A three-time United States National Ice Dance champion (1978, 1979 and 1980), she was also a member of the United States Figure Skating World Team, placing ninth in both the 1978 and 1979 World Championships and eight in 1980. Finished eighth in 1980 Olympics competition, then turned professional and won the United States Professional Figure Skating Championships in 1981.
She began to get serious about figure skating rather early in life—when she was an eight-year-old elementary school student in her home town of Westlake. Beginning as a singles skater, she shifted her attention to pairs skating as a teen-ager and at the age of 22 she shifted partners and into a high gear on the world stage. Teaming with Todd Sand, who towered a full 11 inches above her, they quickly adjusted to each other and in their first year together in 1993 they captured a silver medal in the U.S. National Championships and placed a surprising fifth at the World Championships. The following year they won the U.S. National Championship, qualified for the ’94 Winter Olympics were they finished fifth, found a moment to become engaged while there, and then went on to finish sixth in the World Championships. By the time she and her husband ended there amateur careers to join the Stars on Ice Tour for the 1998-99 season, the pair had amassed three U.S. National Championships (in 1994, 1995 and 1996) plus a second in 1997 and had established themselves as favorites for the ’98 title, only to have to withdraw when Jenni suffered a serious ankle injury. Later, able to train for only a week for the 1998 Winter Olympics, they gamely competed and finished a credible eighth, With Jenni fully recovered a month thereafter, they were able t close out their amateur careers by capturing the silver in the ’98 World Championships. Still skating professionally, the couple lives and trains in Southern California and Summerlin, Nevada.
For a half-dozen unforgettable years, Carol Heiss Jenkins was the greatest ladies figure skater in the world. She was World Champion in 1956-57-58-59 and 60, U.S. Champion in 1957-58-59 and ’60, Olympic Silver Medalist in 1956, and finally the Olympic Gold Medalist in 1960. Her marriage to another Olympic Champion, Hayes Jenkins, in 1956 brought her to Akron, and when her family was raised she returned to the ice as a teacher. That in turn led her to the Winterhurst Rink in Lakewood in 1981, where she began a program which has brought national prominence to the modest facility and established the Greater Cleveland area as one of the nation’s leading figure skating centers. In her tenure at Winterhurst she has coached such internationally-ranked skaters as Lisa Ervin and Timothy Goebel, Greater Cleveland natives Tonia Kwiatkowski and Jeni Meno, and 2001 National Men’s Junior National Champion Parker Pennington. In 1996 the United States Figure Skating Association and Professional Skating Association named her Coach of the Year. It is for these accomplishments as a coach and goodwill ambassador for Greater Cleveland that Jenkins, now a resident of Westlake, has been selected to the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall Of Fame.
A member of the U.S. National and International Figure Skating Teams from 1986 through 1998, Tonia Kwiatkowski ranks among the very best ice performers ever to come out of the Cleveland area. She earned a berth as an alternate on the 1998 United States Olympic Figure Skating Team to climax a career which included appearances in the World Championships in 1993, 1996 and 1998, two World University Games championships (1991 and 1995), a silver medal in the 1996 Senior U.S. National Championships, and three bronze medals in the U.S. Nationals, one at the Junior Level in 1987 and two at the Senior Level in 1993 and 1995. Considered one of the best liked and most respected competitors of her era in her sport, she is a graduate of Lakewood High School and Baldwin-Wallace College.
The Cleveland Skating Club was home to Hayes Jenkins when he began making his move in the world of men’s figure skating. In 1948, he was the U.S. junior national champion. Growing up in Akron, Cleveland saw plenty of Jenkins until he moved to Colorado in 1953 to attend Colorado College. He had been a member of five U.S. World Figure Skating teams up until then, finishing fourth at the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, Norway. That set in motion a run of four consecutive U.S. and world championships from 1953 to 1956. At the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina, Italy, he put the finishing touch on his remarkable career by winning the gold medal. His younger brother, David, won the bronze medal. Four years later they became bonded gold brothers when David won the 1960 gold medal. Retiring from the ice to attend Harvard Law School, he married 1960 women’s gold medalist Carol Heiss in 1960. Returning to Akron to work in legal affairs for the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, he and Carol raised three children and ten grandchildren. Like his wife, he has been honored by numerous organizations throughout the skating world. He retired from Goodyear as Assistant Secretary and Assistant General Counsel in 1998, after which he and Carol moved to Westlake to be closer to his her coaching site. For nearly 50 years, they have been the area’s first family of figure skating.
She was the Golden Girl of ladies figure skating for nearly a decade. The world took early notice of Carol Heiss Jenkins when she was the 1951 U.S. Novice champion and the 1952 national junior champion. The following year, she became the first woman to land a double axel in competition. The native of New York City was only warming up when she won the first of five consecutive world championships in 1956, but had to settle for a silver medal at the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina, Italy. There was no stopping her after that as the United States and world championships belonged to her from 1957 to 1960, with her career culminating in a gold medal performance at the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California. She stayed in the public eye for a time with the distinctive movie “Snow White and the Three Stooges” in 1961 and as a television commentator. Her marriage to gold medalist Hayes Jenkins in 1960 brought her to Akron. Two decades later, the lure of the ice took her to Lakewood’s Winterhurst Rink where she became one of the nation’s top skating teachers. During more than 25 years at Winterhurst, she has coached internationally ranked skaters Tonia Kwiatkowski, Jeni Meno, Lisa Ervin, Timothy Goebel, Miko Ando and Parker Pennington. Residing in Westlake with her husband, she was a 2001 inductee to the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame.
Teaming up with three different skating partners spanning approximately two decades, William Fauver was consistently among the top skaters in the nation and the world. Multiple Olympic participations included a 12th place in the Innsbruck Games. He also competed in the 1984 Games and subsequently turned pro. Bill is currently Director of Pairs Skating at the Broadmoor Rink in Colorado Springs.