Matt Savoie's "Solo Amore," by Duetto

This week's theme is underrated U.S. Men.: The purpose of this week's posts are to highlight some of the superb U.S. skaters who glided under the radar throughout their careers.

The first skater in this category that I will be profiling this week is Matt Savoie of Peoria, Illinois.

I have to admit that even though I remember watching Matt skate on TV for many years, I don't know that much about him, aside from the basic stats. I had to look up some information on him in order to write an informed piece here. I think my lack of knowledge on Matt is due in large part to the TV commentators not giving Matt as much on-air attention as other more highly-tauted U.S. skaters like Michael Weiss, Tim Geobel, Johnny Weir, Evan Lysacek, etc.

Matt never quite managed to crack into the upper-echelon of the sport, and I don't know his intentions, but in my opinion, when I watched Matt skate, I never saw him as one with a fierce competitive instinct who went out there to win, but rather as a sensitive artist, who always tried to do things differently, whether it be a unique entrance into a jump, or an interesting spin position. He was truly a "skater's skater," as Kurt Browning called him during commentary for the 2006 nationals. (A "skater's skater" is an all-around skater who other skaters look up to and admire their overall skating skills. ) Matt appeared to skate for the love of the sport. However, he obviously was driven to succeed, or his career on the senior level wouldn't have spanned for as long as it did through 2 Olympic cycles. He narrowly missed making the 2002 Olympic team and stayed in competition for another 4 years to have a chance at making the 2006 Olympic team, which he did, by the way, finishing a very admirable 7th.

Throughout his career, Matt, now 30-years-old, finished in the top 5 at U.S. Nationals for 6 years, which included 3 bronze medals (2000, '04, '06). He is also the 2006 4-Continents Championship bronze medalist. Matt has a master's degree in Urban planning and is currently in law school at Cornell University.

Despite never breaking out of the third-place position at U.S. Nationals, Matt was a wonderful, complete skater for many years. His skating was marked by deep, smooth edges, excellent musicality and artistic sensitivity. His athletic ability was nothing to scoff at. Matt was very talented in many aspects of the sport. In the video below, you'll see that Matt lands a clean triple axel, the only man to attempt that jump in the competition.

In this first-rate performance from 2005's Marshall's Idol Competition (a spoof off of American Idol with 3 judges critiquing the skaters), Matt was magnificent. His skating truly embodies everything the sport is all about. As I remember, the judges enthusiastically praised Matt for the purity of his skating. All three judges put him first, though the audience chose Johnny Weir and Michael Weiss to move on to round 2 instead of Matt and Tim Geobel. Matt definitely had my vote!! I love this program, and I hope you do, too.