Olympic Silver Medal Figure Skater: I'm Gay

Having had a daughter who competed in United States Figure Skating Association ("USFSA") competitions, I am all too aware of the pettiness and back stabbings ways of the USFSA and also the homophobia that pressures gay skaters to remain in the closet.Apparently, things in Canada are better and coming out doesn't translate to career suicide. At least that is the opinion of Canadian silver medal winner Eric Radford who came out even as he and his pairs partner, Meagan Duhamel, have their sights on the 2016 Olympics.  Out Sports has details.  Here are excerpts:

  

Eric Radford can already hear it coming.  The Olympic figure skater in the prime of his career knows the stereotypes associated with men in his sport. He's heard it since he was a child when a classmate asked him why his parents forced him to figure skate.

"They don't force me," he told her. "I like it."  That precipitated years of torment by other kids his age in rural Ontario. Not only was he performing in what his peers considered the "gayest" sport of all, he also had a lisp that plagued his childhood.

Fact: No elite figure skater on the world stage has ever come out publicly at the height of his competitive career.

None.

Ever.

Only one - Rudy Galindo in 1996 - did it while still competing at all, retiring from competition after that season.

Sure, Johnny Weir put on a Hello Kitty shirt and Gucci sunglasses and bobbed his head to Christina Aguilera. But not even Weir ever said "I'm gay" publicly until after he had retired from competition (not including his ill-fated "comeback").

It's a scary path to walk for a figure skater. Unlike a sprinter, they are not timed. Unlike a football player, they don't have stats like catches and sacks. A figure skater's success depends on the subjective scores of judges. Those judges are certainly given guidelines. They walk through rigorous instruction on how to judge, and they have deep connections to the sport - An elite international judge won't give a "5" to a "9" performance. But a point here and there? It very well may have cost Weir a medal in 2010.

Plenty of people in the closed circles of figure skating know about his sexual orientation. Despite that, he and skating partner Meagan Duhamel have found incredible success. They were part of the Canadian team that won silver at the Sochi Olympic Games in February. They won bronze in pairs skating at the World Championships in both 2013 and 2014 and are the three-time defending Canadian champions. They earned gold at last week's Grand Prix event in Osaka, Japan, which will send them to the Grand Prix final in Barcelona next week. It was their second win of the year.

Radford has thought about coming out publicly before. Earlier this year, just weeks before the Sochi Winter Olympics, he contacted GLAAD for advice on coming out. The folks there told him it would be an incredible opportunity to send a powerful message of strength from the LGBT community. They were right, and Radford gave it careful consideration. He understood what would happen if he came out just before the Games - He would become a media darling, the proverbial "poster child" for LGBT rights at the Olympics in Russia, where anti-LGBT laws and sentiment were a hot-button issue.

"My concern was that I would be known as 'the gay athlete' if I came out at the Olympics, rather than Eric the medalling figure skater who happens to be gay. And I felt uncomfortable with that title."

Radford was also quite conscious of the warnings about being gay in Russia. 

Unsure of the climate in Sochi and wanting, like so many athletes before him, to be judged on his athleticism and not his sexuality, Radford chose to wait. While the skating community knew whom he was, the public would just have to wait.

Gay Athletes are Still Reluctant to Come Out

There has been speculation in the blogsphere and elsewhere that perhaps Johnny Weir only placed sixth in the men's figure skating competition because he was being punished for being too flamboyant - or even, gasp, acting like he might indeed be gay. Supporting this conjecture is the fact that while Weir may have arguably skated a "safer" long program, unlike those who place above him (other than Plushenko and Lysacek), Weir did not fall during his routine which was filled with artistry and skill. Sadly, from the years that I spent around competitive figure skating while my daughter was competing, I suspect that such conjecture is on target. Some of the nastiest bitches and most bitter closeted old queens seem to flock to figure skating associations: not only on the International Skating Union but on many individual national skating organizations like the USFSA in the United States. You either do things their way or you'll be screwed over. I hope Weir knows in his heart that he skated beautifully and that many of us respect him for having the courage to be himself. Xtra.ca has two stories on homophobia and the Olympics. The first looks at a complaint filed by The Quebec Council of Gays and Lesbians against a station that broadcast homophobic comments in connection with Weir skating performance. Here are highlights:
*
The Toronto Star reports this morning that The Quebec Council of Gays and Lesbians is planning to file a complaint with the Canada Broadcast Standards Council for comments made on the french language television network RDS after the Olympic performance of flamboyant US figure skater Johnny Weir.
*
"This may not be politically correct," announcer Claude Mailhot said in french during the segment. "But do you think he lost points due to his costume and his body language?"

