Rachel Parsons (figure skater)

Rachel Parsons
The Parsons at the 2018 Internationaux de France
Full name	Rachel Marie Parsons
Born	(1997-11-19) November 19, 1997 (age 27) Rockville, Maryland
Hometown	Derwood, Maryland
Height	1.62 m (5 ft 4 in)
Figure skating career
Country	United States
Began skating	2003
Retired	April 2, 2019
Medal record Representing  United States Figure skating: Ice dance World Junior Championships 2017 Taipei Ice dance 2016 Debrecen Ice dance Junior Grand Prix Final 2016–17 Marseille Ice dance 2015–16 Barcelona Ice dance

Rachel Marie Parsons (born November 19, 1997) is an American former competitive ice dancer. With her brother Michael Parsons, she is the 2018 NHK Trophy bronze medalist and a four-time silver medalist on the ISU Challenger Series (2018 CS Asian Open, 2018 CS Nebelhorn Trophy, 2018 CS Lombardia Trophy, 2017 CS Ondrej Nepela Memorial). Earlier in their career together, the Parsons won gold at the 2017 World Junior Championships, the 2016–17 Junior Grand Prix Final and in the junior event at the 2017 U.S. Championships. They placed 4th at the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics.

Rachel Parsons was born November 19, 1997, in Rockville, Maryland.^[1] She has two siblings – Michael and Katie. In 2016, she graduated from Magruder High School in Rockville, Maryland and currently attends Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida.^[2] In August 2019, she came out as bisexual.^[3]

Parsons participated in the June 1, 2020 protests in Lafayette Square, after concluding that "sitting at home and being angry wasn’t doing enough. I wanted to protest. I wanted to physically be there." She was hit by a rubber bullet when federal security services opened fire. A photograph of Parsons was featured on the June 2, 2020, edition of The Washington Post.^[4]

Parsons now goes to Flagler College and works as a bartender at St. Augustine Fish Camp.

Rachel Parsons started skating at age six because she wanted to learn how to stand up on the ice.^[5] After joining the Wheaton Ice Skating Academy in June 2006,^[6] she started focusing solely on ice dance. With Kyle MacMillan, she won gold on the juvenile level at the 2009 U.S. Championships and then gold on the intermediate level at the 2010 U.S. Championships.^[5]

She teamed up with her older brother, Michael, in February 2010.^[7] They won gold on the novice level at the 2011 U.S. Championships and debuted on the Junior Grand Prix (JGP) series in September 2011, placing 9th in Gdańsk, Poland. After taking the junior pewter medal at the 2012 U.S. Championships, they represented the United States at the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics, placing 4th. They were also selected for the 2012 World Junior Championships in Minsk, Belarus, where they finished 15th.

Competing in the 2012–13 JGP series, the Parsons placed 6th in Linz, Austria, before taking bronze in Zagreb, Croatia.

The Parsons obtained silver at both of their 2013–14 JGP assignments, which took place in Košice, Slovakia, and Ostrava, Czech Republic. They qualified for the JGP Final in Fukuoka, Japan, where they placed sixth. The duo won bronze at the junior level at the 2014 U.S. Championships and capped off their season with an 8th-place finish at the 2014 World Junior Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria.

The Parsons medaled at both their 2014–15 JGP assignments, receiving bronze in Aichi, Japan, and silver in Zagreb, Croatia.^[8] They finished as the first alternates for the JGP Final and won silver on the junior level at the 2015 U.S. Championships. Concluding their season, they placed fourth at the 2015 World Junior Championships in Tallinn, Estonia.

