Tomoki Hiwatashi

Tomoki Richard Hiwatashi (born January 20, 2000) is an American figure skater.

Hiwatashi was born on January 20, 2000, in Englewood, New Jersey.

His mother, Satomi, and father, Satoshi Hiwatashi, are both from Kobe, Japan.

He was raised with two sisters.

For much of his early life, he lived in the Chicago suburb Hoffman Estates.

He competed on the juvenile level during the 2008–2009 season, placing fourth at the Upper Great Lakes Regional Championships.

Continuing as a juvenile in 2009–2010, he won the bronze medal at the Upper Great Lakes Regionals before finishing sixth at the 2010 U.S. Championships.

During the 2010–2011 season, he won the juvenile gold medal at both the Upper Great Lakes Regionals and the 2011 U.S. Championships.

In 2011–2012, Hiwatashi moved up to the intermediate level, winning the gold medal at the Upper Great Lakes Regionals and the 2012 U.S. Championships.

He advanced to the novice level in 2012–13, winning the gold medal at the Upper Great Lakes Regionals, the Midwestern Sectionals, and the 2013 U.S. Championships.

Coached by Alexandre Fadeev in Wilmette, Illinois, Hiwatashi was scheduled to make his ISU Junior Grand Prix (JGP) debut in Mexico in early September 2013 but sustained a medial malleolus fracture in his left foot during an official practice at the competition.

As a result, he missed the rest of the 2013–2014 season.

Hiwatashi competed on the junior level during the 2014–2015 season.

He won the bronze medal at the Midwestern Sectionals and placed fifth at the 2015 U.S. Championships.

He ended his season with the junior gold medal at the International Challenge Cup.

In 2015–2016, Hiwatashi debuted on the JGP series, placing fifth in Colorado Springs, Colorado before winning the bronze medal in Zagreb, Croatia.

He won the junior silver medal at the Midwestern Sectionals, finishing second to Alexei Krasnozhon, and went on to become the junior national champion, outscoring Kevin Shum by 14.78 points for gold at the 2016 U.S. Championships.

Later that month, he was selected to replace the injured Nathan Chen at the 2016 World Junior Championships in Debrecen, Hungary.

In March at the World Junior Championships, he placed sixth in the short program and third in the free skate to win the bronze medal behind Daniel Samohin of Israel and Nicolas Nadeau of Canada.

He was coached by Alexander Ouriashev in Glen Ellyn, Illinois.

Hiwatashi started his season at 2016 JGP Saint-Gervais, where he placed sixth.

He competed at the 2016 CS Warsaw Cup, placing ninth, and finished fifteenth at the 2017 U.S. Championships on the senior level.

During the season, he was coached by Kori Ade in Monument, Colorado.

Hiwatashi won two bronze medals on the 2017 JGP circuit at 2017 JGP Riga and 2017 JGP Egna.

He is the 2018 CS Inge Solar Memorial – Alpen Trophy bronze medalist and a two-time U.S. national medalist.

From 2018 to 2023, he trained and resided in Colorado Springs, Colorado before moving to Osaka, Japan to train.

Hiwatashi began skating at age five after a rink opened near his house.

At the 2018 U.S. Championships, he placed fifteenth in the short program, seventh in the free skate, and twelfth overall.

He finished seventh at the 2018 World Junior Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria.

By the end of the season, he was training under Christine Krall and Damon Allen in Colorado.

In September 2018, Hiwatashi won the silver medal at the 2018 JGP Canada, behind Petr Gumennik.

He won another silver medal at his second event, the 2018 JGP Slovenia.

These results qualified Hiwatashi to the 2018–19 Junior Grand Prix Final in Vancouver, Canada.

He next competed on the senior level at the 2018 CS Alpen Trophy, where he won the bronze medal.

Concluding the fall season at the Junior Grand Prix Final, he placed sixth overall after struggling in both programs.

He is also the 2019 World Junior champion, the 2016 World Junior bronze medalist, a five-time medalist on the ISU Junior Grand Prix series, and the 2016 U.S. junior national champion.

At the 2019 U.S. Championships, Hiwatashi won the Pewter medal.

Due to US national champion Nathan Chen's schedule conflicting with the 2019 Four Continents Championships, Hiwatashi made his senior ISU Championship debut after being named to the Four Continents team with Vincent Zhou and Jason Brown.

He set a new personal best score and placed eighth.

In his final event of the season, Hiwatashi competed at the 2019 World Junior Championships alongside countrymen Alexei Krasnozhon and Camden Pulkinen.