Aimee Buchanan

Buchanan was born and grew up in Boston, Massachusetts, and subsequently lived in Lexington, Massachusetts, and Euless, Texas.^[1][4][5][6] Buchanan's mother Wendy is Jewish and is from Israel, as are both of her maternal grandparents, and Buchanan is and also identifies as Jewish.^[7][6] She attended synagogue on the High Holidays and Hebrew school for a few years, before sports became too demanding.^[6] She attended Endicott College and the United States Sports Academy, studying for a B.S. in Strength and Conditioning.^[8][9] In 2014, she became a dual American-Israeli citizen.^[10][2]

Buchanan began figure skating at age 4, but she did not start seriously training until age 19.^[11] While she lived in Boston, she trained at the Colonial Figure Skating Club in Boxborough, Massachusetts, with coaches Julie Graham-Eavzan and Chad Brennan, while her programs were choreographed by former Olympian Sheryl Franks.^[12][9] In November 2013, she came in second at the New England Regional Figure Skating Championships Newington, Connecticut.^[9]

She relocated to Texas to train with figure skating coaches Peter and Darlene Cain.^[7][13]

Buchanan has represented Israel three times at the European Figure Skating Championships, and was the Israeli national ladies champion in 2016.^[14] In August 2017, she had foot surgery to remove a bursa sac.^[14][10] She was not able to enter the Olympics single women's qualifier competition in Germany in 2017, because the qualifier was scheduled to take place on Yom Kippur.^[15]

She competed for Israel at the 2018 Winter Olympics in team figure skating in Pyeongchang, South Korea.^[13] Buchanan placed 10th in the woman's short program of the team event with a score of 46.30, an improvement of 1.23 points as compared to her personal best before that program.^[16][17] Israel finished in 8th place, ahead of South Korea and France, and did not qualify for the finals of the team event.^[16][17]

Buchanan announced her retirement from competitive skating in June 2019 after having three ankle surgeries and two injections to help with injuries. Doctors subsequently advised her against further training at a competitive level.^[18]

CS: Challenger Series; JGP: Junior Grand Prix

• Aimee Buchanan at the International Skating Union
• Aimee Buchanan at Olympics.com
• Aimee Buchanan at Olympedia
• Aimee Buchanan on Instagram
• "Figure skater Aimee Buchanan gears up for her Olympic debut," NBC (video), February 10, 2018.