The Future of Figure Skating

Episode Notes Khoudia Touré is a street dancer, choreographer, and performer from Senegal. In 2018, Khoudia was selected for the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative and worked with renowned Canadian choreographer Crystal Pité. Since 2020, she has been a frequent collaborator with Stéphane Lambiel’s Skating School in Champéry, Switzerland. She teaches hip-hop dance and improvisation techniques...

Episode Notes Drew Meekins is a coach and choreographer based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Together with Natalia Mishkuntenok he runs M&M pairs, and coaches US Champions Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea, Junior Champions Olivia Flores and Luke Wang, and teams from eight nations. He is also involved in coaching and choreography for singles skaters at the World Arena, most notably Elyce Lin-Gracey....

Episode Notes Episode 42 features an interview with 3-time European medalist Matteo Rizzo. We recorded in late July in Madesimo, Italy, where Matteo trains at altitude for part of each summer. Matteo is one of the most seasoned and consistent competitors in the men’s discipline, with two Olympics and six world championships under his belt. He has won four bronze medals on the Grand Prix circuit an...

Episode Notes Niko Cohen has combined a background in theatrical costume design, and their passion for skating as an adult competer, to found Lavender Threads, a figure skating costume business. They have made costumes for team USA skaters like Max Naumov and Jimmy Ma. Niko is the 2024 national silver medalist in the US Adult Silver Women’s category - and they are determined to take the title next...

Episode Notes This is part two of my conversation with coach and choreographer Daniel Aggiano. Daniel is passionate about expanding awareness of eating disorders and how they impact male skaters. In this part of the conversation, he shared his struggles with bulimia as a competitive and professional skater, and his ongoing work to find a healthy approach to food and weight. If you think hearing de...

Episode Notes Daniel Aggiano is a coach and choreographer who is passionate about mental health and eating disorder awareness. He competed nationally and internationally for Great Britain and Italy from 2004-2012 in singles, pairs, and synchro. He won national titles in pairs for both countries and competed in the Junior World Championships in 2009. After a career in show skating, Daniel began coa...

Episode Notes Elizabeth Ramsey is the Executive Director of the Team USA Athletes Commission. Team USA is working toward a fully independent athletes' commission, as recommended by the Congressional Commission on the State of US Olympics and Paralympics. She has an important viewpoint to add to the conversations on athlete representation and how increase the power of the athletes voice in figure s...

Episode Notes Ashley Cain is a two-time U.S. champion in pairs and 2022 Olympian. In the last two years, she has been coaching, and touring with Disney on Ice. We talked about life on tour, the advantages of being a tall pair girl, concussion protocol and recovery, and being part of a generation of young coaches who want to support healthier and happier skaters. Transcript available: https://docs....

Episode Notes In 2010, Dr. Mary Louise Adams wrote one of the best books about figure skating that I’ve encountered, called "Artistic Impressions: Figure Skating, Masculinity and the Limits of Sport". I highly recommend the whole thing, and was grateful for the opportunity to discuss one of my favorite topics - queerness in skating! - with her! Mary Louise Adams is a Professor in the School of Kin...

Episode Notes Maja Luther is a creative working in performative arts creating interdisciplinary work with ice, and working in figure skating, focusing on movement skills and efficiency. Maja has an MA in Creative Practice and a diploma in dance studies from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of music and dance inLondon, UK. She performed over a decade in professional shows as soloist, and in that time ma...

Episode Notes I’m so excited to bring you this conversation with Gabriella Papadakis. With her ice dance partner Guillaume Cizeron, Gabi is the 2022 Olympic champion, the 2018 Olympic Silver Medalist, and a five time World Champion. She’s been taking a break from competition the last two seasons, skating in shows with Guillaume and exploring life away from the rink. Gabi has been vocal about suppo...

Episode Notes Part 2 of my conversation with choreographer, director, and producer Sandra Bezic! We talked about the World Championships in Montreal and the moments that made Sandra more optimistic about pairs skating and the future of the sport. We also got into the proposals from the ISU Technical Committee for Singles and Pairs to add a choreographic lift and spin to the pairs free skate. Trans...

