Shepherd Walton Clark (born March 1, 1971)[1] is an American competitive figure skater[2] and is the reigning World Figure & Fancy Skating Champion, a title which identifies "The World's Greatest Skating Artist", as The World Figure Sport Society preserves figure skating's artistic legacy, uniting Fine, Performing, Decorative, and Recording Arts. Figure skating distinguishes itself further by uniting The Olympics, Hollywood and The Arts for more than a century. The World Figure And Fancy Skating Championships derives its name from "Figures And Fancy Skating" a book written by Canadian, George A. Meagher, published in 1895.
WFS World Figure Skating Records
In October 2024, World Figure Sport (WFS) held The 10th World Figure & Fancy Skating Championships on black ice in Lake Placid, New York. Clark defended his title in The 1932 Olympic Arena and became the first in history to win eight consecutive World Figure & Fancy Skating Championships. He won the event with all first place ordinals from all of the judges on all of the segments of the competition, which is the first time in World Figure Sport history for men or ladies. Mr. Clark also won the Creative Figure portion of the event for a second time in a row, which is a segment of the event in which the ladies and the men compete with each other, yet the totals are separated when they're calculated in either the men's or the ladies event. Shepherd Clark is undefeated in The Creative Figure event, having won the event in both 2023 and in 2024. Shepherd Clark with eight golds and two silvers, and Jill Albrecht, with three golds and one bronze, are the two most decorated figure skaters in the Men and Ladies events, in World Figure Sport history.
Clark has a total of fourteen World Figure Sport World Championships medals, eight gold (2017 - 2024) and two silver medals (2015 and 2016) overall, and two additional World Fancy Skating golds won in 2017 and 2018, and one 2023 Special Figure Gold making him the most decorated skater in World Figure Sport’s history. He is also the only skater to compete in all ten World Figure & Fancy Skating Championships, 2015–2024. Clark is the only man to defend a World Figure title, and to achieve the dual Figure & Fancy title, and the first to defend the dual titles in World Figure Sport’s history.
In Fancy Skating, edge quality, positions, artistry, musicality, and originality (which includes flying and spinning), are valued highly in comparison to the numbers of rotations of skating jumps in other systems. Clark's dual title of "World Figure & Fancy Skating Champion", comes from George A. Meagher's 1895 publication, "Figures and Fancy Skating".[3]
Clark had gone from his early years struggling with his figures, to being recognized many years later as "The King of Figures"[citation needed] and as a World Champion Skating Artist. In 2021, Clark scored perfect World Class 6 marks from all of the judges on his Left Forward Inside Eight Figure, making him the first skater, man or woman, to achieve a perfect score on a figure. In 2021, he also won all 16 of the segments of the competition, a unique feat that no man, or woman, had achieved in World Figure Sport’s history. In 2024, Clark repeated winning all segments of the 2024 World Figure & Fancy Skating Championships and is the most decorated champion in World Figure Sport’s Skating Hall of Fame. In 2019, Clark earned the highest score in World Figure Sport history, the highest, "World Class 6", essentially a perfect mark in World Figure Sport.[citation needed]
In August 2015, Richard Swenning won the gold and Clark won the silver medal in men's figures at the inaugural World Figure Championship (and now the World Figure & Fancy Skating Championships) in Lake Placid, New York. In December 2016, Canadian Gary Beacom won the gold and Clark won the silver medal in men's figures at the World Figure Championship (and now the World Figure & Fancy Skating Championships on black ice) in Toronto, Ontario.
Clark proceeded to win the gold medal in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. In 2017, the gold medal was presented to him by Dorothy Hamill, the 1976 US National, Olympic, and World Champion. In 2017, Clark was presented the World Figure & Fancy Skating Championships’ Trophy by Lorna Brown in memory of John Curry, 1976 Olympic Champion. The iconic trophy was original designed in Jaca, Spain and was formerly presented to the World Professional Skating Champion, Lorna Brown, whose professional skating partner was John Curry. Clark was coached by Carlo and Christa Fassi, as were Dorothy Hamill and John Curry. Clark is also the 2017 World Fancy Skating Champion, which is a blend of figure composition and artistic free skating. His gold medal was presented by Barbara Wagner, the 1960 Olympic Pairs Figure Skating Champion. In 2019, Shepherd Clark's gold medal was presented by Donald Jackson, of Canada, a World Champion and the first skater to land the Triple Lutz jump.
In 2020, Clark was awarded World Figure Sport’s Maribel Vinson Lifetime Achievement Award, for his accomplishments in figure skating, including having performed and competed the greatest number and types of figures in world competition than anyone in skating's history.
