On the definition of team: gender, power, and equality in skating
Skate Canada made waves this week by announcing that it is updating the definition of 'team' with regards to pairs skating and ice dance to no longer refer solely to a partnership composed of a man and a woman, but to include two skaters regardless of gender identity. Skate Canada president Karen Butcher said on the revision, "This change is about removing barriers to participation in skating, and we believe it will have a significant impact in ensuring all gender identities are recognized and accepted equally and without prejudice."
Skate Canada has updated its policies so that ice dance or pairs teams competing domestically can be composed of any two athletes. Canada's
For skaters who identify as non-binary or queer with a gender identity outside of the gender binary, this allows them to compete with lessened gender dysphoria if previously competing under their sex assigned at birth, such as non-binary pairs skater Timothy LeDuc who made history as the first out non-binary Winter Olympian in Beijing. But it also makes history as the first skating federation--and one of the three traditional skating powers--to allow for same-sex partnerships in pairs and ice dance.
It comes at an interesting time in international ice dance where elements have very recently been gendered where they weren't previously, with step sequence and twizzle levels now designated to the woman and man separately. And where in the past year, the ISU's big strides towards equality has consisted of revising communications to say "women" instead of "ladies" and allowing ice dance women to wear pants in the free dance. How progressive. (Men who wish to wear anything other than pants, like John Kerr's kilt for his Scottish OD in 2008, will still need an exception or face a costume deduction).
Gender in Ice Dance
Previously, the only gendered element was the spin, with men able to get a difficult position credit for a basic camel while women had to choose another variation. This change will likely affect dance far more than it will pairs due to the lower barrier for entry and due to far more mirrored elements than in pairs where the skillsets developed for lifting and throwing vs. twisting and balancing and landing are more highly gendered. Especially as only 4 lifts are required across two programs for dance--in comparison to eras where it was 7--ice dance’s brute strength and endurance requirements have evolved greatly in the last decade.
For now, by the nature of this ruling by Skate Canada as opposed to the ISU, unfortunately for the most elite level of skaters this change for young girls will result in partnerships between two women being seen as transitory as a stepping off point to a partnership where they can compete on the international level. But in a sport where young girls often retire due to lacking number of boys to partner with, this provides a massive developmental pathway where these young female athletes can continue growing with one another and increasing their skill levels. While the decision from Skate Canada (IMO) seems to be primarily motivated out of a desire for inclusion of queer athletes, it also could have a massive impact on improving the quality of training and experience for young girls. Whether it encourages them to challenge themselves by choosing a partnership with a stronger peer as opposed to sticking with a stagnant partnership that they are afraid to leave because it means giving up a chance at competing internationally, or just renewing their love of skating by doing it with a friend, this is a massive step forward for young athletes.
Madison Hubbell gave an interview to Russian media about her desire to do a show project with fellow Olympic medalist Gabriella Papadakis specifically about what skating between two women looks like.
"people have to see it. There are so many solo girls that want to do ice dance. And so many that spend years and years searching for a right guy, and I am sick of them sitting there searching. They need to find a way to perform, explore, express themselves, and share what they love about the sports. What would be a better way for two women than to skate together? But many of them are not used to the idea; they have not seen it, and for them, it’s almost like a lower tier. If I skate with a woman, maybe it means that I will never find a boy; it’s almost like admitting the fact that they might never be in competitive ice dance, which is too much to take on. We want to show them that there is no difference and that you can create amazing things – maybe even more amazing than what we are used to see."
Hubbell went through a transition early in her career after her brother Keiffer first split and then retired in 2012. Hubbell proceeded to pair with Donohue, and went on to a very successful career debuting at worlds in the same year. Most successful ice dancers are in fact not partnered since childhood, with the exception of sibling teams and the rare Virtue/Moir or Papadakis/Cizeron who go onto partnerships long enough that they can drive a car or drink. Many young girls spend half of their young careers waiting and wasting their talent because they don’t see another option, or settling for a partnership with a poor personality and/or skill fit.
"Of course, it’s only one aspect of this, but we are both very excited about this initiative to have a non-gendered event, more than creating a female-female event or male-male and then mixed. We think that everyone should be allowed to compete with everyone."
