Birthdate:  March 28, 1971
Birthplace:  Los Angeles, CA
Hair: honey brown
Eyes:  green
Height:  5'9"
Weight/Build: 130 lbs/thin
Parents: Leigh & Thomas VanLuvenee
Siblings: none
Roommate: lives in a house off campus
Relatives at KMAS: Lauren Borden, her daughter

Discipline: Singles/Dance Coach Coach
Coaches:  Mackenzie Taylor, assists Julieta Bianchetti with her dance teams
Coaching History:  Choreographed many routines for National, World and Olympic Champions.
Competitive History: 1989 US National Bronze Medalists, 1989 Worlds- 5th, 1990-92 US National Dance Champions, 1990 & 1992 World Dance Silver Medalists, 1991 World Ice Dance Champions, 1992 Olympic Silver Medalists; was coached by Julieta Bianchetti

Chenel was born into the well-to-do VanLuvenee family in Los Angeles.  Her mother, Leigh, was a former Miss America finalist, and her father, Thomas, is well known businessman.  She was a very pretty child, and at age 3, was competing in beauty pageants, where she often won.  Her mother, a busy socialite, loved the pageants, because it gave her an opportunity to spend time with her daughter.  By the age of 6, Chenel was doing not only beauty pageants but modeling and acting as well.  But by the age of 7, she had grown tired of the pageant circuit, and tried ice skating.  Leigh, who saw figure skating as a glamour sport, went along with her daughter’s wishes.  Chenel was a wonderfully graceful skater, but had trouble with jumps and spins.  She DID, however, excel at footwork.  At the age of 10, she was paired with Mark Miller.  The next year, they won Juvenile Nationals, the following year they won intermediate, and the year after that, they were victorious in Novice.  But at the age of 13, Mark and Chenel experienced problems.  After finishing third at Junior Nationals, and a disappointing 14th at Junior Worlds, Mark began hitting on her, giving her a black eye and a fat lip when they failed to move onto the Senior level Sectionals the next year, finishing a dismal 6th.  At the age of 15, Chenel began searching for a new partner.  She came up with 17-year old Kent Borden.  In 1989, they won the National bronze, and finished a respectable 5th at Worlds.  The next year, they won Nationals, and took a silver at Worlds.  In 1991, they won both US Nationals and World Championships.  They also became engaged.  The next year, they won Nationals and won silver medals in both the Olympics and Worlds, then retiring from skating.  They were married later that year, and had their only child, Lauren, in 1993.  They enjoyed life as a family, making a living as professional coaches, and choreographers, but Kent passed away in 1999.