior Grand Prix series. In November, making her senior international debut, she won silver at the Open d'Andorra. The following month, she outscored Sonia Lafuente by 6.09 points for the senior ladies' title at the Spanish Championships.[3]
In January 2017, Matos competed at the European Championships in Ostrava, Czech Republic, but did not advance to the final segment.[5] She qualified to the free skate and finished 24th overall at the 2017 World Junior Championships, held in March in Taipei, Taiwan.
2017–2018 season
Spain assigned Matos to compete at the 2017 CS Nebelhorn Trophy, the final qualifying opportunity for the 2018 Winter Olympics.[6] Due to an ankle injury,[4] she withdrew before the start of the event. She placed 33rd at the 2018 European Championships in Moscow, Russia. She was coached by Carolina Sanz, Ivan Saez, and Jordi Lafarga at La Nevera in Madrid.[2]
2018–2019 season
Ahead of the 2018–2019 season, Matos decided to relocate to Italy to train with Barbara Luoni at IceLab in Bergamo.[4]
Programs
| Season | Short program | Free skating |
|---|---|---|
| 2019–2020 [7] |
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| 2017–2019 [4][2] |
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| 2016–2017 [8] |
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Competitive highlights
CS: Challenger Series; JGP: Junior Grand Prix
| International[9] | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Event | 15–16 | 16–17 | 17–18 | 18–19 | 19–20 |
| Worlds | 34th | ||||
| Europeans | 33rd | 33rd | 31st | 28th | |
| CS Alpen Trophy | 19th | ||||
| CS Finlandia | 15th | ||||
| CS Golden Spin | WD | ||||
| CS Lombardia | 20th | 10th | |||
| CS Nebelhorn | WD | ||||
| CS Warsaw Cup | 24th | ||||
| Bavarian Open | 14th | ||||
| Denis Ten Memorial | 9th | ||||
| Golden Bear | 15th | 10th | |||
| Ice Star | 13th | ||||
| Challenge Cup | 11th | 14th | 9th | ||
| Open d'Andorra | 2nd | 1st | |||
| Santa Claus Cup | 4th | ||||
| Universiade | 14th | ||||
| International: Junior[9] | |||||
| Junior Worlds | 24th | ||||
| JGP Germany | 17th | ||||
| Lombardia Trophy | 16th | ||||
| Santa Claus Cup | 26th | ||||
| Hellmut Seibt | 18th | ||||
| National[9] | |||||
| Spanish Champ. | 2nd J | 1st | 1st | 1st | |