During the 2015–16 JGP series, the Parsons were awarded gold in Bratislava, Slovakia, and Zagreb, Croatia. Competing in Barcelona, Spain, at their second JGP Final, the siblings took the bronze medal behind Lorraine McNamara / Quinn Carpenter and Alla Loboda / Pavel Drozd, having placed second in the short dance and fifth in the free. At the 2016 World Junior Championships in Debrecen, Hungary, they placed first in the short and second in the free, winning the silver medal behind McNamara/Carpenter.^[9]

Competing in their sixth JGP season, the Parsons were awarded gold in Yokohama, Japan,^[10] and Dresden, Germany, both times ahead of Russia's Anastasia Shpilevaya / Grigory Smirnov. In December 2016, they competed at the JGP Final in Marseille, France; ranked second in the short and first in the free, they won the title by a margin of 0.63 over Loboda/Drozd.^[11]

The following month, the Parsons would win their first junior national title at the 2017 U.S. Championships, over 11 points clear of the field. The siblings would cap off their undefeated season by winning the 2017 World Junior Championships; similar to the 2016–17 JGP Final, the Parsons won the event overall after placing second in the short and first in the free, earning an even narrower victory of 0.56 ahead of Loboda/Drozd. The Parsons earned personal bests in their combined total and free dance scores at their fifth trip to the Junior Championships.^[12]

Moving to the senior level, the Parsons debuted at the Lake Placid Ice Dance International, winning the silver medal behind longtime rivals McNamara/Carpenter, who were also making their senior debut. They then took the silver medal at the 2017 CS Ondrej Nepela Trophy, their debut on the ISU Challenger series. Assigned to two Grand Prix events, they finished ninth at Skate America and seventh at the Rostelecom Cup. They then competed at a second Challenger event, the Golden Spin of Zagreb, where they finished eighth.

Competing at the senior level at the 2018 U.S. Championships, they placed fifth, and thus did not qualify for the U.S. Olympic team. They were instead sent to the 2018 Four Continents Championships, where they finished sixth.

After a second straight silver medal at Lake Placid's summer ice dance event, the siblings competed in three straight Challenger events, winning consecutive silver medals at the Asian Open, Nebelhorn Trophy and Nepela Trophy. At their first Grand Prix event in Japan, the 2018 NHK Trophy, they won their first and only Grand Prix medal, a bronze. At the 2018 Internationaux de France, their second Grand Prix, they finished fifth. At the 2019 U.S. Championships, the Parsons placed sixth.

On April 2, 2019, Rachel announced on Instagram that she was retiring from figure skating following a lengthy struggle with an eating disorder. Her brother Michael intended to continue skating, and subsequently formed a new partnership with Caroline Green.^[13]

Results in the 2017–18 season ^[20]

Date	Event	SD		FD		Total
		P	Score	P	Score	P	Score
Jul 28–29, 2017	2017 Lake Placid IDI	3	61.25	2	95.57	2	156.82
Sep 21–23, 2017	2017 CS Ondrej Nepela Trophy	2	67.48	3	95.66	2	163.14
Oct 20–22, 2017	2017 Rostelecom Cup	7	59.41	8	89.34	7	148.75
Nov 24–26, 2017	2017 Skate America	8	58.36	9	87.18	9	145.54
Dec 6–9, 2017	2017 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb	9	60.18	8	92.20	8	152.38
Dec 29, 2017–Jan 8, 2018	2018 U.S. Championships	5	72.69	6	103.38	5	176.07
Jan 22–28, 2018	2018 Four Continents Championships	6	60.18	6	95.12	6	155.30

Results in the 2018–19 season ^[20]

Date	Event	RD		FD		Total
		P	Score	P	Score	P	Score
Jul 24–27, 2018	2018 Lake Placid IDI	2	—	2	—	2	164.74
Aug 1–5, 2018	2018 CS Asian Open Figure Skating Trophy	1	64.47	3	92.66	2	157.13
Sep 12–16, 2018	2018 CS Lombardia Trophy	2	68.20	3	102.48	2	170.68
Sep 26–29, 2018	2018 CS Nebelhorn Trophy	2	70.02	2	110.93	2	180.95
Nov 9–11, 2018	2018 NHK Trophy	3	69.07	3	109.57	3	178.64
Nov 23–25, 2018	2018 Internationaux de France	6	68.14	6	103.03	5	171.17
Jan 19–27, 2019	2019 U.S. Championships	6	72.52	7	97.74	6	170.26

