Tonia Kwiatkowski

Tonia Kwiatkowski is an American figure skater. Carol Heiss Jenkins and Glyn Watts were her longtime coaches. She is the 1996 United States silver medalist and a three-time world team member, twice finishing in the top ten at the World Championships. She competed in 13 U.S. National Championships. Kwiatkowski retired from amateur skating in 1998 and continues to be involved in the sport as a skater and coach.

In domestic competition, she represented the Winterhurst Figure Skating Club based in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio; Winterhurst perennially fields a strong group of skaters who consistently qualify through to the National Championships, typically under the guidance Kwiatkowski's coaches, Heiss and Watts.

An Educated Skater

Kwiatkowski was frequently lauded by television commentators for pursuing her post-secondary education while competing at the highest levels of the sport, a rare combination in figure skating, which typically demands 4 to 6 hours of daily practice to remains competitive at the elite level. While 1980s skating greats Debi Thomas (Stanford BA, Northwestern MD) and Paul Wylie (Harvard BA, MBA) had managed to do both, by Kwiatkowski's era in the middle and late 1990s, as professional opportunities in figure skating were multiplying in the wake of the Kerrigan-Harding scandal, there were seemingly very few skaters on the scene pursuing a college degree. Kwiatkkowski graduated from Baldwin-Wallace College in Cleveland, Ohio with a degree in communications and psychology in 1994.

Skating Style and Repertoire

Kwiatkowski was well-known among skaters for her unusual jump entrance technique on the triple lutz, which remains the most difficult manuever consistently performed by female figure skaters. Skating backwards, she would cross her left foot over top of her right foot, pause with both feet on the ice placed closely together, then unhook the right foot (underneath and behind the left) to pick into the ice. No other elite-level skater is believed to have used this technique to enter the triple lutz.

In addition to the triple lutz, Kwiatkowski consistently performed the triple toe loop, triple flip, and triple loop. Much like another US great, Kristi Yamaguchi, toe-assisted jumps appeared to be easier for Kwiatkowski; she frequently struggled on the edge-entrance triple loop, and only added the triple salchow back into her performance repertoire near the end of her amateur skating career. Her spins were extremely strong, and her basic skating quality was marked by great speed and poise.

As she matured and as fashions in the sport changed, Kwiatkowski's image became increasingly sophisticated, often selecting a tight, low bun as an on-ice hairstyle, coupled with extremely elegant dresses with highly detailed beading and design details. While always extremely fit, Kwiatkowski possessed an athletic and womanly frame. During her prime competitive years in the mid-1990s, her physique and conservatively glamorous mode of dress distinguished her from most of her "baby ballerina" rivals, who were typically 5 to 10 years her junior and unable to pull of the mature, womanly and powerful look that Kwiatkowski so effortlessly achieved.

The Debacle of 1993

After several strong finishes at the US Nationals, Kwiatkowski made the world championship team in 1993, an unusual year in figure skating: it was a post-Olympic year and pre-Olympic year, as the Winter Games were being switched to a different cycle so that they occured two years after the Summer Games. As such, a number of 1992 Olympic hopefuls had moved on.

Typically a "rebuilding" year for the sport, this post-Olympic year was different, as the US's number of Olympic berths would be determined by skaters' performances at the 1993 World Championships. The pressure was on the send a team that could medal at Worlds and secure a full slot of Olympic berths. At these critical national championships, Kwiatkowski stood fourth after the short program. When Tonya Harding, reaching the nadir of a two-year skating slump, fell completely apart in her long program (after having placed second in the short program, during which her dress had come undone), and third-place Nicole Bobek struggled, fourth-place Kwiatkowski had a shot to move up onto the podium and onto the World Team. With a sub-par performance, she managed to move up to third, as Carol Heiss' other pupil Lisa Ervin pulled up from fifth to second.

Regardless, her third place finish meant that she was on the World Team and heading to the World Championships. In the all-important world event, however, she skated extremely poorly in the initial round, failing to even qualify for the main draw, leaving the US with just two skaters in the ladies event. After Ervin finished in 14th place, heavy favorite Nancy Kerrigan had a complete meltdown and fell from first after the short program to fifth overall, leaving the US with just two berths for 1994. While Kerrigan was the logical scapegoat for this outcome, some US officials were believed to harbor resentment against Kwiatkowski as well. As Kerrigan, who already boasted an Olympic medal and two World Championship medals, was a legitimate contender for a 1994 Olympic medal, she could not be summarily dismissed or punished for her performance: US Figure Skating needed her.

Kwiatkowski, therefore, became the logical fall guy. She had failed to make it out of the initial round, something that rarely happened to skaters from a great skating power like the United States. Not surprisingly, despite rather lackluster performances by several skaters who went on to place higher, Tonia did not skate well and finished a disappointing fifth at the 1994 Nationals, failing to qualify for an Olympic spot.

1995 to 1998: An Athlete Reborn

Armed with her newly minted college degree, Kwiatkowski struck back with a strong performance at the 1995 US Nationals, finishing third behind Nicole Bobek and Michelle Kwan. But because of the US performance at the 1994 Worlds, where neither Kerrigan nor Harding elected to compete, there were only two slots to the World Championships, leaving Tonia off the World Team in 1995.

Placing second in the 1996 Nationals behind Kwan assured Tonia a spot on that year's team, however, and she went on to place 8th at the Worlds in a scintillating performance which included a full arsenal of triple jumps. Overshadowed by Kwan's gold medal performance, Tonia's finish was something of a redemption, as she proved with her strong performance that she could deliver the elements under pressure.

In 1998, at age 26, Kwiatkowski was the "old lady" of figure skating, nine years older than rival Michelle Kwan and eleven years senior to Tara Lipinski. A heavy favorite to vie for the third Olympic spot behind the two youngsters, she had hoped to close out her career with a trip to the Olympics, but finished 4th at the U.S. National Championships behind Nicole Bobek and did not make the Olympic team. However, she had a chance to end her career on a positive note. Due to an illness, Tara Lipinski withdrew from the 1998 World Championships following the Olympics, and Kwiatkowski skated in her place. At age 27, she had "the skate of her life" and placed 6th, her best finish in a major international competition.

Competitive history (incomplete)

U.S. Championships:
1991: 4th
1992: 5th
1993: 3rd
1994: 5th
1995: 3rd
1996: 2nd
1997: 6th
1998: 4th

World Championships:
1993: did not qualify
1996: 8th
1998: 6th

External links

• 1996 World Championship results and commentary
• Kwiatkowski brings career to a memorable end
• US Championship finishes