From a body image standpoint, skating has long denigrated and devalued women and girls seen as "too muscular" or "too tall" or "not feminine" enough due to their strength as skaters. Ranging from disgusting comments made to Kaitlin Hawayek this year, to Madison Hubbell and Tessa Virtue speaking about body shaming during their careers, this decision stands to empower young girls to lean into their strength as opposed to being shamed for it. While women have been permitted as lifters since 6.0 rules, very few teams have taken advantage of it in the last decade. The only team to do so being the Brown siblings during their first junior season. Many women in ice dance are afraid of challenging themselves in more athletic or reverse lifts that showcase their strength for fear of seeming less feminine.
"So many things worked really easily right away: transitions, skating skills, twizzles, one-foot, footwork, to track each other close – all have been really easy for both of us. But obviously lifts and tricks – things that we are used to do in one part of it – we have to learn how to be the base or to do a slightly different skillset."
In ice dance particularly, often there is a false gendering of strength in lifts that stems from the traditional mindset of stem and flower presentation: the woman is simply there to be lifted by her partner in a pretty position. She is simply a burden and any extra weight from muscles is not useful because the strength comes from the person lifting her. Incredible lifts like the stationary position achieved by Laurence Fournier Beaudry below involve the most power from the liftee, and are not possible without exceptional core strength.
Image taken by Ronda Churchill/AP Photo
Olympic Silver Medalist Tanith Belbin credits a switch to the coaching camp of Natalia Linichuk for forcing her to confront the toxicity of this regime in ice dance where young women are pressured to lose weight to make their partners' lifts easier. Linichuk ordered to her gain 10lbs and make an nutritionally informed diet to sustain her energy levels and improve her performance on ice. In the 2010 New York Times article on the subject, her partner Ben Agosto said he noticed a huge difference in her skating, "during lifts, she was no longer a sack of potatoes, holding on for dear life. She could hold her positions much better, and that made it easier for Agosto because she did not move around as much."
Hubbell alludes to this change in thought and challenging the notion that men need to lift because they are generally taller and stronger by noting the work that the IAM camp does with Cirque du Soleil acrobats: "often, acrobatic partners are almost the same size and height, so it’s all about leverage and technique."
Challenging this mindset is essential to valuing the amount of work that women in the sport do as incredible athletes and skaters. We see a large culture that values the strength and quality of men in ice dance and pairs, often at the expense of their female partners, where even in partnerships that are equally matched in talent and execution technical panels and officials will value male partners higher levels. We see this especially in reputation evaluation when it comes to individual step sequence levels. Of the top three teams last quad looking at OfSt levels, only S/K had the majority of their unequal level calls favor the lady. Despite for significant portions of that quad, all women were the stronger skater in their partnership looking at edge quality and control. Yet reputation or simply officiating bias, caused phantom no calls for clear mistakes made by men or simply attributed them to their cleaner female partner.
One Foot Step Sequence Level Calling Distribution
While culture changes at the officiating level are unlikely to happen on a scale faster than glacial, challenging the traditional gendering of technical strengths can only be seen as a step forward and potential at the skating community level to challenge the even unconscious bias that we all hold.
Community Reaction
Comments on the announcement have a varied mix of comments from full-throated support, to general trans and queerphobia, and a fair number of Blades of Glory references, but a strikingly common theme was that this change by Skate Canada is pointless because the ISU won't similarly follow--likely for years if at all. And while this is just my two cents on the matter, I truly believe that this is maybe the most positive change in skating in the past two quads. Momentum to make changes does not arise from nothing, this shift by a major federation, and one of the two currently non-sanctioned powers in the sport, provides a template for other federations to follow going forward. The ISU and the Olympics are highly important, what starts most dreams in the rink is thinking about that Olympic podium. But the fuel for the work put in is enjoyment of the sport at all levels. The vast majority of skaters will not see the Olympics or Worlds or international competition at any level. Their largest governing body is their domestic federation and it dictates what skating clubs they are apart of, what goals they work towards, what tier of development they can test into, and where they compete. This change is a massive step forward for not only the most elite tier of skating but those who lace up twice a week just to have fun doing something they love.
I would challenge everyone to view this change with as much idealism as possible. With the events of the past quad it is easy to fall into sheer hopelessness and despair at the state of the sport when it comes to the sheer amount of abuse and mistreatment of athletes, to feel the sheer scale of harm done. But this change provides a massive step forward when it comes to inclusion and equal treatment: for queer athletes and for the sport as a whole.
Lag time by the ISU for follow up is truly not the worst thing either as time is needed for partnerships with same-sex and gender non-conforming skaters to be developed at the domestic level to be ready for international competition. I truly hope we can see massive evolution in the sport, with athletes free to bring new new styles, new techniques, and new modes of expression that allow them to be their most authentic selves.
