Young skaters a matched pair

Raleigh is the home base for Shantel Jordan and Steven Elefante

RALEIGH -- Last summer, at age 13, Shantel Jordan decided it was time for a career change. So with her mother in tow, the 5-foot-2 pairs figure skater moved from Palmetto, Fla., to Raleigh to team up with a new partner.

Raleigh native Steven Elefante was already training here, but at 19, his singles skating career had plateaued.

Six months later, Jordan's decision to move here to pair up with Elefante seems to have paid off. This week, they will compete at the U.S. national figure skating championships in Spokane, Wash.

Like so many couples seeking meaningful relationships, they met on the Web.

Over the summer, Shantel had split from partner Jeremy Barrett, with whom she had won the U.S. junior championship in 2004. She met Steven, a 5-11 singles skater through a skating database. He had never performed in pairs, except in local holiday shows. But in tryouts, both said they clicked.

"The main thing that made me choose him was his drive and his focus and, like, how motivated he was to just be the best," Shantel said. "Because everything else you can be taught, all the elements and stuff. You just have to have it inside, and you can't teach that."

"Me, I had no pairs experience really," Steven added. "But it seemed like right when we started skating together, it just felt comfortable for me."

Shantel, now 14, is the outspoken, bubbly veteran of the team. On the ice, she calls out "now!" to tell Steven to throw her for a triple jump, and issues pep talks throughout their practices. Steven is more reserved, but every bit as much a perfectionist.

The pair spends as much time together as many married couples. Six days a week, they skate together for four hours, work out at the gym for an hour and a half, and practice lifts off the ice for another half hour. They juggle skating with classes, she at Athens Drive High School and he at Limestone College online.

Olympic dreams

Already, they are the best pair in the state, but they're aiming much higher. They are not expected to contend for a medal at the nationals, but they hope to qualify for the international junior circuit and build a long career that leads to the Olympics.

North Carolina is an unlikely training ground. Shantel and Steven might have moved to a skating mecca like Detroit or Los Angeles. But Raleigh had something special to offer -- two coaches who had been Olympic pairs skaters.

On a recent Sunday afternoon, coach Elena Betchke glided onto the ice at the RBC Center in sweats and a bright fuzzy scarf. Betchke won a pairs Olympic silver medal for Russia in 1992, the same year that Kristi Yamaguchi of Raleigh won gold in women's singles.

A few minutes later, Betchke was joined by Mirko Muller, who competed in pairs for Germany at two Olympics and became legendary for his spinning ability. He is now a global advertising manager at Nortel Networks, but he agreed to help coach the pair because of their potential.

The team got permission from the Carolina Hurricanes to use their ice so they could get used to skating in an arena before the nationals. Betchke stood by the boards, nodding as her pupils stroked past rows of empty seats.

Watching them practice, it's hard to believe that they have only been together a few months -- and that all this is new for Steven. They skate in unison, their jumps are difficult, and their combination spin and death spirals are competitive with most other senior American pairs.

And, frankly, they just look good together, performing tough technical elements with the same clean, balletic body lines.