It's Time to Talk about the State of Canadian Skating Media

I think it's time to talk about the coverage of figure skating in Canada. This is an issue I've been invested in for years, but of late it has been particularly infuriating to me.

I'm a journalism student myself, finishing my last year of study before heading into the workforce and it's obvious to anyone who reads this blog that I have a passion for figure skating. Obviously, I have a vested interest in wanting success in skating coverage in Canada for more than one reason. Admittedly, one is a selfish reason, it would make it a little easier for me to find a job, but also because I want to be able to read and enjoy quality skating coverage. Right now though, we are seriously lacking in quality coverage.

One of the most popular and successful newspapers in Canada is the Toronto Star, and they have overall, a pretty good sports section, which a lot of people turn to for sports news for the most popular sports, and even some of the smaller, less popular sports. However, it is a place skating fans avoid like the plague. This is because there is only one woman that writes coverage of skating for The Star, and she in no way seems to enjoy it, and her writing is not often about what matters in skating, instead it is often inflammatory editorial writing done entirely to attract eyes for all the wrong reasons.

This is something that has been on my mind since this year's SCI. This woman, whose name I will not mention in an attempt to minimize the number of clicks she gets because of this post (though it wouldn't be hard to figure out who I'm talking about if you really want to), chose to write an extremely inflammatory article about Kaetlyn Osmond and her current short program. This article, which was published during SCI, said that Osmond may or may not be a prostitute, but at the very least appears to have an undue interest in prostitutes.

Rather than focus on the quality of skating (Osmond came in second at SCI, losing only to reigning world champion Evgenia Medvedeva) or the fact that she has had a long journey back from a serious injury that could have ended her career and now is back to her best (and maybe better than people had expected), or if there was a need for controversy, why not write about the disappointing performance by the reigning Canadian women's champion, Alaine Chartrand, who had a rough Grand Prix despite how well she had been skating (albeit off and on) last season. Instead, she chose to invent a scandal, insinuating all over the article that Kaetlyn Osmond is a prostitute, and insinuating that it began when she was a minor, all because of her music choices. She opens the article this way "At 17, Kaetlyn Osmond was a prostitute in her Sweet Charity routine: Sassy.

At 20, she’s a prostitute in her Sous le ciel de Paris, Milord composite routine: Bawdy."

She then adds that of course she's not implying anything but says that "Osmond might embrace the role of The Happy Hooker — the title of the lady’s 1971 autobiography — on ice." She focuses for the first 3 and a half paragraphs of her (pretty short) editorial, talking about the theme that she sees in Osmond's skating, which Osmond herself doesn't see herself. It isn't until halfway through the article, after mentioning that skaters must use the same story initialy intended for the music because they tend to tell stories on the ice, that she mentions that Osmond was unaware of the alleged initial meaning of one of the songs in her short program, only to follow with a snarky remark "oh, skip it."

Her current program features a song that has at times been interpreted as being about a prostitute, but there is by no means definitive agreement about whether or not the song is in fact about a prostitute. Add to this the interview in which Osmond is asked specifically about the song and it's potential relationship to prostitution, which Osmond was entirely unaware of until that moment, because why would that thought cross her mind? She chose music that had the attitude she wanted, that would allow her to skate with faux confidence until she was able to reach that level of confidence in herself and the program on her own. This was a choice made to reinforce the quality of skating we have seen all season from her, to allow her to put on a show and get the crowd invested in her program, so no, Kaetlyn Osmond is not a prostitute and is not overly fascinated with prostitution, and it is irresponsible to imply (or just come out and say) such.

For context, let me provide you a list of some of the many pieces of music commonly used by skaters that either are explicitly about prostitutes or can be insinuated that they are about prostitutes, many of which have been skated to by some or all of your favourite skaters. Madam Butterfly, Carmen, Les Miserables, Memoirs of a Geisha and La Traviata. By this writer's logic, all of the skaters who have ever performed a Carmen program (which includes just about every ice dancer on the planet) is also open to be called a prostitute?

Following the insinuation that Osmond might be too mature, with the themes the writer sees in her programs, to infantalizing the reigning world champion Evgenia Medvedeva, the "Russian Schoolgirl" who has done far more at 16 than many people do in their lives. There is also barely a mention of Alaine Chartrand in the article, with the exception of a throwaway line at the very end, "Chartrand, is sixth after botching her combination.

