Asian American Figure Skating Leaders Celebrated

Asian American skaters paved the way for future generations with history-making successes of their own.

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 atop a podium as a young child wearing a figure skating costume.
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.

A black and white image of Joanne Funakoshi in a show costume.
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.

George Yonekura headshot
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.

Tiffany Chin skates across the ice donning a short black haircut wearing a light blue retro skating dress.
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.

More Highlights From Asian American Figure Skating History

1954 — Francis Sakakibara won the silver medal in the junior pairs event at the Pacific Coast Championships.

1977 — Hae Sue Park won the bronze medal in the junior ice dance event at the U.S. Championships. She went on to represent the U.S. at Skate Canada.

1980 – Tiffany Chin made history as the first Asian American skater to win the World Junior Championships. In the years that followed, she was the first Asian American skater to represent America at the Olympics, the first to win a U.S. senior title and the first to win a medal at the World Championships.

1984 — Allison Oki of New Jersey was the first Japanese American winner of the U.S. junior ladies title.

1984 — Ida Tetsuko Shimizu Tateoka made history as the first Asian American figure skating judge at the Olympics.

1987 — Lily Lee was the first Asian American skater to win the Eastern Sectional senior ladies title. She went on to represent South Korea at the 1994 Olympics and six World Championships.

1989 — Kristi Yamaguchi was the first Japanese American skater to win the U.S. senior pairs title. Three years later, she became the first Asian American skater to win an Olympic gold medal.

1992 — Natasha Kuchiki was the first Asian American pairs skater to represent the U.S. at the Olympics.

1993 — Michelle Cho was the first skater of Chinese heritage to win U.S. novice and junior ladies titles in successive years.

1994 — Elizabeth Punsalan was the first skater of Filipino heritage to represent the U.S. at the Olympics.

1995 — James Yoo was the first Asian American winner of the U.S. novice men’s title.

1995 — Karen Kwan took top honors in the senior ladies event at the Pacific Coast Championships.

1996 — Michelle Kwan won her first of five World titles. During her competitive career, she won two Olympic medals, nine U.S. titles, more than a dozen gold medals on the ISU Grand Prix and a World Junior title. Kwan was honored with inductions to the World and U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame and California Sports Hall of Fame. She was also a recipient of the Los Angeles Chinese American Museum’s Historymakers Award.

1996 – California’s Boise Ding won a gold medal in the senior men’s event at the U.S. Adult Championships. Ding was a medalist at the first Gay Games to feature figure skating competitions.

1997 — Kyoko Ina won her first of five U.S. senior pairs titles. She represented America at three Olympics, won the 2001 Canadian Open pairs title and a bronze medal at the 2002 World Championships. She was born in Tokyo and had the unusual distinction of winning junior national titles in both Japan and the U.S.

1998 — Kristi Yamaguchi was the first Asian American skater to be inducted to both the World and U.S. Figure Skating Halls of Fame.

1999 — Naomi Nari Nam completed a “grand slam” of medals in consecutive years at the U.S. Championships. She won the gold in novice in 1997, the pewter in junior in 1998 and the silver in senior in 1999.

1999 — Kakani and Ikaika Young were the first Asian American team to win the U.S. novice ice dance title.

2001 – South Korean born Ann Patrice McDonough was the first Asian American skater to win the ISU Junior Grand Prix Final. The following year, she won the World Junior Championships.

2003 — Dennis Phan was the first Asian American skater to win the U.S. junior men’s title. Two years later, he was the first Asian American man to win the ISU Junior Grand Prix Final.

2006 — At the Olympics, Rena Inoue and John Baldwin Jr. made history as the first pair to land a throw triple Axel in competition. Inoue won national titles in both the U.S. and Japan and represented both countries at the Olympics.

2006 — Beatrisa Liang won a bronze medal at the Four Continents Championships.

2007 — American ladies swept the podium at the World Junior Championships for the first time. Winner Caroline Zhang is of Chinese heritage; runner-up Mirai Nagasu is of Japanese heritage.

2008 — Kristi Yamaguchi was honored at the Asian Excellence Awards, held as part of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

2009 — The Chinese Historical Society of Southern California celebrated Chinese Americans In Sports by honoring Tiffany Chin and Michelle Kwan.

2010 — Amanda Evora was the first Filipino American skater to represent the U.S. in pairs skating at the Olympics.

2010 — Vanessa Lam was the first singles skater of Cambodian heritage to win a Junior Grand Prix event.

2015 — Madison Chock won her first of three U.S. senior dance titles with Evan Bates. Chock and Bates were three-time Olympians and two-time winners of the Four Continents Championships. Chock’s father is of both Chinese and Hawaiian heritage.

2015 — Rocker Skating was founded by Jackie Wong. A walking encyclopedia of skating knowledge, Wong helped bring figure skating into the social media age. Rocker Skating’s superior play-by-play, insider coverage and “real, level-headed figure skating analysis” set a new gold standard for media coverage of the sport.

2016 — Maia and Alex Shibutani made history as the first Asian American ice dance team to win the U.S. senior title.

2017 — Karen Chen pulled off a huge upset to win the U.S. senior ladies title. She had placed only eighth the year prior.

2017 — Nathan Chen was the first Asian American man to win the U.S. senior men’s title. He went on to make history as the first skater to land five different kinds of quadruple jumps in competition.

2018 — Vincent Zhou was the first person to land a quadruple Lutz at the Olympics.

2018 — Mirai Nagasu was the first American lady to land a triple Axel at the Olympics, helping secure the American team the bronze medal in the team event.

2018 — Jimmy Ma’s performance of DJ Snake and Lil Jon’s “Turn Down For What” goes viral on YouTube.

2019 — Sarah Kawahara was the first Asian American to be inducted to the PSA Coaches Hall of Fame.

2019 — Alysa Liu was the first American lady to land a quadruple jump in competition.

2020 — Avonley Nguyen won a gold medal in the ice dance event at the World Junior Championships with partner Vadym Kolesnik.

2022 — Tiffany Chin was inducted to the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame.

2022 — Nathan Chen makes history as the first Asian American to win a gold medal in men’s figure skating at the Olympics.

2022 – Nathan Chen, Vincent Zhou and Karen Chen helped secure the U.S. a silver medal* in the team event at the Olympics. It is the first time ever all of the singles skaters on a medal-winning team at the Games are of Asian American heritage.

*Medals earned in the team event at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing have yet to be awarded as of the time this timeline was written.

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