Retired Olympians Want to Change the Game for Same-Sex Figure Skating Duos

(Photo by ARND WIEGMANN/AFP via Getty Images)

Two major retired Olympic skaters want to change the game and open up the field to more same-sex figure skating duos. Gabriella Papadakis (who is bisexual) and Madison Hubbell (who is, as far as I can tell, straight) paired up for an Art on Ice Gala in Switzerland, and hope they will just be the first of many. While their intention is mainly to help solve the issue of gender imbalance in the sport — more women than men tend to get into figure skating, making the pairings uneven when limited to male/female couples — they have acknowledged that this could also mean progress for same-sex couples in the queer sense of the term. Papadakis said, “It wasn’t our basic intention but we realise what it can represent, what it can show, for us, it’s something that is close to our hearts too.” So their motivation isn’t the same as, say, when JoJo Siwa said she would only go on Dancing with the Stars if she was paired with a woman, but rising tides lift all boats and all that.

Regardless of their original motivation, Papadakis and Hubbell are attempting to break barriers and question codes that have gone unquestioned for so long. They have been skating together since they both retired in 2022 when, after a unanimous ruling, Skate Canada removed all gendered language from its competition rulebook, meaning same-sex skating partners were no longer strictly verboten. They didn’t specifically mention it but hopefully this gender-free language will also help more nonbinary athletes gaining the ability to perform, joining Olympian figure skater Timothy LeDuc.

I personally think this means it’s the perfect time for a sapphic ice skating movie. Think The Cutting Edge meets Bend it Like Beckham. Maybe Will Graham and Abbi Jacobson are available.

Check out Papadakis and Hubbell’s latest interview here:

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