Rarely does a high school’s student body include one national champion figure skater.  Even more unlikely is having two national champion figure skaters who grew up in the same neighborhood, went to the same grade school, went to the same high school, and train in the same city.

It must have been fate for Class of 2012’s Ernie Stevens and Class of 2019’s Chris Elder.

Stevens and his skating partner, Caitlin Fields, won the junior title at the 2015 Prudential U.S. Figure Skating Championships and placed fifth at the 2015 World Junior Figure Skating championships.

Elder and his sister, Sophia, placed first in intermediate dance in the 2015 U.S. Figure Skating Championships and the Midwestern Sectional Championships.

Currently a senior at Butler University, Stevens moved from Lexington to Louisville when he was young.

“We lived right by Iceland so it was all about location,” Stevens said. “I thought I was signing up to play ice hockey. My mom thought differently and wanted me to figure skate.”

Stevens learned to skate at Iceland and became extremely skilled. He said, “After my skating lessons, I ended up as a skater, and I pursued it competitively.”

Elder started his skating career a bit differently. “My mom was a speed skater in Russia, so she signed us (Chris and his sister) up for the Learn to Skate Program at Iceland. The Elder siblings danced in individual competitions when they were younger, but now as a dynamic duo, they are winning competitions all over the country.

After finishing grade school, Stevens said, choosing Trinity was an easy decision. “It really was no comparison between Trinity and St. X,” he said. “My mom has always wanted me to go to Trinity, so there was always a family push for that.”

As Stevens entered Trinity, his national reputation in skating kept rising. Student-athletes have busy schedules filled with workouts, competitions and traveling; when schoolwork is piled on top, many crumble under the chaos. Stevens expressed appreciation for Trinity’s help with his round-the-clock athletic demands. “They worked with my schedule so well,” he said. “Honestly, if I went to any other school, I would never have had the same level of success that I do.”

Although Elder is just starting high school, he is dealing with the same constant call of school and skating. He said, “(Trinity’s) block scheduling helps a lot; so does advising. I get a lot of my work done there. Time management and organization is the big key.”

Figure skating demands precision. Skaters are judged on different criteria. Each element — jumps, spins, lifts, sequences, and others — are judged by a panel, resulting in a final score. Some elements are valued much higher than others. For example, a quad axel jump has a base value of 15.0, as opposed to a double flip jump, which has a base value of 1.9. The bottom line is, to win competitions, skaters need high scores, and getting high scores means practicing hours on end to perfect their programs.  

Under the large umbrella of “figure skating” are four main types: single, pair skating, ice dancing and synchronized. Elder competes in ice dance competitions, and Stevens competes in pairs.

“In dance, when you compete, you do three different events. One of the dances you make up on your own, and the other two dances are already set,” Elder said.

Ice dance is centered around the performance as a whole, as opposed to the other types of figure skating. He said, “Pairs is more about the technical elements; we do more lifts, throws and jumps. Dance focuses on the presentation and artistry.”

To reach the high level competitions that both Stevens and Elder compete in, practice is the key to success.  Stevens’ day starts about 5:30 a.m. and ends about 8 p.m.

He said, “My training is pretty rigorous, a typical day for me is three hours on the ice in the morning; then we have our off-ice workouts. We do ballet classes, dance classes, we have conditioning classes, and then in the afternoon we skate for about two hours. In between everything, I try to go to class.”

Elder’s training is extremely demanding as well. “We practice two hours a day. I always get there about 30 minutes before and warm-up. Some days we go before school from 6:20 to 7:20.”

Elder is also dealing with the obstacle of having coaches who live in Indianapolis. Normally, Elder’s coaches travel to Louisville every weekend to train with him and his sister.

Figure skating is undoubtedly an international sport. A total of 27 countries have won medals in figure skating at the Olympic games. As a freshman in high school, Edler has traveled all over the country competing alongside his sister.

He said, “We usually go to the Chesapeake Open, which is in Baltimore. There’s also a big competition in Lake Placid. Challenge Skate is another where they collect certain people, based on how well they did last year. The location last year was in Colorado and this year was in Salt Lake City.”

Although Chris has traveled to many different states to compete, his ultimate goal is to compete internationally.

For Stevens, traveling the world is a now the norm. “I’ve been everywhere from Riga, Latvia, to Russia,” he said. “During the summer we train in Moscow, which was definitely an interesting experience. The most different location I’ve ever been in was Minsk, Belarus. I have definitely seen the world through the sport.” Stevens and his partner are 2018 Winter Olympics hopefuls.

Stevens and Elder are phenomenal on the ice, and, according to Trinity teachers, just as impressive off the ice.

“Chris is very conscientious. He wants to know ahead of time what he needs to make up. When he comes back, he has his work done. I am fascinated by it,”  said Elder’s Advanced Program English teacher, Ms. Debbie Walling.

Walling is excited to see Elder’s accomplishments. She said, “There’s certain activities at Trinity that are placed in the forefront: basketball, football, soccer, lacrosse — but I love that we have another skater.”

Stevens graduated four years ago, but his impact on Trinity has not faded. Trinity’s Vice President for Advancement Joey Porter said, “Ernie was well, well loved by teachers, staff, and his classmates. He was a bright light. You could tell his personality was perfectly suited for the competition he’s chosen.”

Steven’s influence left a distinct mark on Trinity, but his alma mater had a profound effect on Stevens as well.

He said, “I am so thankful for the Trinity experience, teachers, faculty and staff that allowed me to pursue my dream. Without Trinity as my school, I am 100 percent confident I would never have been able to achieve the success that I have.”

Check out this link to a video by Tanya Suhorukova :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PARP9xLxj8Q

Check out Chris Elder and his sister, Sophia, in this video by Yana Elder: