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[Sep. 27th, 2010|10:11 pm] |
Aimee Danielle Macklin was born August 18th 1986 in Aspen, CO into a family of athletic individuals. Her father, John, was a known skier in the area while her mother, Gina, is a former nationally ranked ice skater. Along with this, her younger brother, whom she is very close to, is a forward for the University of Denver's ice hockey team. She is incredibly proud of him and wishes she could attend more of his games.
At first, Aimee was mostly a girl who skied for fun. Her family visited ski resorts frequently because of John's desire and being so involved with the sport. Because she was, and still is, a daddy's girl, Aimee was exposed to the sport very early and fell in love with it quickly. Her parents encouraged her to work hard and always strive to give it 110% whenever she was in a competition.
While not competing, she was a normal girl. A self-proclaimed tomboy, she never really seriously dated anyone. True, she did go out on occasional dates with guys, but she never found anyone that she was overly interested in. Because of her seriousness with her sports, Aimee did find it a bit hard to maintain friendships, but she is still friends with some of the people that she went to school with.
At the age of 13, she became the first American to win an international competition in Italy that was for skiers between 11 and 14 years of age. After this, she became a member of the U.S. Ski Team. After training with various coaches, she rose through the ranks and made her Alpine Skiing World Cup debut in November 2002. Although she didn't win that particular year, she was still inspired to continue to strive to eventually be successful with her sport.
She went to her first Winter Olympics in 2006. That year, they were held in Torino, Italy. While training for a race, she crashed and was taken to a hospital where she was watched over night. She did come back the next day and fished 8th in the race. She did earn medals in the downhill and Super-G at the World Championships in Sweden a year later. Yet, a crash before the slalom caused an ACL sprain in her right knee. Still, she finished 3rd for the season in the World Cup compeitions for downhill and Super-G.
Yet, while in Torino in 2006, she met and became awfully close to Jayden Daniels. Jayden was a member of the US men's figure skating team. While neither of them did that well at this particular Olympics, they both walked away with a prize that was a bit more special - each other. Although she lived and trained in Colorado and he lived and trained in California, the couple managed to visit each other frequently and kept in contact through phone calls and emails. Finally, Aimee decided to move to California to be closer to her boyfriend in 2007. Jayden proposed not too long after, and the two married on September 26th 2008.
In 2008, she won the overall World Cup title for the first time. She also won the title in downhill and the U.S. Alpine Championships. After her marriage to Jayden, she competed once again in the World Cup. However, this time, she wasn't quite as successful. She bruised her arm after a large crash, but she still managed to win 3 races during the competition.
She competed on the US team at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, BC. Although she had a bruised shin, she still wanted to do her best. She won the gold medal in the downhill, becoming the first American woman to win the gold in this event, but she crashed out on the slalom portion of the super-combined event.
Her third event, the Super-G, was much more successful. Although she placed 3rd, she is still proud of her accomplishments and how far she has come since the Olympics in Torino. Right now, though, she is incredibly proud of her husband, JC, for winning the gold in the men's figure skating.
JC and Aimee's plans of "eventually" starting a family were realized this past year. After trying to get pregnant for about a year, the two adopted their son Cody, who was 8 months old at the time, in March 2010, and they also, by surprise, welcomed a daughter,Melanie Brooke, on October 14th 2010. |
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