Chandler Steele, of Xenia, takes third place at World YoYo Contest

Chandler Steele moved from Jamestown to Springboro when he was 10 and discovered the toy that would shape his life in the years to come.

“My neighbors up the street were an extremely nice Korean family,” said Steele, 27, who now lives in Xenia. “They all had really modern YoYos like I had never seen before. I would always go over there and hang out and try the YoYos that were kind of alien to me, and eventually I just got hooked on it myself.”

That was in 2009. All these years later, Steele reached what is so far the peak of a YoYo career that started by chance.

Steele finished second at the national championships in Las Vegas, Nev., in June behind another local resident, Connor Seals, of Oakwood. Then earlier this month, Steele finished third in the 1A freestyle division at the World YoYo Contest in Prague, Czech Republic.

“Last year, I didn’t even pass the semifinal round,” Steele said. “I made my goal when I made it to the finals. I was not expecting third place whatsoever.”

Steele received a standing ovation when he finished his routine in the finals.

“The audience in Europe is always so loud and crazy,” he said. “That made it pretty special.”

The comments of fans who watched Steele’s routine on YouTube showed how much respect he gained.

“So well paced, enjoyable to watch and masterfully crafted,“ one person wrote in the YouTube comments. ”You can’t get much better than this.“

“Chandler gave me the CHILLS multiple times throughout this routine,” another person wrote. “From the fit, to his refined poses, Chandler has grown up into a juggernaut of YoYo.”

Mir Kim, a 17-year-old from South Korea, won the event for a third consecutive year. Hunter Feuerstein, of Arizona, finished second.

Steele first competed in YoYo at the Ohio state contest in 2011. He finished eighth.

Steele has climbed in the YoYo world ever since that first contest. He won the Illinois state contest in 2017. He finished fifth in the U.S. nationals in 2018. He finished seventh at the national event in 2022, 10th in 2023 and seventh again last year before finishing second this year.

“It’s a lot of hard work,” Steele said, “and you have to be willing to take criticism and change things that may not work. You have to have people who can help you.”

Steele has practiced with Seals, who finished sixth at the world championships, the last couple years.

“He’ll come over to my house and we’ll practice, or vice versa,” Steele said. “He’s really helped me come into my own. We’ve been giving each other pointers about our style and what we can do to make each other better.”

Seals owned close to 200 YoYos before recently trimming his collection by 75-80. He used his new signature YoYo, called the Oblivion, at the world championships. Produced by a YoYo manufacturer called Unparalleled, it was released just before the event.

Talking about why he likes YoYos and what kept him in the game, Steele said, “It was really just a fascinating toy or hobby as a kid. I didn’t really have very many hobbies. I didn’t like sports that much. I started to go to more and more contests and fell in love with competing and trying to do a good routine. Then I discovered there’s a whole YoYo community of amazing people, and that’s kind of what made me want to stay.”