#about the barrier they'll face internationally

[virtchandmoir]

They’ll be dancing with themselves next season when same-sex teams come to Canadian figure skating

The move is meant to create opportunities for skaters who can’t find partners, but it’s sure to create an uneven playing field.

January 12, 2023

Figure skating is the most gay-friendly sport in the world. If there’s any athletic arena that doesn’t need a woke kick in the arse, this is it.

That’s if “inclusion” — as the term is now understood to mean — were the motivating factor behind Skate Canada’s decision to permit same-sex competitors in ice dance and pairs as of next season. The organization has rewritten policy, which previously specified that those disciplines must comprise a man and a woman, quite patting itself on the back for the groundbreaking shift.

But figure skating has long had a problem of gender imbalance, from the earliest of age. There aren’t enough males to go around in coupled competition, at least in North America. At rinks across Canada, little girls who want to do pairs or dance have difficulty getting proper ice time because of that scarcity. And as skaters mature, entering the elite ranks internationally, quite frankly men can have their pick of a partner, trade up. Hence, females who have put in just as many hours of training, honing all the necessary skills, sometimes find themselves jettisoned for a more medal-enticing model.

So maybe conjoining girls with girls makes some sense, particularly in ice dancing.

But indisputably, man-man pairs would create a competitive advantage, especially in the side-by-side jumping elements. Men routinely do quad jumps now while only a handful of women include four-rotation jumps in their singles routines. Because Skate Canada has no intention of expanding formats to encompass strictly same-sex teams, male-male duos would compete alongside male-female couples. I don’t see how that playing field can be levelled.

Canada is the first and thus far only country to go down this road. There’s been not a shred of evidence that the International Skating Union is in the mood for changing its rules. Consequently, at this point same-gender teams would only be able to compete domestically, up to the Canadian championships.

Scott Moir, who with Tessa Virtue won two Olympic gold medals and a silver — they’re the most decorated ice dancers in history — was among those who most passionately advocated for the rule change.

He insists there would be no competitive edge for a same-sex men’s team. “If you’re asking yourself who would win between Tessa Virtue-Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir-Scott Moir, I’m going with Tessa. I know that Tessa, if she trained lifts, she could lift. She was a fantastic flyer.”

To be clear, Moir is talking about ice dance. He doesn’t consider himself qualified to speak about pairs.

“It’s just time for us to give a bit more access to the sport of ice dance,” Moir, now a coach, told the Star on Thursday at the Canadian championships in Oshawa, where he has several teams competing in the junior ranks. “It allows us to get more athletes into the sport, most of all. But the other part is that I don’t think there’s an advantage to a man-man team or a woman-woman team. So it’s unnecessary to have those boundaries.’’

Moir anticipates that, with same-gender teams, skaters will invent new moves and different lifts, while exploring alternate storylines in programs — figure skating, performed to music, is very much about depicting a narrative, particularly in dance — though there would still be a “leader’’ and a “follower” as there is on nearly all dance expression. It’s make-believe with an athletic foundation.

“I don’t know if people know this but Tessa and I, while we love each other, we weren’t in love. We were playing characters our whole career. We convinced a lot of people. But two women, two men, can do the same thing, for crying out loud. It’s just the age that we’re in. The people that perceive it as quote-unquote gay, for me, I really care very little about what their opinion is.”

There’s a traditional view, Moir acknowledges, that the sport should stay the same way forever. But within the sport, among coaches and skaters, he’s found an open-mindedness, a willingness to adapt and innovate. And certainly, to find a competitive path for more females in the twosome events.

“There are a lot of female skaters who are sitting at home simply because we can’t find them a man. They’re all training at an elite level but they can’t get anywhere, can’t even get on competition ice. If this is all that it accomplishes, then I think it’s a success.”

Kaitlyn Weaver, a two-time Olympian with partner Andrew Poje — they’re event ambassadors in Oshawa — came out publicly as gay 18 months ago on social media. With Moir, she took a strong stand championing same-sex partnerships to Skate Canada. Weaver was sick Thursday and not at the rink, but she had explained her activism earlier this week in an interview with Lori Ewing of The Canadian Press.

“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the stories we’re telling (but) I think there’s room for so much more. My queerness has a big part in why I felt especially motivated to help push this forward. We don’t see young people in our sport that are not heteronormative … and I think that that’s a problem.

“Canadians belong on the ice. If there’s a group of people that don’t feel like that, it’s our job to make sure that becomes a reality. And a visual reality. Kids can’t be what they can’t see. And if we make space for everyone, I think that our sport and our country will be much richer for it.”

The three-time senior world medallist has worked with American pairs team Anna Keller, a non-binary trans athlete, and Erica Rand. They had hoped to compete at their nationals but were prevented from doing so because U.S. rules still stipulate one man, one woman.

But will audiences accept same-sex teams? It’s a largely conservative fan base that has stayed loyal to the sport, which has otherwise plunged in popularity since the 1980s. Even Moir concedes that young girls who would benefit from skating with other young girls feel awkward about it.

“Right now, the females are shy. They’re worried about how the world of figure skating is going to look at them. That’s a big obstacle. The tough thing for me is pitching the idea, which I have many times, and it falling flat because they’re worried that they’re going to be judged and embarrassed and not taken seriously.”

The spectre of bullying and shaming is real. Moir, who is straight, likewise absorbed a lot of teasing in his younger days for being a figure skater, and an ice dancer at that.

“Not amongst my friends. My hockey player friends also stuck up for me because I played hockey against them. They knew they’d have to face me on the ice as well.

“Let’s hope we’re in a different era now.”

—The Star