Results in the 2011–12 season ^[20]

Date	Event	SD		FD		Total
		P	Score	P	Score	P	Score
Sep 14–17, 2011	2011 JGP Poland	10	43.03	9	64.94	9	107.97
Jan 15–17, 2012	2012 Winter Youth Olympics	4	44.69	4	69.53	4	114.22
Jan 22–29, 2012	2012 U.S. Championships (Junior)	3	50.80	4	72.46	4	123.26
Feb 27–Mar 4, 2012	2012 World Junior Championships	16	45.37	14	63.79	15	109.16

Results in the 2012–13 season ^[20]

Date	Event	SD		FD		Total
		P	Score	P	Score	P	Score
Sep 12–15, 2012	2012 JGP Austria	4	51.07	8	62.98	6	114.05
Oct 3–6, 2012	2012 JGP Croatia	2	56.35	3	77.74	3	134.09

Results in the 2013–14 season ^[20]

Date	Event	SD		FD		Total
		P	Score	P	Score	P	Score
Sep 12–15, 2013	2013 JGP Slovakia	2	52.09	2	79.01	2	131.10
Oct 2–5, 2013	2013 JGP Czech Republic	1	59.54	6	75.19	2	134.73
Dec 5–8, 2013	2013–14 Junior Grand Prix Final	6	46.11	6	70.49	6	116.60
Jan 5–12, 2014	2014 U.S. Championships (Junior)	3	59.32	2	86.46	3	145.78
Mar 10–16, 2014	2014 World Junior Championships	3	58.65	5	79.88	4	138.53

Results in the 2014–15 season ^[20]

Date	Event	SD		FD		Total
		P	Score	P	Score	P	Score
Sep 11–14, 2014	2014 JGP Japan	1	55.71	3	75.71	3	131.42
Oct 8–11, 2014	2014 JGP Croatia	2	56.28	2	84.05	2	140.33
Jan 7–10, 2015	Mentor Toruń Cup (Junior)	2	58.58	2	84.60	2	143.18
Jan 18–25, 2015	2015 U.S. Championships (Junior)	2	60.61	2	84.37	2	144.98
Mar 2–8, 2015	2015 World Junior Championships	4	58.39	5	82.55	4	140.94

Results in the 2015–16 season ^[20]

Date	Event	SD		FD		Total
		P	Score	P	Score	P	Score
Jul 27–30, 2015	2015 Lake Placid IDI (Junior)	1		1		1	141.41
Aug 19–22, 2015	2015 JGP Slovakia	2	59.02	1	90.40	1	149.42
Oct 7–10, 2015	2015 JGP Croatia	1	66.49	1	94.30	1	160.79
Dec 9–13, 2015	2015–16 Junior Grand Prix Final	2	64.91	5	79.50	3	144.41
Jan 15–24, 2016	2016 U.S. Championships (Junior)	2	70.29	2	95.17	2	165.46
Mar 14–20, 2016	2016 World Junior Championships	1	67.88	2	94.86	2	162.74

Results in the 2016–17 season ^[20]

Date	Event	SD		FD		Total
		P	Score	P	Score	P	Score
Jul 27–30, 2016	2016 Lake Placid IDI (Junior)	1	66.15	1	90.02	1	156.17
Sep 8–11, 2016	2016 JGP Japan	1	66.76	1	93.66	1	160.42
Oct 5–8, 2016	2016 JGP Germany	1	65.93	1	91.70	1	157.63
Dec 7–11, 2016	2016–17 Junior Grand Prix Final	2	66.91	1	95.59	1	162.50
Jan 14–22, 2017	2017 U.S. Championships (Junior)	1	72.42	1	103.91	1	176.33
Mar 15–19, 2017	2017 World Junior Championships	2	67.29	1	97.54	1	164.83

Media related to Rachel Parsons at Wikimedia Commons

• Rachel Parsons / Michael Parsons at the International Skating Union
• Rachel Parsons / Michael Parsons Archived 2016-09-07 at the Wayback Machine at IceNetwork.com