When Eric Stinehart was four years old, he and his brother attended a
birthday party held at a local rink. When he saw the ice, the Wilmette seventh-grader said this week, he decided he really wanted to skate.
Eight years later, skating has become second nature to him.
Tomoki Hiwatashi of Hoffman Estates is just 10, but he has already spent five years of his life on the ice, ever since his mother treated him to one lesson and he decided it was fun.
Eric and Tomoki are now friendly competitors, learning their art and honing their skills at the Centennial Ice Rink complex in Wilmette under the expert tutelage of coach Alexandre "Sasha" Fadeev and his wife, trainer and choreographer Cydele Fadeeva.
Both boys will be skating next week at the Junior National Championships, which begin Dec. 13 in Salt Lake City, Utah, and both head
into competition with national rankings.
Eric, who represents the Skokie Valley Skating Club, is ranked fifth among the nation's juniors, and Tomoki, representing the DuPage Figure Skating Club, is ranked first.
When they took a quick break from training Tuesday to talk about their Utah trip, the two betrayed no nerves. That equanimity may come from familiarity, since this will be Tomoki's third trip to the nationals and Eric's second. Last year, Tomoki placed 6th, and Eric 14th,out of 50 competitors. They're both aiming even higher this year.
"I feel pretty good" Eric said. "I'm looking forward to it. I think one of my strengths is my consistency. Once I've mastered a move, I'm not going to mess it up, I'm going to get the move right on a regular basis, and that's good to know and build on."
He said he is excited about his increasing competence with, and affection for, the double axel jump. His rotation and spin skills are also exemplary - he can rotate more than three times a second in the sit spin, and has been able do 60 full-sit spin rotations without stopping.
Tomoki said he really enjoys the double axel, effected off a forward-moving skate rather than, as in other jumps, off a backward-moving blade.
"I think jumping is fun, and I love doing them," he said.
That's not an exaggeration; he can do double axel combinations and hopes one day to do a quadruple axel in competition.
Before making the Utah contest, Eric and Tomoki competed in October in the Upper Great Lakes Regional Free Skate Championships, where Tomoki placed first, and Eric second.
Neither boy minds the work or the aches and pains inherent in becoming good skaters. Both train almost daily, usually about three hours a day, with Fadeev and Fadeeva.
The couple -- Fadeev was a seven-time Soviet figure skating champion, two-time Olympian, the 1980 World Junior Men's champion and the 1985 World Men's champion, while Fadeeva won six Gold Test medals by the age of 16 and spent 12 years as a professional ice show skater, producer and director -- have been working with Eric and Tomoki for about a year.
"It's one thing to get one kid with so much talent," Fadeeva said Tuesday, as she watched the boys prepare to go over their programs. "But to have two kids, two boys with such talent and great personalities, in the same category, skating for you, to be able to work with them, and to see them compete with each other and help each other? It's like a little miracle."
Eric, whose interests also include playing violin and piano, splits his practice time into early-morning hours, before he heads to Wilmette Junior High School, and after-school stints. Tomoki and his parents willingly make a two hour commute, one hour each way, from home to practice at Centennial.
"I used to think it was hard (to have so much on his schedule)," Eric said. Now I think it's good that I have so many activities. And when I really need to relax, I can listen to music or watch TV."
"One of the things that makes it easy is this rink," he added. "Everyone here is friendly, everyone is like family, and that's great."
Then it was back to work for both boys as they perfected their programs, and looked ahead to Salt Lake City.
Two nationally ranked junior figure skaters train in Wilmette
Tuesday at 6:00 a.m
Eric Stinehart of Wilmette, left, and Tomoki Hiwatashi of Hoffman Estates
will compete this week at the Junior Figure Skating Championships in Salt Lake City.
Both are ranked in the top five nationally and train in Wilmette.
(John P. Huston, Tribune reporter)
Perhaps every child on skates dreams of competing in the Olympics, but two boys who train in Wilmette have legitimate reasons to believe those dreams could someday be reality.
Tomoki Hiwatashi, left, demonstrates how to draw a Pokemon character
to his figure skating training partner Eric Stinehart.
(John P. Huston, Tribune reporter)
Tomoki Hiwatashi, 10, is the top-ranked junior boys’ figure skater in the country. He trains alongside Eric Stinehart, 12, who is ranked fifth in the same category.
The two, who spend the majority of their non-school hours on the ice at the Centennial Ice Rinks in Wilmette, are headed to Salt Lake City to compete in the U.S. Junior Figure Skating Championships, which begin Dec. 16.
To qualify for the Junior National Championships, Hiwatashi placed first in the Upper Great Lakes Regional Free Skate Championships in October. Stinehart placed second.
