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"One night in late February, Madison Hubbell and Gabriella Papadakis, two Olympic gold medal ice dancers, glided into a skating exhibition in Zurich’s 85-year-old Hallenstadion to shatter one of figure skating’s great taboos by performing not with their longtime male partners but each other. ...They did this because they want to change figure skating — ice dance, in particular. In doing so, they are going up against more than 100 years of tradition because ice dance is different from any Olympic sport. At heart, it’s a performance as theatrical as it is athletic, each routine a fairy tale heavy on romance and chivalry. A male skater almost always leads, and his female partner follows, all while gazing at each other with loving eyes. ...Many women in skating, including Hubbell and Papadakis, find this dynamic uncomfortable and outdated.
...She and Hubbell see one gender ice dance as a chance to create more opportunities for female skaters because the pool of males is small, leaving many women without partners. But skating is a judged sport, and judges tend to be old-fashioned. They like the love stories and can favor couples who seem more passionate than others.
Nearly three years ago, Skate Canada, the Canadian figure skating federation, revised its rules to change the definition of a team from “one man and one woman” to “two skaters.” But no other country’s federation has followed, and the International Skating Union, which oversees the sport globally and at the Olympics, does not allow single-gender teams. ...“I think when [people] see two women skating together, they are like, ‘Oh God, this is gay,’” Papadakis said. Or as Kaitlyn Weaver, an American-born ice dancer who went to two Olympics with Canadian skating partner Andrew Poje and led Skate Canada’s gender definition change, said, “The conservative people don’t want to see two men skating together … it’s their homophobia.”
“This is a white, cisgender, hetero sport,” she said."
Link
On the one hand, there is a necessity for it, on the other hand, it's quite a change in culture.
...She and Hubbell see one gender ice dance as a chance to create more opportunities for female skaters because the pool of males is small, leaving many women without partners. But skating is a judged sport, and judges tend to be old-fashioned. They like the love stories and can favor couples who seem more passionate than others.
Nearly three years ago, Skate Canada, the Canadian figure skating federation, revised its rules to change the definition of a team from “one man and one woman” to “two skaters.” But no other country’s federation has followed, and the International Skating Union, which oversees the sport globally and at the Olympics, does not allow single-gender teams. ...“I think when [people] see two women skating together, they are like, ‘Oh God, this is gay,’” Papadakis said. Or as Kaitlyn Weaver, an American-born ice dancer who went to two Olympics with Canadian skating partner Andrew Poje and led Skate Canada’s gender definition change, said, “The conservative people don’t want to see two men skating together … it’s their homophobia.”
“This is a white, cisgender, hetero sport,” she said."
Link
On the one hand, there is a necessity for it, on the other hand, it's quite a change in culture.