Asian American Figure Skating Leaders Celebrated

By Ryan Stevens

At the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, Nathan Chen made history as the first Asian American skater to win a gold medal in men’s figure skating.

Thirty-one years ago at the 1991 World Championships in Munich, Kristi Yamaguchi and Natasha Kuchiki made some history of their own. It was the first time two Asian American skaters won medals at the same ISU Championship. In the decades that followed Yamaguchi and Kuchiki’s milestone, skaters like Michelle Kwan, Maia and Alex Shibutani and Mirai Nagasu amazed fans with their incredible talents on the ice. Long before, several less-celebrated Asian American skaters paved the way for future generations with history-making successes of their own.

Kristi Yamaguchi stands on top of the podium as a skater on the verge of greatness.

In 1955, California’s Raymond Sato made history as the first Asian American skater to win a U.S. title, when he won silver dance with partner Barbara Jean “Bobby” Stein. Sato was the 32-year-old son of Japanese immigrants. He got his start on roller skates and worked as a sales clerk at a supermarket. He competed in ice dance for two decades, amassing an impressive collection of cups and medals at Pacific Coast and summer competitions.

In the late 1950s, Sato partnered with two future (consecutive) U.S. champions — Diane Sherbloom and Yvonne Littlefield. More than a decade after winning the U.S. silver dance title, he won the senior dance event at the first Arctic Blades Invitational Championships. He was a member of the Los Angeles Figure Skating Club for 37 years and a coach to many promising young skaters.

In 1964, 19-year-old Joanne Mitsuko Funakoshi made her professional debut as a featured soloist at the Ice Capades show in Honolulu. George Eby, president of the Ice Capades, told reporters, “I have been in the ice show business for nearly 25 years and I believe Mitsuko is one of the most exciting young skating stars I have ever seen.” The daughter of Japanese immigrants, Funakoshi was born in Chicago. She moved to Los Angeles when she was 2 and started skating at the age of 11. In 1963, when she was still competing, she became a certified U.S. Figure Skating Association judge —the youngest in the country at the time.

In 1967, Wen-An-Sun, the 13-year-old daughter of a Chinese-born eye doctor from Iowa, claimed the novice ladies title at the U.S. Championships in Omaha, Nebraska. She also competed in pairs with her older brother, Torrey.

The Sun siblings weren’t the only Asian American skaters to make an impact in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Skaters like Lynn Yonekura, Debbie Takeuchi, Vera Wang, Christy Ito and Audrey King (Weisiger) all achieved competitive success.

Ice Capades star Joanne Mitsuko Funakoshi

In her March 2013 interview with Allison Manley on the Manleywoman SkateCast, Weisiger recalled, “My father grew up in Europe. I’m Chinese by background, but I’m one of those American Chinese that don’t speak fluent Mandarin. My grandfather was an ambassador from China to several European nations, and my whole family were outdoor winter sports buffs. ... I skated kind of a groundbreaking program to ‘Madame Butterfly’ in 1969. It was one of those moments that was unexpected; I was a first-year junior lady and I was only 14. That may seem old by today’s standards, but back in the day you had to do your figures first, so it was unusual to have young kids get through all eight figure tests and get into senior before they were 15 or 16 years old. So I was the new kid on the block, and my coach, Jerry Renault, choreographed this fantastic, beautiful, sensitive piece for me that got me a standing ovation at nationals in 1969. I think I’m remembered for that moment because people were not expecting this young girl to come out and do that.”

In the 1980s, a group of extremely talented Asian American skaters wracked up accolades. Ginger and Archie Tse won the U.S. junior pairs title in 1984. Another sibling duo, Christina and Keith Yatsuhashi, won a bronze medal in ice dance at the World Junior Championships in 1983. David Liu and Alex Chang both competed nationally and went on to represent Taiwan at the World Championships.

At the 1983 U.S. Championships in Pittsburgh, Suggie Oh struck gold in the novice ladies event. At the age of 11, she was the youngest competitor in any discipline at that year’s nationals. Oh started skating at the age of 4 and trained in California at the Santa Barbara Figure Skating Club with coach Terry Tonius. The year after she won the U.S. novice title, her family moved to Los Angeles, and she began training at Pickwick Ice Arena in Burbank. In 1984, she won the junior ladies event at the Arctic Blades Invitational and Southwest Pacific Regional Championships.

U.S. Figure Skating President George Yonekura

Oh’s skating career ended prematurely in 1985 when the financial toll of the sport became overwhelming for her parents. She recalled, “Post-nationals, I was invited to visit the figure skating club in Seoul, Korea, where I was offered the opportunity to represent South Korea in the future instead of the U.S. Had the judging system in those days been similar to today’s ISU system, perhaps it could have been something to consider; however, under the good ol’ 6.0 system, competing for a country that was unknown in the sport of figure skating at the time would have been akin to skating suicide, so it was never in question that I would represent the U.S. had my skating career progressed on the international level.”

Oh never experienced any overt discrimination during her skating days. She said, “I think I was too young to recognize if there had been any discrimination for being one of the few Asian Americans in a predominantly white sport. I don’t recall anything blatant, such as name-calling or slurs. I have no idea if my parents might have experienced anything negative, but if they did, they never mentioned it to me. Growing up in Santa Barbara, which was also predominantly white back then, I only remember the amazing support I received from members and coaches at the ice rink as well as among my friends and teachers at school.”

In June of 1983, California’s George Takashi Yonekura made history as the first Asian American to be elected president of U.S. Figure Skating. His road to the top of the largely white American skating administration was not an easy one. During World War II, he and his parents, Katsuzo and Masako, were among the thousands of Japanese American families interned at the Topaz War Relocation Center in Utah. It was in this “camp” that he met his future wife in 1945.

U.S. champion, two-time World medalist and Olympian Tiffany Chin

Yonekura first became interested in skating in 1958, when his daughter Lynn took up the sport. He was first elected to the USFSA Executive Committee nearly a decade later. He also served as an international judge and America’s team leader at both the 1978 and 1979 World Championships. Off the ice, he was president of a printing company. Through his professional connections, he was able to create and print World Team booklets as well as test and competition forms. It was during his term as USFSA president that Tiffany Chin made history as the first Asian American figure skater to win a U.S. senior title and a medal at the World Championships.

Chin won her first senior medal at the U.S. Championships in 1983. The following year, she became the first Asian American skater to represent the U.S. at the Winter Olympics. She finished in the top three in both of the free skate events but missed a spot on the podium because of a disappointing 12th-place showing in the school figures. The first American woman to attempt a triple Axel in practice, Chin was a skater far ahead of her time. She was recently recognized for her historic contributions to figure skating with an induction into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame.

Through a modern lens, it may not be easy to appreciate that Asian Americans haven’t always been well-represented in figure skating. As we sift through history, we celebrate the trailblazers who have paved the way for a sport that has become so much more diverse and inclusive than it once was.

Ryan Stevens is a former figure skater from Halifax, Nova Scotia. He won four medals at the Nova Scotia Provincial Championships before turning to judging. Since 2013, his passion for studying unique and, at times, obscure aspects of figure skating’s history has led him to write hundreds of articles for the blog Skate Guard. He’s penned a biography of British skater Belita Jepson-Turner and features on professional competitions and skating during the Edwardian era and Great War. He’s been consulted for research about skating history for CBC, NBC, ITV, print projects and numerous museums and archives in Canada and Europe.