CHRISTINA YATSUHASHI CAMPBELL AND KEITH YATSUHASHI ‘A GREAT ADVENTURE’


BOSTON-AREA SIBLINGS RECALL THE GOOD TIMES At one of her son’s hockey practices, Chris-


by LOIS ELFMAN


tina Yatsuhashi Campbell recognized one of the dads as someone she’d known in high school. She mentioned it to her classmate from King Philip Regional High School. “He looked over at my son and said, ‘John,


you have to step it up. Your mother is a great skat- er.’ John has since stepped it up,” said Christina, who occasionally works with her son on skating skills.


Before there was a string of U.S. ice dance teams to win gold at the World Junior Champion- ships, there was a team that broke through to the podium in the early 1980s. A sister-and-brother duo from the Boston area, Christina and Keith Yatsuhashi, won bronze in 1983 and a then-un- precedented silver in 1984. “It felt like we won because the Russians


were going to win, period,” said Keith, recalling the Soviet lock on ice dancing. Indeed the male half of the team that they finished second to in 1984, Evgeny Platov, would go on to become part of the only two-time Olym- pic gold medalists in ice dance. Keith laughs at the thought of Platov’s place in skating history, because 30 years ago his skating was pretty stiff. “He went from being a junior dancer to


being a Baryshnikov. It was amazing to watch,” Keith said. “I can still say, ‘We were second to Evgeny Platov.’ I said it to my wife when we watched him win in Nagano. “[Our silver medal] absolutely felt like a barrier had been broken,” he added. “It’s nice to know that [today’s teams] can win. Tis goes to show, if you persevere, if you work really hard, it can happen.” Keith also recalled the team that won gold


in 1983, Tatiana Gladkova and Igor Shpilband. He described their free dance to Fiddler on the Roof as “a joy to watch” and said he’s not at all surprised Shpilband has been instrumental in el- evating U.S. ice dance. Te 1984 World Junior Championships


were in Sapporo, Japan, and their Japanese her- itage made them audience favorites. Christina recently reminded Keith of the time the compet- itors’ bus was surrounded by people seeking their autographs.


Christina, now 45, and Keith, 49, also won the 1984 U.S. junior title, but retired from the


(Top) The Campbell family (l-r) Melissa, Christina, Jack, Colleen and John. Photo courtesy of Christina Yatsuhashi Campbell


(Center) Keith and Christina Yatsuhashi await their scores in the kiss and cry at the 1984 World Junior Champion- ships in Sapporo, Japan. The U.S. team, far left, shared the podium with three-time World Junior champions Elena Krikanova and Evgeny Platov of the Soviet Union, center, and their country mates Svetlana Lyapina and Gorsha Sur. Photos courtesy of Keith Yatsuhashi


(Bottom) Keith and wife Kathleen have three children (l-r) Justin, Caitlin and Jeffrey. Photo courtesy of Keith Yatsuhashi


sport before their U.S. senior debut. Tey’d quali- fied at Easterns, but Keith felt their skating wasn’t up to par. He was already attending Northeastern University and felt he needed to turn his focus to doing well in college. “Having the heady experience of everybody


saying, ‘We’ll see you on the podium at the next Olympics’ to the point that you’re not dancing up to your potential, I didn’t want to go to nation- als,” he said. Although Christina wanted to continue, she


had no desire to do it without Keith, so she re- tired as well. She had always gone to regular high school, so the transition to normal life wasn’t that hard.


“I was a cheerleader my last two years of


high school,” Christina said. “Kind of funny though, I had no idea what homeroom was be- cause all our practices were in the morning, so I never went to homeroom.


“I would not change a thing,” she contin-


ued. “I loved having the exciting life that I did. I loved skating. Every so often, my son will grum- ble about going to skills class. I loved going to the rink, being on the ice, the feel of the speed, the edges. I just loved doing it. It was really the best of both worlds for me.” Keith said his travels in skating influenced his major in college. He studied international relations with a minor in history. Northeastern offered an internship in Washington, D.C., at the U.S. Department of Commerce, and he took it. After graduation and a boring first job, he applied for an opening in the Department of Commerce office in Boston, which he got. After 10 years, he heard the director position was open at the office in Providence, Rhode Island, and he landed the job.


His job entails going to local manufactur-


ers and service providers to help them export their products and services internationally. He also has the passionate hobby of writing, and in 2013 published his first novel, titled Kojiki, based on the name of the traditional Japanese myth of creation. Writing the book, making it publica- tion-ready and finding a publisher was a process not unlike skating. “Having a manuscript and having a book


are two entirely different things,” Keith said. “It seems to be there’s a 10-year learning curve for success in anything. For skating, for us it was 10 years. For me to get the directorship here it was 10 years. For me to get from manuscript to pub- lication was 10 years.” He recently released a short story titled


Torii, the word for traditional Japanese gates, which is available on Amazon. He’s at work on another book. Keith and wife Kathleen will celebrate their


20th anniversary in June. Tey have three chil- dren: Caitlin, 16, a dancer and student at Walnut Hill School for the Arts, a school attended by many of the Yatsuhashis’ skating contemporaries;


Keith Yatsuhashi is also a published author. His first novel is titled Kojiki; his recently released short story is titled Torii. Images courtesy of Keith Yatsuhashi


SKATING 9


Jeffrey, 14, who plays football; and Justin, 12, a hockey player.


Christina graduated from Boston College


with a degree in communications, thinking she would go into advertising. Tere were no open- ings at that time, so she took a job as then-Mas- sachusetts Governor William Weld’s receptionist and wound up working her way up to the as- sistant to his deputy chief of staff. She followed that with a job at Massport. She currently is an administrative assistant at the Norfolk Housing Authority. She and husband Jack Campbell have been married for 17 years. He’s a financial systems analyst and colonel in the U.S. Army reserves. Teir children are Melissa, 14, a dancer; Colleen, 12, who is into theater; and John, 10, who plays hockey and lacrosse. Keith watches skating on TV or online fairly often, but Christina admitted her busy schedule limits her viewing time. Both watched the Olym- pic Winter Games from Sochi and were excited to see a Japanese-American sister/brother duo, Maia and Alex Shibutani, representing the U.S. It was intriguing to see so many faces from their past at the boards, including Ingo Steuer, whom both remember clearly.


Te siblings and their older brother, Doug- las, who was a singles skater, still live in the Bos- ton area. Some of their skating memorabilia is at their mother’s house, but each has some treasured possessions. For Christina, it’s some of the pins she traded for, her medals and an ivory necklace she received from Platov’s partner, Elena Krikan- ova.


Each has skates. Keith found a pair of Har-


licks, the brand he wore as a competitor, in a store, and Christina has Riedells she bought on- line. Tey both said they miss the ballroom influ- ence on ice dancing from their era, but appreciate the athleticism of today. Tere are many fond memories of their time on ice. “I will never stop thinking about it. It was a


great adventure,” Keith said. “Tere are places in my book that are places that we went. “It’s still very much a part of me,” he added.


“In my job, I have to do a lot of speaking en- gagements. It all comes back that you’re out there performing. “One of the reasons that I started writing was because when you lay it all on the line on the ice, you know what you’ve done. Putting a book out, it’s my baby. It’s all me. It’s who I am. You’re bleeding on the page just like you did on the ice.”


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