Kenneth Shelley is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 figure skater who competed in both singles and pairs. As a single skater, he won the 1972 United States Figure Skating Championships

United States Figure Skating Championships

The United States Figure Skating Championships is figure skating competition held annually to crown the national champions of the United States. The competition is sanctioned by U.S. Figure Skating. In the U.S. skating community, the event is often referred to informally as "Nationals".Skaters...

 and placed 4th at the 1972 Winter Olympics

1972 Winter Olympics

The 1972 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XI Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated from February 3 to February 13, 1972 in Sapporo, Hokkaidō, Japan...

. His highest placement at the World Figure Skating Championships

World Figure Skating Championships

The World Figure Skating Championships is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union in which elite figure skaters compete for the title of World Champion...

 was a single skater was 7th, in 1972. As a pair skater, he competed with JoJo Starbuck

JoJo Starbuck

JoJo Starbuck is an American figure skater. With partner Kenneth Shelley, she is a three-time United States pair skating champion and two-time Olympian ....

, with whom he is a three-time National Champion. Starbuck and Shelley competed in two Olympic Games, placing 13th in 1968 and 4th in 1972, and won two bronze medals at the World Figure Skating Championships

World Figure Skating Championships

The World Figure Skating Championships is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union in which elite figure skaters compete for the title of World Champion...

. When they made the 1968 Olympic team, they were the youngest athletes the United States had ever sent to the Olympics.

Shelley was from Downey, California

Downey, California

Downey is a city located in southeast Los Angeles County, California, United States, southeast of downtown Los Angeles. The city is best known as the birthplace of the Apollo space program, and is the city where folk singer Karen Carpenter lived and died...

. He was first paired with Starbuck for a show in 1959, when they were very small children. They started training seriously with coach John Nicks

John Nicks

John Allen Wisden Nicks is a British figure skating coach and former pair skater. His pairs partner was his sister Jennifer Nicks, and together they were the 1953 World Champions...

 at the Arctic Blades FSC in 1961. In their first year of senior competitions, when they were both 16 years old, they qualified to compete at the 1968 Winter Olympics

1968 Winter Olympics

The 1968 Winter Olympics, officially known as the X Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1968 in Grenoble, France and opened on 6 February. Thirty-seven countries participated...

. Both Starbuck and Shelley attended Downey High School, where they performed off-ice lifts with the cheerleading squad and Long Beach State College.

In the summer of 1969, Shelley had a serious off-ice accident, crashing through a glass patio door at a party. He had surgery to repair two severed tendons and spent 5 weeks in a cast.

After retiring from competitive skating, Starbuck and Shelley skated in the Ice Capades

Ice Capades

The Ice Capades was a traveling entertainment show featuring theatrical performances involving ice skating. Shows often featured former Olympicand National Champion figure skaters who had retired from amateur competition....

 and competed professionally. Shelley was inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 1994.

Mens singles

Event	1970	1971	1972
Winter Olympics Winter Olympic Games The Winter Olympic Games is a sporting event, which occurs every four years. The first celebration of the Winter Olympics was held in Chamonix, France, in 1924. The original sports were alpine and cross-country skiing, figure skating, ice hockey, Nordic combined, ski jumping and speed skating...			4th
World Championships World Figure Skating Championships The World Figure Skating Championships is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union in which elite figure skaters compete for the title of World Champion...	8th	8th	7th
North American Championships North American Figure Skating Championships The North American Figure Skating Championships were a former elite figure skating competition for skaters from the United States and Canada. It was a biennial competition held between 1923 and 1971, with locations alternating between the two countries.Although the event was classified as an...		3rd
U.S. Championships United States Figure Skating Championships The United States Figure Skating Championships is figure skating competition held annually to crown the national champions of the United States. The competition is sanctioned by U.S. Figure Skating. In the U.S. skating community, the event is often referred to informally as "Nationals".Skaters...	3rd	2nd	1st

Pairs

(with JoJo Starbuck

JoJo Starbuck

JoJo Starbuck is an American figure skater. With partner Kenneth Shelley, she is a three-time United States pair skating champion and two-time Olympian ....

)

Event	1967	1968	1969	1970	1971	1972
Winter Olympic Games Winter Olympic Games The Winter Olympic Games is a sporting event, which occurs every four years. The first celebration of the Winter Olympics was held in Chamonix, France, in 1924. The original sports were alpine and cross-country skiing, figure skating, ice hockey, Nordic combined, ski jumping and speed skating...		13th				4th
World Championships World Figure Skating Championships The World Figure Skating Championships is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union in which elite figure skaters compete for the title of World Champion...		11th	6th	5th	3rd	3rd
North American Championships North American Figure Skating Championships The North American Figure Skating Championships were a former elite figure skating competition for skaters from the United States and Canada. It was a biennial competition held between 1923 and 1971, with locations alternating between the two countries.Although the event was classified as an...			2nd		1st
U.S. Championships	1st J.	3rd	2nd	1st	1st	1st

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