Piper and Tim both represent the Broadmoor Skating Club and train in Colorado Springs, Colorado. They are coached by Patti Gottwein-Britton, Christopher Dean, and Rich Griffin. Tom Dickson and Mathew Gates are their choreographers.

Piper has been skating since she was 2½. She started out in freeskating, and started to pursue ice dance when she was ten. She teamed up with Tim in 2003, and now ice dances exclusively. Piper comes from a talented skating family. Her brother, Todd, is a former national ice dance champion at the Novice and Junior levels. Piper’s twin sister, Alexe, is a freestyle skater who has medaled at multiple national and international level events. Piper also has a brother Kemper and sister Shelby. Piper is currently a Freshman at Cheyenne Mountain High School.

Tim has been figure skating competitively since he was nine. Tim grew up an “Army brat” and has lived in Maryland, Virginia and Colorado. His family permanently relocated back to Colorado Springs, where he first started skating as a chile, in 2001. Now 17, Tim is a Senior and Honor Student at Cheyenne Mountain High School in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He plans on attending the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs this fall, where he plans on studying to become a meteorologist while still pursuing his skating career. Tim’s sister Lauren is also an accomplished ice dancer, and is partnered with Matt Kleffman and skating at the Novice level. Piper and Tim’s long range goals are to become U.S. national champions at the Senior level, and represent America in the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Piper and Tim have not only are the 2005 U.S. Intermediate Ice Dance Champions, but they have medaled at multiple events, to include a bronze medal at the 2004 U.S. Junior National Championship (Juvenile level), 2005 Future Champions Series Intermediate Dance champions, and first place at the 2003 and 2004 Lake Placid Ice Dance Championships. Tim and Piper had a banner year in 2006/2007, where they won the North American Challenge in Vancouver, Canada, and placed third and sixth, respectively, at Junior Grand Prix events in Mexico City and Taipei, Taiwan. They finished 15th in the world in the 2006/2007 Grand Prix competition.

Skating is a very expensive sport, and is even more so with multiple skaters in the Gilles and McKernan families. Annual expenses for Piper and Tim easily exceed $50,000. With such long-range goals, the families will incur huge expenses as Piper and Tim continue to train in pursuit of their Olympic dreams. As such, any support you can provide to ease the financial burden is greatly appreciated by the entire Gilles and McKernan families.