Episode Notes Part 1 of my conversation with choreographer, director, and producer Sandra Bezic! With her brother Val, Sandra was a four-time Canadian pairs champion and competed in the 1972 Olympics. She is most well known, however, as a choreographer and the creative force behind many skating shows and TV programs. She has choreographed for champions like Brian Boitano, Kurt Browning, Katarina W...

Episode Notes My guest today is journalist and author Christine Brennan. Christine is a USA Today columnist and frequently appears on ABC, CNN, and PBS. She has covered figure skating since the Calgary Olympics, and her books Inside Edge and Edge of Glory are classics. Christine is also actively reporting on the sexual abuse scandals in figure skating, and we talked about covering these difficult...

Episode Notes What will it take to end the crisis of abuse in sports? This issue has been reverberating in the skating world, as more survivors have come forward with their stories, and the institutions charged with protecting athletes have largely failed to make the needed changes. Gymnasts for Change Canada advocates for eradicating maltreatment and misconduct in sport and is at the forefront of...

Episode Notes A special conversation about the anti-doping system and how it is working (or not working) to support athletes. I'm joined by Meagan Duhamel, a 2018 team gold medalist and individual bronze medalist in pairs from the PyeongChang Olympics, by Rob Kohler, director of Global Athlete and formerly deputy Director-General at WADA, and by Paul Greene, who is the founder of Global Sports Adv...

Episode Notes This episode features Bruno Massot, the 2018 Olympic and World Champion in pairs. Bruno is now coaching full-time, and we spoke at the European Championships where he was accompanying the Swedish team of Greta and John Crafoord. This was a shorter-than-usual conversation but it was still a very interesting one. We got into the future of pairs and what makes for a great coach. You can...

Episode Notes Johanna Allik is a former Estonian national team member in singles and ice dance and the co-founder of JIV Sport apparel company. She has recently published The Book of Figure Skating , a beautiful coffee table book full of information and original interviews. We spoke at the 2024 European Championships about the growth of skating in Estonia and Belgium (where she now lives), her exp...

Episode Notes Joining me in conversation were Isabelle Ragnarsson of Ice Theatre of Stockholm, Kate McSwain of American Ice Theatre, Katja Grohmann of Ice Lab Leipzig, Maja Luther of Maja Luther Studio, and returning guest Phillip Tischendorf. In October, they spent a few days together in France with other contemporary skaters at the second annual Performing Arts Project. I was eager to learn more...

Episode Notes Today's guest is Jamal Othman, the managing director for the Ice Academy of Montreal and Markey International Arts. Jamal was the 2009 Swiss national champion. In his post-competitive career, he has combined his interest in international business with his love of skating. In this episode, we talk about marketing and branding, the Olympic cycle, and how ice dance can fit between sport...

Episode Notes Philipp Tischendorf is a former competitive figure skater for Germany, a member of the Contemporary Skating Alliance, and an osteopath and physical therapist. He has turned his experience with injury, pain, and rehabilitation during his athletic career into a practice supporting both skaters and the general public. This episode challenges our misconceptions about injury and invites u...

Episode Notes Artificial intelligence is impacting many industries, and sports is no exception. How can AI help figure skating judging be more accurate? What other benefits could it have for skaters, coaches and viewers? My guest today is Craig Buntin, a Canadian Olympic pairs skater and the founder of Sportlogiq. Sportlogiq is a company at the cutting edge of this technology and has been working...

Episode Notes This is a special episode, rebroadcasting the live discussion held on August 2nd with Anything GOE. We discussed the classic book Little Girls in Pretty Boxes: The Making and Breaking of Elite Gymnasts and Figure Skaters. Lois and I talked with the author Joan Ryan, and Olympian Kaitlyn Weaver. It also goes full circle for me as the one-year anniversary of this podcast - which also b...

Episode Notes What would it take to increase the power of figure skaters so they can influence the decisions that govern their sport? Where else in the Olympic movement is progress being made? What can we learn from sports where players’ unions and collective bargaining are common? To answer some of these questions, I turned to Rob Koehler, the Director General of Global Athlete, an organization t...

Episode Notes Today's guest is Cathy Reed. Cathy and her late brother Chris were seven-time Japanese national champions in ice dance and two-time Olympians. Since her retirement in 2015, Cathy has become a coach and choreographer and has worked with many top Japanese singles, pairs, and ice dance teams. I was so excited to talk with her about her career and about the development of dance and pairs...