A little over a week ago, Tomoki Hiwatashi had his best finish at the championship level at the 2020 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships. The 20-year-old was thrilled with his bronze-medal finish in Greensboro.
"I didn't expect myself to do so well. I really can't describe it with words," Hiwatashi said of his experience in Greensboro. "Excited, happy--I guess those would be the two best words to describe it. Surprised, too. This came out of nowhere for me, to be honest," he said with a laugh.
Hiwatashi's medal at the U.S. Championships represented a bit of redemption, following some struggles earlier in the season. Last year, Hiwatashi finished his season with a victory at the ISU Junior World Championships--and, following that success, felt the pressure of raised expectations this year. He opened the season with a fifth-place finish at the U.S. International Figure Skating Classic in September, then struggled at his Grand Prix events, finishing fifth at Internationaux de France and 10th at NHK Trophy.
It wasn't the senior debut season that he had been hoping for. "The Grand Prix season was not what I wanted it to be," Hiwatashi said frankly. "I wanted to do a lot better than that."
Hiwatashi admitted that the pressure he felt during the fall season was, in many ways, self-imposed. "I expected myself to do better than last year because I became a senior-level skater," he stated simply. "I also expected other people to give those expectations to me, too."
After his disappointing results this fall, Hiwatashi realized he needed to change his approach heading into the U.S. Championships. He decided to shift his training focus toward quality rather than quantity. "I focused more on the quality of my jumps, trying to land more jumps and increase the consistency, rather than just continuously doing programs and jumps. I lowered the amount of [repetitions], and tried to get more high quality for everything," he explained.
Hiwatashi also sought to clear his head of the expectations he'd struggled with earlier in the season. "I really had to think. I had to get rid of those pressures that I had on my shoulder and skate how I skated last year. It just helped to enjoy the moment at the competition," he said.
The change in focus paid off in Greensboro. Hiwatashi opened the event with a clean, high-energy performance of his short program to "Love Runs Out" by One Republic. "In the short program, I was very happy with what I did," Hiwatashi said. He landed all his jumps, including a quadruple toe loop, and got a great reaction from the crowd.
Hiwatashi said that he initially had some doubts about the One Republic short program when his choreographer, Mark Pillay, suggested the music. "In the beginning, I didn't think it would work. I thought I should have a different type of music," Hiwatashi admitted. "But I wanted to give it a try. And after we started [choreographing] the program, I was thinking, 'This actually is starting to work.' I realized it would be a great program--if I could just pull it off." That vision finally came to fruition in North Carolina.
Hiwatashi's free skate in Greensboro went just as well. Skating to Stravinsky's ballet,
Petrushka, he landed all his planned jumps, including two quad toe loops, and again received a warm response from the crowd. Hiwatashi finished third in the free skate and overall. "I was really happy, really excited," Hiwatashi expressed.
Hiwatashi said that he wanted to go in a different direction with this free skate, which was choreographed by Tom Dickson. "I wanted to try something unusual, something that I hadn't done before," he explained. He says he's "still learning" how to present the balletic program.
As the U.S. Championships in Greensboro concluded, Hiwatashi was named to the U.S. team for the ISU Four Continents Championships, along with Jason Brown and Camden Pulkinen. It will be Hiwatashi's second time competing at Four Continents, where he placed a respectable eighth last year.
"I'm very excited," Hiwatashi said of the opportunity to compete at Four Continents again. "I really want to do the same, or even better, than what I did at U.S. Championships. And I'm really excited to see other skaters. Yuzuru Hanyu's going to be there this year."
He's looking forward to making the trip to South Korea with his training-mate Pulkinen. Hiwatashi, Pulkinen, and Andrew Torgashev (who placed fifth at the U.S. Championships) all train together in Colorado Springs and are good friends. "We get along very well, so it's really great to compete with them, and be able to skate on the same ice," Hiwatashi commented.
The trio helped support each other in the run-up to the U.S. Championships, the most pressure-packed competition of the year. Hiwatashi said they would joke together before Greensboro: "We're like: 'Oh, my gosh. It's coming.' One day we'd say: 'We have six more weeks.' And then, the next moment, we're like: 'Oh, we only have two more weeks?' Time passes by really quickly," he said with a laugh.
Time is also limited heading into Four Continents. Before his departure for Seoul, Hiwatashi planned to work with his choreographer, Tom Dickson, to continue polishing his long program. "Jump wise, I'm probably going to keep everything the same. I want to focus on the consistency, like I did at U.S. Championships. And really work on more emotion," said Hiwatashi.
For now, Hiwatashi's focus is finishing his season with a good showing in Seoul.
Fans can watch Tomoki Hiwatashi and all of Team USA at the Four Continents Championships live and on-demand with the Figure Skating Pass on NBC Sports Gold.
