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Meno, Jenni

Jenni Meno

Induction Year : 2003

Sport: Figure Skating

She began to get serious about figure skating rather early in life—when she was an eight-year-old elementary school student in her home town of Westlake. Beginning as a singles skater, she shifted her attention to pairs skating as a teen-ager and at the age of 22 she shifted partners and into a high gear on the world stage. Teaming with Todd Sand, who towered a full 11 inches above her, they quickly adjusted to each other and in their first year together in 1993 they captured a silver medal in the U.S. National Championships and placed a surprising fifth at the World Championships. The following year they won the U.S. National Championship, qualified for the ’94 Winter Olympics were they finished fifth, found a moment to become engaged while there, and then went on to finish sixth in the World Championships. By the time she and her husband ended there amateur careers to join the Stars on Ice Tour for the 1998-99 season, the pair had amassed three U.S. National Championships (in 1994, 1995 and 1996) plus a second in 1997 and had established themselves as favorites for the ’98 title, only to have to withdraw when Jenni suffered a serious ankle injury. Later, able to train for only a week for the 1998 Winter Olympics, they gamely competed and finished a credible eighth, With Jenni fully recovered a month thereafter, they were able t close out their amateur careers by capturing the silver in the ’98 World Championships. Still skating professionally, the couple lives and trains in Southern California and Summerlin, Nevada.