Emmi Peltonen (born 29 November 1999) is a Finnish-American figure skater. She is the 2017 FBMA Trophy champion, the 2020 Nordic silver medalist, and a three-time Finnish national champion (2016, 2017, 2019). She has finished within the top ten at three European Championships, and represented Finland at the 2018 Winter Olympics, where she finished twentieth.
Personal life
Peltonen was born on 29 November 1999 in Nashville, Tennessee.[1] She has two brothers, twins Aleksi and Jesper (one year older), and a sister, Nelli (six years younger).[2] Their Finnish parents – Hanna, a former figure skater, and Ville Peltonen, a former ice hockey player – had moved to the United States due to his contract with the NHL's Nashville Predators franchise.[2] The family returned to Finland a few years later. Her paternal grandfather, Esa Peltonen, is also a former professional ice hockey player.[2]
Career
Early years
Peltonen received her first skates when she was two years old and began learning to skate in 2002.[1][2] She competed domestically for the United States as a child at the juvenile level until 2010.[3] She began competing on the advanced novice level at international events in the 2011–2012 season. She won the novice gold medal at the 2013 Nordic Championships.
Virpi Horttana coached Peltonen at Espoo Skating Club in Espoo, Finland.[4] Her ISU Junior Grand Prix (JGP) debut came in August 2014; she finished ninth at her assignment in Courchevel, France.
Making her senior international debut, Peltonen placed tenth at the Finlandia Trophy, a Challenger Series (CS) event in October 2015. She did not compete at the Finnish Championships in December but took the junior bronze medal at the Nordic Championships a couple of months later.
In December 2016, Peltonen won the senior gold medal at the Finnish Championships in Tampere,[5] having outscored silver medalist Jenni Saarinen by eight points. She was named in Finland's team to the 2017 European Championships in Ostrava.[6] Ranked fourteenth in the short program and ninth in the free skate, she finished eleventh overall in the Czech Republic.
Peltonen competed at the 2017 World Championships in Helsinki, Finland, but did not advance to the free skate, having placed twenty-ninth in the short program.
In September 2017, Finland qualified a spot in the ladies event at the 2018 Winter Olympics due to Viveca Lindfors' result at the 2017 CS Nebelhorn Trophy. In December, Peltonen won her second consecutive national title, finishing ahead of silver medalist Lindfors by a margin of 4.22 points.
In January, Peltonen placed eleventh in the short program, eighth in the free skate, and ninth overall at the 2018 European Championships in Moscow, Russia; she was Finland's top lady at the event, finishing 11 points ahead of Lindfors. On 24 January 2018, the Finnish Olympic Committee selected Peltonen to compete at the Olympics. She finished twentieth in the ladies' event.[7]
Peltonen won the silver medal at the Finnish Championships, finishing behind Lindfors. She finished eighth at the 2019 European Championships, while Lindfors won the bronze medal.[8] Based on the season's results, the Finnish Federation assigned Lindfors to Finland's lone ladies' spot at the 2019 World Championships. However, Peltonen was subsequently given the spot following Lindors' withdrawal due to injury and placed twenty-eighth at the World Championships in Saitama.[9]
2019–2020 season
Assigned to only one Grand Prix event, the 2019 Rostelecom Cup, she placed twelfth among twelve skaters. Withdrawing from some other events, she won the Finnish national title again and was assigned to compete at the European Championships. She was fifth in the short program at the European Championships with a new personal best and described her "Caruso" program as her favourite to date.[10] Seventh in the free skate with one fall, she remained in fifth place overall.[11]
Despite winning the bronze medal at the Finnish championships, Peltonen was assigned to one of the two Finnish berths at the 2022 European Championships. However, she subsequently withdrew from the European Championships due to an ankle injury.[14][15]
