Keeping Track of Criminal Cases & SafeSport Suspensions in Skating

overedge

Mayor of Carrot City
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36,227
Slightly off-topic here, but this week's New York Times magazine has an excellent investigative article on the sport of cheerleading, and how athlete abuse can become normalized and downplayed when addressing it might mean less $$$ for those in charge. Cheerleading isn't an Olympic sport and as the article shows its federations are privately owned, but there are more than a few parallels with skating.

(apologies if this is paywalled, if anyone with a NYT subscription is able to post a gift link that would be much appreciated)
 

PRlady

Cowardly admin
Staff member
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47,875
Slightly off-topic here, but this week's New York Times magazine has an excellent investigative article on the sport of cheerleading, and how athlete abuse can become normalized and downplayed when addressing it might mean less $$$ for those in charge. Cheerleading isn't an Olympic sport and as the article shows its federations are privately owned, but there are more than a few parallels with skating.

(apologies if this is paywalled, if anyone with a NYT subscription is able to post a gift link that would be much appreciated)
Here’s the gift: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/22/...ytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
 

Aceon6

Wrangling the duvet into the cover
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30,548
Slightly off-topic here, but this week's New York Times magazine has an excellent investigative article on the sport of cheerleading, and how athlete abuse can become normalized and downplayed when addressing it might mean less $$$ for those in charge. Cheerleading isn't an Olympic sport and as the article shows its federations are privately owned, but there are more than a few parallels with skating.

(apologies if this is paywalled, if anyone with a NYT subscription is able to post a gift link that would be much appreciated)
Yup, cheer is another “if you’re good at this, you can get a college scholarship” things that identifies promising candidates before puberty. It needs age restrictions, but doesn't have them. Girls as young as 11 can be on high school level cheer teams as long as they attend a combined junior/senior high school.
 

overedge

Mayor of Carrot City
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36,227
Yup, cheer is another “if you’re good at this, you can get a college scholarship” things that identifies promising candidates before puberty. It needs age restrictions, but doesn't have them. Girls as young as 11 can be on high school level cheer teams as long as they attend a combined junior/senior high school.

The article mostly talks about cheer teams that aren't affiliated with a team or school - which is part of why so much abuse happens in the sport. If it was a school team, athletes might have more protection, or at least other adults not associated with the team that they could go to for help. One of the federations discussed in the article lets kids as young as six participate in cheer teams.
 
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ilovesalchows

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I was a cheerleader for 6 years in jr and sr high school. The whole sport has just gotten weird. (In my day.....) :p

Seriously though, sports requiring partner stunts rely increasingly on tiny little bodies paired with adults. Remember when Chris Knierim was paired with Brynn Carmen? They kept that City Slickers program forever, probably because it mitigated the ick factor.
 

MacMadame

Doing all the things
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60,152
I was a cheerleader for 6 years in jr and sr high school. The whole sport has just gotten weird. (In my day.....) :p
When I had my photography company, I would shoot both cheerleading and dance and both of those had very young kids doing things that I didn't think were age-appropriate. Like 3 year olds dancing with a "sexy" costume and heavy makeup.

If people have seen Little Miss Sunshine, the little girl's routine is a parody of what competitive dance is like but not as far off as the film would have you believe.
 

Karen-W

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When I had my photography company, I would shoot both cheerleading and dance and both of those had very young kids doing things that I didn't think were age-appropriate. Like 3 year olds dancing with a "sexy" costume and heavy makeup.

If people have seen Little Miss Sunshine, the little girl's routine is a parody of what competitive dance is like but not as far off as the film would have you believe.
Oh, anyone who ever watched "Dance Moms" in its heyday knows exactly what you mean.
 

