Luiz Mariano Taifas was born in Buzau, Romania on March 25th, 1973. He started recreational skating and piano lessons at the age of 3. His mother favored skating while his father, whose passion was music, pushed for the piano. Within 3 years, he showed talent and was already thriving in both fields, until the day when an important piano recital and a show at the local ice rink coincided. While dressed in his black suit, ready to go on stage to perform a Christmas piano concert, his heart was at the rink where he was supposed to glide on the ice and perform for an entirely different audience. He started crying and begging his father to let him skip the piano recital and rush to the rink where he could still make the show. His father obliged after having made a deal with him; that if he chose skating that night, he would stick with it and never quit. Little Luiz accepted gladly; but little did he know that at age 6 he had made a decision and commitment that would change the rest of his life.

At age 11 he was discovered and recruited by the Romanian Figure Skating Federation to join the National Romanian Team. A position that was very difficult to get and even harder to maintain. The Romanian team kept only 4 boys and 4 girls, and if any of them lost in any national competition to anyone outside the team, even once, was fired from the team without ever having the chance to rejoin! Well, that did not happen to little Luiz who was now growing and pushing himself every day to the edge of his limits. He remained in the Romanian team for 14 years. During those years he was the Romanian National Champion over and over again. Outside Romania he thrived and made a name for his country that was not until then considered an important player in the Figure Skating World. He participated in and won medal after medal in Balkan, International, European, and World Championships. He competed in over 50 countries. He cherished every trip and every competition, however, he has kept particularly tender memories of two special trips: Norway where he competed in the Olympics of 1994. And The World Championship in Canada where he was sent with hopes of 24th or 25th position, which was a place no Romanian had achieved until then. He remembers how overwhelmed he was by the applause of the audience, while going through his program, the “Ooos!” and “Wows” were so loud and magnificent that he couldn’t hear the music anymore, and just went through the program by heart. He remembers the fear and anxiety that made him jump so high on his quad that the blades on his skates where leveled with the top of the board! That day, was one of those days where he made his country prouder than they had ever been or have been ever since. That day he didn’t make the 24th or 25th position, he finished with a number much lower than that: Yes, he had done the unthinkable, he finished 5th in the World!! The articles that newspapers around the world wrote about this new found star on the ice were nothing to him compared to the fact that he had put his country on the Figure Skating map!

At 25 he gave-in to his American coach’s attempts to bring him to the United States to skate. At this point he was happily married and father to a wonderful little boy, the competitions and practices kept him away from his family and even though that was not a problem back in Romania, it became a problem in the new country where they knew no one. Given the situation, he made the decision to stop competing, and start on his second biggest passion which was coaching kids; show them how to jump, spin, and skate, taking them all the way to the top where he had been. Right away he discovered that his life up to then had just prepared and perfected him for this calling. He knew how far to push his students, but he also knew when to pull back. He knew when to be tough, and when to go easy. He knew second by second what they were going through and how they felt before, during, and after each competition. He knew because he had been there, because he had felt every little pain, every little disappointment and every big joy they were feeling. He knew where his coaches and coaching team had been right, and where they had lacked, and it was up to him to reapply all the good, and correct the mistakes.

All in all, he owes his success as a coach in the past 17 years, to the long years of hard work, and perseverance, to his passion for this wonderful sport, to his love of children, and most of all to the love, support, and devotion of the one man who never failed to expect the impossible from him: His father.