"They'll think all the boys who skate will end up like him," replied his colleage Alain Goldberg. "It sets a bad example." According to The Star, The Quebec Council of Gays and Lesbians is demanding an apology from RDS. But perhaps Goldberg's remark is more symptom than cause.
*
Homphobia still prevails in professional sports - the Olympics are clearly light years away from its amateur roots - and judging figure skating competitions is a least partly subjective. Maybe it's the International Olympic Committee and the International Skating Union that should be apologizing for allowing a culture of homophobia in figure skating.
*
The Olympics should be above homophobic bigotry, but sadly such does not appear to be the case based on Weir's treatment. Talent and ability should be applauded and not sqaushed because the sensibilities of bigots are offended. The second story looks at the larger issues of gay athletes remaing in the closet out of fear for their careers. Here are some further highlights:
*
Even as popular culture makes space for gay and lesbian lives, the sports world remains cloistered in its own heterosexist silo, says former Canadian Olympian Mark Tewksbury.
*
“It’s incredible that sport has remained the last bastion of 18th-century thinking,” says Tewksbury, who brought home a gold medal for the 100 meters backstroke at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona while still closeted. Everything else has progressed, he says, but the sports world stands out as the exception, as a large closet on an increasingly open horizon.
*
“Sport is still top down from policy makers,” he explained to Xtra in 2006, after the release of his book, Inside Out. “It’s very dogmatic and rule-bound. People don’t want to change rule structures. It’s by nature highly conservative. It’s pretty much the last machinations of the old-boys club.” No surprise then that Tewksbury waited until after he retired to come out.
*
Buzinski is co-founder of Outsports.com, a US-based online publication dedicated to gay athletes and sport. He, too, thinks athletes don’t come out because they’re afraid of how the public, their coaches and their teammates will respond. “[Athletes] need some assurance that nothing will change and they will be treated the same,” he says, “and until they get that they will stay in the closet.”
*
“There are seeds of change,” says former professional snowboarder Ryan Miller. “But there is still that dichotomy where people will come and say they don’t have a problem with [gay athletes] as long as they are not in [their] locker room.” “I don’t know if it [professional sports] is the last closet,” muses Miller. “But it is one of the last.”
*
Miller speaks from personal experience. Ten years ago he was competing in Vancouver in one of his first professional snowboard competitions when he suddenly came out — a move prompted by taunts from teammates to go to a straight strip club. The move transformed his career. He eventually had to seek another team and coach.
*
“Queer people in sport are not going to talk. Not if the sport is important to them…. Not at the risk of losing your professional career.” With a handful of championship titles under his belt, Johnny Weir won bronze at the US Figure Skating Championships in Spokane in January and set commentators’ tongues a-wagging with his exhibition skate to “Poker Face” by Lady Gaga. The 25-year-old is generating a lot of buzz these days and is often described as flamboyant, colourful, eccentric and a diva.

*

Would the International Olympic Committee condone discrimination against athletes based on their religious beliefs? I suspect not. So why is religious based homophobia allowed?

Skating Champion Christopher Bowman, 40, Found Dead

I was saddened to see the news of Christopher Bowman's early death (http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-bowman11jan11,0,1134716.story?coll=la-home-center). I have always enjoyed figure skating, both as a participant growing up in Central New York and as an observer. Moreover, once in a while the top male skaters are hotties (France's Philippe Candeloro in his younger years immediately springs to mind). At top competition levels, it is one of the most beauty sports with style and grace combined with great physical stamina. I once had an opportunity to watch the Russian pairs Olympic gold medalists practice while waiting for my daughter's event at the University of Delaware and it was amazing to watch in person.

Yet behind the facade of beauty, it is an extremely expensive (for lessons and coaching, ice time and competition clothing/dresses), difficult and demanding sport, requiring hours and hours of practice and many bumps, bruises and bone fractures frequently involved. Moreover, the mental stress of competing is intense, particularly with the subjective judging of many USFSA judges. I know all this vicariously since my oldest daughter was a competitive figure skater for several years before suffering a knee injury that made her (and my ex-wife and I as parents) question whether or not continuing up the levels of competition was worth it. She chose not to go on competing, but still it was an interesting phase in our lives. Here are some highlights from the LA Times coverage on Christopher Bowman:

Two-time U.S. figure skating champion Christopher Bowman, known as "Bowman the Showman" for his crowd-pleasing skills and as "Hans Brinker From Hell" for his unruly lifestyle, was found dead at a North Hills motel Thursday afternoon. Bowman, a Hollywood native who had lived in the Midwest but returned here to coach skating about a year ago, was 40.

Bowman was found shortly after noon inside the Budget Inn in the 9100 block of Sepulveda Boulevard. His death is being investigated as a possible drug overdose, said Lt. Joe Bale of the Los Angeles County Coroner's office. The coroner's office must determine whether his death was accidental or a suicide.

Capable of controlled elegance on the ice and devilish behavior away from the rink, Bowman finished second at the 1989 world championships and third in 1990. He was seventh at the 1988 Olympics and missed a medal by placing fourth in 1992.

Brian Boitano, the 1988 Olympic figure skating champion, said Bowman never denigrated his competitors."If I had to pick the three most talented skaters of all time, I would pick Christopher as one," Boitano said. "He had natural charisma, natural athleticism, he could turn on a crowd in a matter of seconds, and he always seemed so relaxed about it."