His figure scores set a record for the highest ever in 2019, achieving seven "World Class 6" scores at the 2019 Championships in Vail. is record scoring final figure of the 2019 World Figure Championships, "Eight Eights", is on the cover of the World Figure Sport’s Skating Exam Catalog published in 2020, along with an image of the 2019 World Figure Championship’s Men's event podium. Also in 2020, World Figure Sport inaugurated the Suzanne Shelley Clark Memorial Trophy, in memory of Clark's recently deceased mother, who is known to have supported her son over a lifetime. This award is presented occasionally to extraordinary people in the world of figure skating art.
In 2023, Clark became the first winner of the “Fine Art of Skating” Competition at World Figure & Fancy Skating Championships’ Creative Fancy Figure event, where the men and ladies’ were evaluated together (by a sequestered judging panel) and solely upon their “Fine Art of Skating’s Creative Fancy Figure” that was etched into the black ice. Debi Thomas of the United States placed second, famed for "The Battle of The Carmens" and for winning the final two figures competed at The Olympics Games, which was in 1988, at The Calgary Olympics. In 2023 Clark and Thomas trained together, promoting the World Figure Sport Society and the World Figure & Fancy Skating Championships via the media.
ISU Figure Skating Titles
In the International Skating Union (ISU) figure skating events, Clark won the 1989 World Junior silver medal,[4] the 1989 Nebelhorn Trophy champion, the 1994 Nations Cup silver medalist, and the 1996 Finlandia Trophy champion.[1] He was the first skater to land the triple lutz / triple loop combination in competition.[2][5] As well as being a successful figure skater, he is also a jeweled art designer and jewel historian.
Shepherd Clark and Debi Thomas are the only two skaters in the world to have achieved a medals in both an International Skating Union (ISU) World Championships’ level event, and a World Figure Sport (WFS) World Figure & Fancy Skating Championships’ level event. Clark won medals at these two events: as the 1989 World Junior Championships silver medalist, and at the 2015-2023 World Figure and Fancy Skating Championships, where Clark won two silvers and nine gold medals, for a total of a record eleven medals. In September 2024, Mr. Clark's autograph realized $1,525 at auction.
Clark has appeared in motion pictures such as "Ice Pawn", produced in 1990, books such as Zero Tollerance by Toller Cranston, and The Sweater book by Stephen Mosher, an assemblage of Hollywood, art, and entertainment personalities from around the world. He appears in Christine Brennan's Little Girls In Pretty Boxes, referenced as a jewelry designer in a meeting at The Olympic Training Center. Clark has also appeared in many TV broadcasts of figure skating competitions and exhibitions.[citation needed]
Personal life
Clark is an artist of jewel design and of jeweled art objects, and also a jewel historian. He is an entrepreneur in various industries, and known for working with charities and ministries.[6] He is also known to be a cat lover;[2] he has used cats in his promotional media. Clark is known to be involved in various industries such as energy, The Arts, entertainment, networking, and technology.[citation needed]
In 2017, Clark founded The WORLD ART Champions Museum Hall of Fame that seeks art talent from around the world, including figure skating artists, and awards them based upon Relevance, Originality, and Mastery. In 2017, he completed a work of art entitled "The Impossible Dream", which was inspired by the blue of Trixi Schuba's Olympic skating costume, and her music choice. This work of art emphasizes the value and metaphoric importance of the circle as a shape representing life coming "full circle" when one trusts God.[citation needed] In 2024, Mr. Clark was honored with Doctorates in Leadership, Business, and The Arts, for his domestic and international achievements as an artist, a business strategist, and assisting others to maximize their potential.[citation needed]
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The demise and revival of compulsory figures occurred, respectively, in 1990, when the International Skating Union (ISU) removed compulsory figures from international single skating competitions, and beginning in 2015, when the first competition focusing entirely on figures took place. Compulsory figures, which is defined as the "circular patterns which skaters trace on the ice to demonstrate skill in placing clean turns evenly on round circles", dominated figure skating for the first 50 years of the sport, although they progressively declined in importance. Skaters would train for hours to learn and execute them well, and competing and judging figures would often take up to eight hours during competitions. Judging scandals and the broadcasts of figure skating on television have been cited as the reason for the decline of figures. The U.S. was the last country to include figures in their competitions, until 1999. The elimination of figures resulted in the increase of focus on the free skating segment and in the domination of younger girls in the sport. Most skaters stopped training with figures, although many coaches continued to teach figures and skaters continued to practice them because figures taught basic skating skills and gave skaters an advantage in developing alignment, core strength, body control, and discipline.
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