Chartrand: “Grrrr.”"

The biggest problem with this, is this is not the first time this writer for The Star has done something like this. She has a habit of writing derogatory and inflammatory articles about skating. There is far more to skating than pretty people prancing around, they are elite athletes, like in any other sport, but the writing from The Star, which again is done entirely by this one woman or taken from newswires like the Canadian Press, does in no way reflect the complexities and difficulties of the sport. This is an incredibly physically demanding sport, and the insinuation that people are able to get to the top of the world of figure skating by starving themselves is not only incorrect, it is like much of her writing inflammatory.

Which brings us to the first article I read by this woman that left me infuriated. At the time, I didn't think I should or could voice my fears and opinions about this writing, and in all honesty felt quite hopeless about the whole situation, but the reality is, even if this post does nothing (which is more than likely), I feel better about the whole situation by just putting it into words. My only other hope for this is that anyone reading this will not read any of the articles written by this woman, that even if it pops up in your newsfeed and it doesn't have her name on it, that you will not click on any article in The Star about skating until this woman no longer writes for them (ideally at all, a lot of her other stuff is inflammatory and derogatory anyway, but at the very least is taken off of skating coverage).

Back to the other article I want to mention specifically, I am going to show you the headline, as much as I had intended to make it slightly more difficult to find her writing to minimize her clicks, but the headline so perfectly sums up the despicable things she writes about skaters, and makes clear that she does not enjoy writing about skating: "Skate Canada: Skinny on female skaters isn’t pretty." Again, as with the other article I spent so much time breaking down, this one has me angry from the get-go. Beyond the headline, the lead (or first paragraph) is "Sometimes, when fans throw stuffed animals onto the ice at a figure skating event, I wish they’d toss sandwiches instead." Trust me lady, as a lifelong skater myself, and an all around athlete whose family often had more than one figure skater at the table (me, my sister, and/or our friends) they can eat, and they do. They are skinny because they burn incredible numbers of calories in training and because they type of movement necessitates it. I don't care if you think they are no longer attractive because they are skinny, the successful skaters you'll see on the Grand Prix circuit have to take care of their bodies to get there and stay there.

Is there a pressure to be thin in skating? Yes. Absolutely. But skaters have to eat well. Not less but better. She does not express concern for the health and well-being of these women, who are elite athletes, but yes, very thin, and some do go too far and push their bodies outside the realm of what is healthy, but trivializing the issue of eating disorders and body image issues is in no way the correct way to deal with it.

She seems to imply that she wants these girls to be taken seriously as athletes (which in her mind requires them to be less thin) but then goes on to call them STICK INSECTS. Because it is totally not derogatory to be called a stick insect, whether you'r a normal person or an elite athlete is is dehumanizing and horrible. She insists she doesn't know whether it is the sport that makes women thin or simply that thin women gravitate towards this sport. I don't know you, but I imagine you are not particularly thin, dear writer, so I challenge you to put on a pair of skates and try even just a single axel and see how hard it is, and then to add a weighted belt to see just how much more difficult every ounce makes every element in figure skating.

My dear writer, it seems to me that you are not in fact concerned with the welfare of these young women, but rather that you are envious of their abilities and their looks, if you're going to try to hide it, do try not to sound like a high school mean girl calling them "overachieving skinny-minnie freaks." All of us would like to be able to do what they are, but we do try to not be so bitter about the people who are young and successful in their sports.

I hope that the few of you who will have made it this far will share my anger, and if that is the case, I implore you one more time to not go looking for more of what this woman writes, I promise you, some is less despicable, but very little is kind, and she never seems to be enjoying what she does, and if said writer is reading this, I implore you, please, give up writing about skating. Open up that position for someone who might actually enjoy it, or even just leave my favourite sport without a writer, frankly, it would be better for people who theoretically want to read about figure skating. Hate readers are good for numbers in the short term, but this style is turning away fans of an under serviced sport.

There isn't a ton of skating coverage, but I beg of you, go to the CBC, the Globe and Mail, a skating magazine, anything but the Toronto Star for your figure skating news.