Adult Skating in the News

WSJ.com

Adult figure skating is finally making headlines, and I am glad. Like the recent feature on my friend in the NYTimes and this headline on WSJ.com from yesterday: Older Figure Skaters Put New Spin on Sequined Sport at Championships.

I take a little ish with the latter though, which is hooked to this month's U.S. Adult Figure Skating Championships in Hyannis.

My first issue with it is purely competitive and selfish. I get a little sad when I hear about adult competitions from this past year. I berate myself that I wasn't able to get my act together to compete this year. I'm in prime physical shape, why couldn't I pull it together? I was back at practice less than 8 weeks after a c-section for pete's sake. Then I have to remind myself that realistically it would have been impossible. The demands of caring for an infant while also fulfilling the responsibilities of a full-time job would have made it extremely difficult, and I don't think I would have achieved the satisfaction from it that I would have if I'd spent more time training.

At the same time, the adults featured in the story (and those I've had the honor of skating with in the last few years) have made it work with more grueling schedules and more debilitating injury-related setbacks, like hip replacements. So I'm going to quit whining...for now.

The second issue I have with this article is the way it cheekily references the sport by saying things like:

But many older adults are donning skates, spandex and sequins and going after golds of their own. They stick to jumps and spins that are easy on the joints rather than landing quads, but their obsession is Olympic-size. 

First of all, wearing sequins is not prerequisite for competitive skating. In fact, in some disciplines, namely synchro, skaters are not allowed to wear sequins or rhinestones or any other shiny appliques, because they pose a safety risk to all skaters if they pop off--and they do pop off. You don't have to wear sequins, and certainly don't have to don spandex to compete, or even be considered a skater.

And secondly, the implication that adult skaters "stick to jumps and spins that are easy on the joints" is frankly a little offensive. Yes, it's true that the slings and arrows of aging may limit the physical capacity to pop off quads (and mental blocks are more likely to inhibit) but it shouldn't be implied that we all take it easy. It's like saying, "Oh you like to skate? That's so cute." It seriously undermines the motivation of these hard-working skaters, and may subconsciously convince them that they can't do things when they really really can!