Nathan Bartholomay thought his skating career was over.
It was 2016, and Bartholomay was two years removed from a 12
th-place finish at the Olympic Winter Games Sochi 2014. But now he was a pairs skater without a partner, several months into a blossoming coaching career, and it occurred to him that it might be it.
"I didn't think I was going to continue," Bartholomay said. "I wanted to, but I was like, 'It's got to be the right girl.'
"And then Deanna kind of fell into my life."
Bartholomay and Deanna Stellato partnered up in July of 2016 and have since become one of the top U.S. pairs, placing fourth and third in their first two U.S. Figure Skating Championships appearances respectively.
But how did Bartholomay get from point A to point B?
His odyssey began several years prior with then-partner Felicia Zhang. The two paired up in 2011 and made their Olympic debuts together in Sochi.
Bartholomay says the experience exceeded all of his expectations.
"If you were like, 'What would it be like at the Olympics?' and think about it, everything you can come up with, it's more than that," Bartholomay said. "My Olympic moment was the first time we got on the ice in the arena, and I looked around and the Olympic rings were everywhere and on the center of the ice, and I took her hand and I just said, 'Let's make this our home.'"
The pair skated clean programs, had people standing in the audience after their free skate, and were then able to take their seats in the crowd to watch the best pairs in the world compete for medals.
It was, for Bartholomay, the experience of a lifetime.
Then in July, Zhang retired.
It was an unexpected surprise for her partner, one that took him some time to come to terms with.
"I've spoken with her since then and we kind of had a chat about it afterwards and all the reasoning around the decision really put me at peace and made me realize that this is a good choice," Bartholomay said. "I think I've become such a stronger partner because of Felicia, and I think that, looking at everything positively, I've now taken steps past that to get even better as an athlete. So I did not see it coming, but overall, in life, it was the right way."
Five months after becoming an Olympian, Bartholomay was tasked with finding a new partner. After several potential matches turned down tryouts, he landed with Gretchen Donlan. They skated together for 18 months before splitting in March of 2016.
It was then, several months into a fruitless search for a partner and coaching full-time, that Bartholomay faced the reality of the potential end of his competitive career.
"I got on the ice every day," Bartholomay said. "I did freestyle, I did all my triples, you know, kept it going, because I was like, 'I've got more to give. I have more in me to show everybody, and I have more in me to let out into the world through skating.' So I wanted to keep it going."
Enter Stellato.
A former singles skater, the 2001 World Junior silver medalist and 2000 Junior Grand Prix Final champion, Stellato had been retired from competitive skating for 16 years, but was thinking about giving it another shot. Her former coach Cindy Caprel was now coaching at Bartholomay's rink, the Ellenton Ice and Sports Complex in Florida. Stellato flew down from her home in Chicago so her old coach could evaluate her, and to see if she could get her triple jumps back.
Bartholomay was doing cardio when he saw Stellato hammering away on her jumps, falling a lot but impressing her future partner with her intense work ethic.
He had no idea who she was, what her skating pedigree was or how old she was – 32 years at the time – and when coach Jim Peterson and Mitch Moyer, U.S. Figure Skating's senior director of athlete high performance, suggested a tryout, Bartholomay was initially skeptical.
"That girl that's all over the place? The one that's falling down a lot?"
But she was the right size, and she was willing, despite never having skated pairs before.
"I mean, if I'm doing this, it's already crazy enough as it is to come back at my age, so I might as well try what someone's recommending to me," Stellato said.
They got on the ice together and started with a stroking pattern and a lift. Bartholomay explained how he was going to hold her and how they were going to come out of it. And then?
"I wasn't afraid, and it felt easy," Stellato said. "I mean, you don't start with a difficult lift, we just did like an easy one, so it wasn't hard at all. I never felt nervous going over his head. For never doing it before in my life, and being older and having more fear when you're older, I never had that with him."
Stellato and Bartholomay celebrate at the end of their short program at the 2018 U.S. Championships in San Jose, California
"I had the feeling right then," Bartholomay echoed. "You know what I mean? I was like, 'This could go somewhere.'"
Over the next three days, Stellato learned several Level 4 lifts and landed her first throw triple Salchow and first throw triple loop.
"I can't speak highly enough to her capabilities to learn and listen and move forward with that," Bartholomay said. "So just in the tryout, I knew that it was something more than I've had in the past."
They made the partnership official, Stellato moved down to Florida, and then the real work began.
How does an accomplished junior singles skater – one that was retired for 16 years, no less – transition to pairs?
A partner with coaching experience certainly helps.
"Nate's kind of my unofficial coach, because we have coaches that we pay, but when we're not in a lesson, he has so much knowledge about pairs that he kind of helps me navigate through," Stellato said. "He's also very good because he's been skating with a partner for such a long duration of time, he's good at bringing me back or trying to bring me back up if I'm feeling down. He's very good at that."
While Stellato admits that her inexperience in pairs gave them a steeper learning curve than most pairs, Bartholomay finds himself trying to keep up with her in their lines, spins and speed, and is grateful for her experience outside of the rink.
"It's fun for me to skate with an adult," Bartholomay said. "She's a couple years older than me, and she's been not in skating, so she's been in business. She's a strong businesswoman. It was nice to have that as opposed to someone like myself, who's always been in skating and always been interacting with partners. She'll break things down in a business sense, I break things down on the ice and it kind of gels."
The oldest team at their training base, Stellato and Bartholomay spend a good deal of time together when they're not training. Friday nights are their cheat days, when they go to dinner and hang out, and Stellato will often look after Bartholomay's dog when he works late at the rink. They even live in the same community, just a short walk apart.
"She supports me and I feel like I'm in a situation where my coaches, my partner, everyone's supporting the team, which makes it really easy to get along," Bartholomay said. "It makes it really easy to focus. If one person's angry that something's not perfect, it's easier to realize that you're on the same side."
While things haven't always been perfect, they do seem to be trending up. With two ISU Grand Prixes under their belts – an eighth-place finish at 2017 Bridgestone Skate America and a sixth-place finish at the 2018 Helsinki Grand Prix of Figure Skating – they are among the upper echelon of pairs teams in the U.S. They will next compete at Rostelecom Cup on Nov. 16-18 in Moscow, Russia.
Bartholomay says they have talked to several other pairs that agreed that the talent level in the U.S. is too strong to only have one quota spot at the 2019 ISU World Championships. There is a collective goal to get back to the maximum of three spots, both at Worlds and the Olympics, and bring U.S. pairs skating back into the limelight.
Stellato and Bartholomay are committed to their partnership for the next quad through the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022.
It's a far cry from where Bartholomay was in 2016, doubtful that he'd ever skate competitively again.
Does it surprise him?
"It doesn't, because of Deanna," Bartholomay said. "I knew that when she came back to the sport, she wasn't going to just do it for like a season, like, 'We're just going to see what happens.' I knew she was going to come in, she was going to come in for medals and she was going to come in to be the best.
"I think that we're developing really well. I feel like we just push the boundaries every day, and it doesn't surprise me that I went from there to here after making the decision to skate with this girl, honestly."
