Time To "Man Up" On The Ice?

Last Friday, ABC World News aired a story that has been brewing for about three months and now it seems poised to explode.

In February, Skate Canada, Canada's Figure Skating Governing Body, announced a new Public Relations campaign to make skating in Canada look "tough."

Skate Canada is well aware that figure skating's image is seen as, well, gay and Skate Canada hopes to change that by focusing on the difficult aspects of figure skating such as strength, power, endurance...all the stuff that makes skaters sweat heavy!

That's when many in the gay community began to cry foul.  Egale Canada, an organization that advances equality and justice for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans-identified people and their families was deluged with mail about the anti-gay sentiment of Skate Canada's new PR Campaign.  The story began to unfold in newspapers, websites, blogs (including this one), and eventually found its way to ABC World News.

Skate Canada wasn't helped when two-time Olympic Silver Medalist, Elvis Stojko, went on a self-appointed mini press tour, speaking on behalf of what Skate Canada was looking for.  Stojko told the Toronto Sun "If you're very lyrical and you're really feminine and soft, well, that's not men's skating. That is not men's skating, ok? Men's skating is power, strength, masculinity, focus, clarity of movement, interpretation of music."

But is Skate Canada really trying to alienate gays?  "I don't think Skate Canada wants to alienate gay skaters and gay fans, they just want them to start acting more masculine, which in turn alienates people. They want it both ways, and they're just not going to get it that way" says Cyd Ziegler, Co-founder, Outsports.com.  ABC World News caught up with Cyd Ziegler when airing this story.

Another goal of Skate Canada in this new PR campaign is to improve television ratings for skating which have been sagging.  Skate Canada hopes to draw in a television audience that includes fans of other sports, like hockey.  I asked Cyd if there was a realistic way to bring the "hockey crowd" into skating:  "To draw in the hockey fans, you'll need to have figure skaters hitting each other. They're two completely different sports catering to two different interests. There are other fan groups, like tennis or golf, who would be more likely to gravitate toward figure skating. Targeting the hockey crowd is just a waste of their time." 

What are gay fans of figure skating saying about all this?  "We need to get to the place of embracing the fact that our sport NEEDS, and should encourage and nurture BOTH the artistic and athletic skating qualities" says Paul Ziller, Figure Skating fan and fellow blogger.  "These are the yin and the yang, or right and the left brain of figure skating. When both "sides" thrive, they offer a certain tenuous equation that makes skating so compelling, a symbiotic relationship that encourages the constant evolution of the entire "package" of a skater and the system, and therefore maintains the interest of and debate among fans and foes alike."  Ziller continues, "Sadly, for the Canadian Federation, Elvis Stojko, and/or skating fans/critics to try to make this into a simple discussion of gay vs. straight is small-minded, offensive, and abhorrent. It's as comedic as Miss California purporting that marriage should ONLY be between "opposite" sexes... when a large part of pageant fans and supporters are gay men. In the skating community we clearly have the same large fan base. No, it's not the whole fan base, but it's a large enough part that our voice should be heard, and is likely no minority."

Many have voiced concerns that a similar push may be happening here in the United States.  Many believed U.S. Figure Skating's decision to place young up-and-comer Brandon Mroz on the World Team instead of Johnny Weir despite Johnny's Bronze Medal the previous season that earned the U.S. its World Team spots a blatant attempt to promote more "masculine" skaters and snub the more, to use Stojko's words, lyrical, feminine, and soft skaters.  I asked Cyd Ziegler if he thought U.S. Figure Skating would attempt the same push as Skate Canada: "No way, for several reasons. First, it's not going to work: Hockey fans and kids who want to play hockey aren't suddenly going to gravitate toward figure skating because the men are more masculine. Second, the public relations problems this has stirred up for Skate Canada is alienating their core fanbase: Again, bad business decision."

All of this controversy has had Skate Canada back tracking on their statements.  In a call for clarification from Skate Canada, one reader at Cyd Ziegler's site received a lengthy reply from Skate Canada CEO William Thompson.  Amongst that response, "We certainly do not wish to alienate our fan base and, quite frankly, that fan base is very knowledgeable about skating. Our messaging was really intended for the more casual viewer of the sport, particularly with the Olympics here in Canada later this year.  For the record, while Elvis is entitled to comment on skating as he sees fit, he in no way speaks for Skate Canada and the views he recently expressed are not representative of the views of the leadership team at Skate Canada."

To be certain, all of this controversy will certainly still be swirling when the world arrives in Vancouver next February for the Olympic Games.  Skate Canada may have solved its television ratings conundrum by simply creating a controversy.  But is the boost in ratings worth the tarnished image many now have of the Skate Canada Organization?

(Photo: Getty Images)

---

Needless to say Aaron Harris is crazy about figure skating! He eats, drinks, and breathes the sport! You can check out more of Aaron's figure skating thoughts at his blog, Axels, Loops, and Spins

Unless otherwise stated, no particular sexual orientation of anyone depicted is implied or should be presumed.