On the edge of success
Kalispell skater paired with skilled Russian athlete
By LYNNETTE HINTZE
The Daily Inter Lake
A lot can happen in 10 years, Willie Traeger has decided.
The 20-year-old Kalispell woman began figure skating at the Woodland Park pond during the winter of 1994 when she was 10.
A decade later, she's the skating partner of an up-and-coming Russian skater, with her sights set on international competition and, ultimately, the Olympics.
While attending Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colo., Traeger had the opportunity to skate daily at an indoor facility for the first time in her life. Already an accomplished singles skater, she began taking pairs lessons and realized she wanted to pursue pairs skating.
She posted her listing on skating Web sites that link pairs skaters, and waited to see what would happen.
"I knew my future wasn't in singles skating," Traeger said in a telephone interview from her Euless, Texas, home. "I wasn't that strong of a jumper. Pairs offered bigger opportunities for me."
Last spring, Traeger got a call from Rinat Farkhoutdinov, a Russian choreographer and former Olympic ice dancer who lives and coaches in the Dallas area. He had seen her listing and wondered if she was interested in auditioning with a student of his, Konstantin Emshanov. Emshanov, a former Russian Junior Nationalist, had lived in the United States for less than a year and was searching for a pairs partner.
Rinat and pairs-skating coach Peter Cain, a former Olympic pairs skater from Australia, wanted her to come to Texas and audition as soon as possible. Traeger, rendered almost speechless at the surprise call, assured Rinat she was very interested.
It was a long shot.
Once Traeger and her mother, Dallas Traeger, arrived in Texas, they learned Emshanov had auditioned with several other girls from around the United States. He had at least two more auditions to go after Traeger's audition.
"The audition seemed to go fairly well, although both Willie and I considered ourselves to be way out of our league," her mother recalled. "It seemed unlikely that Peter Cain would want to pair up a girl from Montana who had only completed three pairs tests, with a highly experienced Russian who had been skating ever since he was 2 years old."
They were told to expect a decision within a month or so, so Traeger flew back to Colorado to finish her semester at CSU.
Five days later, she got a call from Rinat and Emshanov and learned the Russian skater had liked her so well he'd canceled the other auditions.
She was on her way to becoming a pairs skater.
"I'm still getting used to someone from another country," she said. "Skating in Russia is very different from the U.S. The facilities are not as good there and the methods and techniques are very different; it's very strict in Russia. It's your job to skate, it's not done for fun."
They're working on competitive programs and will compete for the first time together in March 2005. In the meantime, they've scheduled several exhibition shows, including a holiday show at her home rink in Whitefish on Dec. 18.
During group skating lessons in 1994, Traeger's instructor noticed her talent and told her to pursue private lessons at the Whitefish ice rink, then an outdoor facility.
"At that time, she was not thinking in terms of a career," her mother aid. "Skating was just something fun to do, and she just happened to be good at it."
Her first skating coach in Whitefish was Kathy Weiner. Traeger competed with the Whitefish precision figure-skating team for two seasons. During her second season, the team, coached by Jennifer Boye, placed first at the Pacific Coast Precision Championships in Lakewood, Calif.
Traeger competed for the first time in a singles event in 1997, at age 12.
At that point, it became clear that if Traeger wanted to advance rapidly in the sport, she would have to find other places to skate throughout the year. Skating for only four months of the year, and most of that time in cold, snowy weather, was far from ideal.
A long stretch of commuting commenced. The nearest rinks were in Canada, but most of those also were seasonal.
"It became quite expensive," her mother said. "Besides the gas and coaching expenses, we would usually have to rent the ice for hours at a time. If we were lucky, other Whitefish skaters would come along to share the expenses."
By the time Traeger was in high school, they were traveling back and forth to Spokane two or three times a week each summer. It was grueling, both physically and mentally.
The young skater was steadily improving, however, and lessons with Berkley Villard, a former silver medalist at the U.S. National Championships, were well worth the investment of time and money. Berkley took Traeger through two Northwest Pacific Regional competitions.
Meanwhile, Traeger was taking and passing figure skating tests. There are 16 tests for singles skaters who are members of the U.S. Figure Skating Association. By the time Traeger entered college, she had completed 13 of the tests.
Last summer she completed the last four pairs skating tests (a feat that, in such a short time period, is virtually unheard of) and her final moves in the field test. She has finished all of her required tests to compete at the highest level.
Traeger and Emshanov skate and train at the Dr. Pepper Star Center in Euless, four hours a day on the ice and one hour off the ice in strength exercises.
"It's going great, but it's very exhausting," she said.
She also works at the rink store, teaches skate school and private skating lessons, and is interning with a Dallas fashion design firm. Traeger also is a trial judge for the U.S. Figure Skating Association at competitions in the Dallas area.
Traeger plans to attend the University of North Texas in Denton next spring to continue her fashion design studies.
"I want to have my own design label some day," she said.
For now, skating is foremost on her mind.
"We want to compete internationally. The Olympics are the ultimate goal," she said.
Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com