Willin

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@Karen-W The craziest part is that while routines later on were 100% the producers, some of the early dances on the show that were criticized for being too sexy were either a) dances the ALDC had done prior to the show or b) inspired by dances other studios had done that had gone somewhat viral for sexiness. (Ironically, a competitive dance studio owned by one on America's best known drag queens is known for doing age appropriate stuff)

I haven't seen quite that level of age inappropriate stuff in skating, but that's probably because most coaches at all levels prefer old school warhorses or think anything too pop/sexy will get panned by the judges. You even see it in Senior. When I do see it, it's usually in synchro and/or ISI.
 

happycamper2554

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381
I haven't seen quite that level of age inappropriate stuff in skating, but that's probably because most coaches at all levels prefer old school warhorses or think anything too pop/sexy will get panned by the judges. You even see it in Senior. When I do see it, it's usually in synchro and/or ISI.
Remember that whole two seasons of children with big age gaps skating to big spender for a musical theme or this sports love of minors skating to Roxanne in red dresses. It's present in skating too.
 

puglover

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Does anyone remember when, in Canada, and I think in he US, young skaters competed in a category that was maybe called "Interpretive". They would play a piece of music, separate the skaters off the ice, and bring them out one at a time to skate to the music. Some kids just did spirals but some kids showed a natural ability to come up with their own movements that were creative and expressed the music. Unfortunately, at least in our section, sometimes inappropriate music was chosen and kids were thrusting and gyrating on the ice. I recall thinking at some of these if anyone walked in uninformed they would think this was really sexually exploitive.
 

overedge

Mayor of Carrot City
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36,227
Does anyone remember when, in Canada, and I think in he US, young skaters competed in a category that was maybe called "Interpretive". They would play a piece of music, separate the skaters off the ice, and bring them out one at a time to skate to the music. Some kids just did spirals but some kids showed a natural ability to come up with their own movements that were creative and expressed the music. Unfortunately, at least in our section, sometimes inappropriate music was chosen and kids were thrusting and gyrating on the ice. I recall thinking at some of these if anyone walked in uninformed they would think this was really sexually exploitive.

The category still exists at all levels, including adult skating. It's also an event in ISI. The competition organizers are supposed to choose music that's appropriate to the age and skill levels of the skaters. IIRC the judges can also decide not to reward (with points or placements) programs that have inappropriate moves.
 
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Willin

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Remember that whole two seasons of children with big age gaps skating to big spender for a musical theme or this sports love of minors skating to Roxanne in red dresses. It's present in skating too.
Certainly there are programs like that that make me uncomfortable, but I wouldn't say it's quite the same level. Yes, the music is beyond inappropriate, but the costumes and choreography seems to entirely misinterpret the music.

Most of the time it's as if the adults who give the kids those songs don't seem to understand those songs are about prostitutes. Trusova's Big Spender was highly offensive in concept, but the choreography was classic Daniil leg kicks and not much else. Most of the Roxannes are less sexy and more "wow look at this warhorse!" or "my idol did it and I want to honor them!"

In dance, it's clear they know what the song's about: skimpy costumes (though most dance - even non-sexy stuff is skimpier), gyrating hips, shimmies, etc. They know it's sexy and inappropriate but they go the full inappropriate.

So while I don't condone those programs, I also don't see it as nearly as disturbing.
 

barbk

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I give a pass to skaters who don't speak the language. When my daughter was a HS exchange student in Italy, she lived with a family that didn't speak English at all. The family liked to sing along with the radio on car rides, and she was pretty horrified to hear mom and dad joyfully chanting along with some particularly explicit rap, but they had no idea what the rapper was saying.
 

Theatregirl1122

Needs a nap
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32,430
I give a pass to skaters who don't speak the language. When my daughter was a HS exchange student in Italy, she lived with a family that didn't speak English at all. The family liked to sing along with the radio on car rides, and she was pretty horrified to hear mom and dad joyfully chanting along with some particularly explicit rap, but they had no idea what the rapper was saying.

Singing along with the radio seems pretty different to me than choosing program music without bothering to research the music.
 

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