“I consider it lucky to even get one skater that is talented,” said Cydele Fadeeva, one of the two boys’ coaches. “And here there are two of them – and they compete at the same level.
“It’s quite a little miracle to get two. And boys, no less!”
Hiwatashi and Stinehart share coaches — Fadeeva and her husband, the 1985 World Champion Alexandre “Sasha” Fadeev. But the similarities end there.
Hiwatashi, of Hoffman Estates, stands 4 feet 2 inches off the ground without his skates on and weighs 66 pounds. Stinehart, of Wilmette, towers over his training partner, at 5 feet 2 inches and 100 pounds.
“They both have different personalities on ice,” Fadeeva said. “Tomoki’s younger. He’s just a burst of energy. He’s like fireworks. And Eric is very consistent, very smooth. Almost an elegant, classy thing. A little more mature.”
Off the ice, their different personalities are obvious, too. The two horse around like brothers and sometimes argue. But they don’t root against each other, even though they’re in direct competition on the ice.
“Not at all, actually. We’re friends. May the best man win, as they say,” Stinehart said.
Hiwatashi agreed.
“If it was Eric, I would cheer him a lot, but if it was other kids I’d be like, ‘Fall, fall, fall,’” he said, dropping into a hushed voice at the end.
“I can’t believe you just said that,” Fadeeva said. She’s been trying to teach the two about off-ice etiquette. And, in this case, the power of karma.
Fadeeva, who grew up skating in Canada before joining the Ice Capades after her competitive career was over, and her husband don’t train just anyone.
“It’s quite amazing because Sasha and I let the kids come to us,” Fadeeva said. “We only want kids who know our histories and want to work with us.”
Someday competing in the Olympics is a realistic goal for both the boys, she said.
“There’s nothing stopping them,” Fadeeva said. “They’ve got a great environment to train in. They’re talented. And Sasha’s been in basically every competition you can name.”
Still, there’s a lot of time between now and then. Both boys agree they are at least eight years away, if not 12, from being capable to compete with the world’s best.
“Realistically? It would be when I’m 22,” the 10-year-old Hiwatashi said. “I mean, when I’m 18 I could go, but I don’t know if I could win.”
Stinehart figures he’ll have two chances at the Olympics: when he’s 20 and 24. Between now and then he’s got a simple goal: “Improve everything,” he said, listing jumps, choreography, footwork and other key components.
Neither is nervous about the upcoming World Championships in Salt Lake City. Both have competed in the competition before – Stinehart twice and Hiwatashi three times.
Both are still attending school, but Fadeeva said in a few years, in order to be competitive, they’ll have to get their educations from tutors in order to put more time into training on the ice.
These days, they both skate 2-3 hours per day, six days a week. Sometimes they get an hour in on Sunday, too. Most of those sessions are together, though Stinehart prefers not to skate in the mornings before school.
Hiwatashi sets his alarm for 5:10 a.m. every morning so he’s at the rink on time. It takes him an hour from Hoffman Estates to Wilmette, Fadeeva said.
Training in tandem is good for the competitive spirit, they said. Besides being friends, they push each other.
“It does make me try harder because if he pulls something off, I’ll try to pull it off, too. Or something harder,” Stinehart said.
Outside of school and training, both are fairly normal pre-teens.
“We’re not really supposed to eat sweets, but sometimes we do anyway,” Stinehart admitted.
“I eat Airheads at least every day,” Hiwatashi said, referring to his favorite taffy-like candy.
That raised the ire of his coach, Fadeeva.
“That’s only going to last so long,” she said, shooting him another disapproving look.
Stinehart also finds time to take violin, piano and Chinese lessons. Hiwatashi takes Japanese lessons and just started playing the drums.
Neither have posters of figure skaters in their bedrooms.
“Posters – I don’t think it’s necessary because I want to be the best,” Eric said.
Instead, these two scour YouTube for videos of other figure skating greats to look at footwork, spins, and jumps.
Neither is interested in hockey, and neither contemplated speed skating.
“Speed skating you just go around in circles,” Stinehart said.
“Yeah, it’s boring,” Hiwatashi added.
Off the ice, the two are not interested in playing sports, because most of them are team-oriented, they said.
“If you win the Olympics, it’d be kind of fun to have all the glory for yourself,” Stinehart said.
That’s his top goal, he said.
Hiwatashi said an Olympic gold medal is his second priority.
“My first is (to pull off) the best jump ever – a quadruple axel,” he said. “No one’s landed it.”
He figures he’ll need about another 10 years of training to do it successfully.
“And if someone does it before then, I want to do whatever’s next,” he said.
