This is one of the most exciting posts I’ve ever written!
My son, Joel Schneider-Farris received the news that he is now a US Figure Skating Quintuple Gold Medalist! He finally passed his Senior Free Skate Test after four tries!
Below is the video of the passing test. Notice that a coach that was teaching on the session got in his way over and over, but still Joel was so determined that he did not stop and skated great! We flew to Australia that afternoon, so Joel knew this was his last chance to prove to himself that he could do a clean program. That is an achievement in itself!
Also, below are Joel’s test papers:
Perseverance has to be mentioned here since this was no easy task for Joel.
On Wednesday, July 14, 2014, Joel was hired by Disney On Ice to join the cast of Disney On Ice Frozen. This was very exciting news, but…he was scheduled to take his senior free skate test in August of 2014, and that test was put on hold. We thought perhaps he could work on that test and his other senior and gold tests on the road, but show and tour life made that difficult.
So…every time Joel came home between tours, he worked on passing the tests he did not complete before beginning his career with Disney On Ice.
(He passed the senior moves in the field test on July 20, 2014, the day before he left for this first tour. Disney allowed him to postpone his airline flight to Florida for rehearsals for one day so he could complete that test. He’d originally been told to he’d begin work on July 21, but fortunately. Disney On Ice allowed him to travel on July 21 and begin work on July 22, and he passed the senior moves test on July 20.)
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| Joel smiles with his coaches Ryan Jahnke and Dalilah Sappenfield the day he passed his senior moves in the field test 7/20/14 And…below he smiles with another one of his coaches Eddie Shipstad just before he left for the show |
Below is one of the senior moves Joel did on July 20, 2014 , the day he passed his senior moves in the field test. He left the next day to join the cast of Disney On Ice.
On July 15, 2018, four years later, during a break from the show and tour life, Joel passed the last dance in the pre-gold dance test, the Paso Doble, and passed the Pre-Gold Dance test.
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| Pre-Gold and Senior Solo Free Dance Passed! 7/15/2018 |
He also worked on the senior solo free dance during that break and passed on the second try during that break and became a US Figure Skating Double Gold Medalist.
Joel continued tour life, but decided he wanted to work towards getting other gold medals since his sister Annabelle has seven gold medals and his sister Rebekah has six.
This goal kind of was put on hold since the four gold dances in the gold dance test are so, so difficult. Perfection is required. Getting the senior free dance test passed required a partner and also the prerequisite of passing the Gold Dance test first and although Joel passed the Junior Free Skate before he left for his first Disney On Ice tour on May 4, 2014, getting the Senior Free Skate seemed daunting since it was hard to get practice in while traveling, performing, and touring, but in the back of Joel’s mind, he was still determined to work towards completing the gold medals he had not completed before leaving for his first tour.
In 2020, the Pandemic came and skating was next to impossible, but once ice rinks opened again, Joel was determined to work towards his goal. Even during the Covid lockdown, when limited ice time was available, Joel took lessons on his gold dances. The two of us had fun practicing the Quickstep and Argentine together.
Finally, during the summer of 2022, when both Joel and I were in Sun Valley (Joel was in the ensemble cast of Sun Valley On Ice and also worked Bell Service at the Sun Valley Hotel), one of the officials and adult skaters in the Sun Valley Figure Skating Club suggested Joel consider taking his gold dances that summer since there was a couple test sessions during the summer.
I know how Joel learns, so we decided together that Joel would work on just two gold dances during the summer, the Quickstep and Argentine tango, which coaches Brent Bommentre and Natalia Zaitseva. The end of the summer came, and Joel tested those dances and passed on August 31, 2022 at a Sun Valley Figure Skating Club virtual test session.
Below are films of those dance tests.
When we left Sun Valley in early September (since the Sun Valley Ice Rink suddenly closed) and returned to Colorado, Joel decided to work towards passing the Viennese Waltz and Westminster Waltz. We only had to the end of November since Joel was hired to teach skiing in Sun Valley beginning in early December.
The Viennese ended up passing, but the Westminster didn’t pass, so in December, even though Sun Valley had no ice time, Joel was able to skate a bit with Natalia Zaitseva and got a few lessons with Brent Bommentre and finally passed his Westminster Waltz and the Gold Dance test on January 2, 2023!
After passing his Gold Dance test Joel was determined to get the senior free dance and the senior free skate passed, so even though there was limited ice time in the Wood River Valley, choreography on both programs happened and he took the senior free dance virtually. Passing the senior free dance took three tries, but finally passed the senior free dance on May 1, 2023!
This now brings us up to date to June 2023. I wrote the following post below on Facebook the evening of 7/6/23 as soon as I heard Joel passed:
“We were just notified tonight that my son Joel passed his Senior Free Skate test and is now a US Figure Skating Quintuple Gold Medalist in Moves, Solo Free Dance, Dance, Free Dance, and Free Skate!
This was no easy task. There was really very little ice time in Sun Valley this winter while he was teaching skiing there this past season.
Joel decided to squeeze in getting the senior free skate passed when we returned to Colorado Springs in late April when the ski season ended and only had until the first week of June to get the test completed.
Due to the virtual test option, Joel tried the test four times and the fourth try which was filmed on June 5 passed and he did that on the day we left for Australia! (The day before, Joel tested the same test in person, but did not have a good skate, and was determined to skate a good program again the next day and he did! Talk about perseverance!).
Joel is teaching skiing at a Vail owned resort called Perisher for the Australian winter season. There is no ice rink there so getting this done was so important to Joel.
Our whole family is SO HAPPY since this had been a goal for Joel ever since he left to tour with Disney On Ice in July of 2014. For those who don’t know skating, this accomplishment is SO HUGE. In my opinion five US Figure Skating Gold Medals is equivalent to a PHD!
My late father, Joel’s Grandpa, would have been so proud. I feel he is smiling right now from above! Daddy “Grandpa” felt that skating tests and test gold medals meant more than wins. He supported my three children as they grew up as competitive skaters and the fact that my daughter Annabelle earned seven gold medals, my daughter Rebekah earned six, and now my son Joel earned five, is because of all the love and support that came from Dr. Arthur Schneider, the best skating grandpa ever!
I also want to thank the coaches that were part of making this senior free skate gold medal happen: Linda Alexander, Dalilah Sappenfield, Ashley Clark, and Dianna-lynne Webster Wells. Joel couldn’t have done this without you!”
Below are videos of two of the other tries Joel submitted that did not pass (he passed by one judge each time). If you watch the videos you will see how much Joel wanted this! Each test was so close.
The video above was filmed on June 1, 2023
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