Celebrating Black Excellence in Figure Skating | Golden Skate

Celebrating Black Excellence in Figure Skating

CanadianSkaterGuy

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 25, 2013
Coming off of #BlackoutTuesday, and with the conversations surrounding the #BlackLivesMatter movement, here’s a thread celebrating current and past black figure skaters. It would be great if we could maybe compile a list of skaters and share our favourite videos of these skaters.

Debi Thomas:
https://youtu.be/W9dgvXZkup4

Surya Bonaly:
https://youtu.be/juOCgiClp8E

Maé Berenice Meité
https://youtu.be/PrRHuMy_eV4

Rohene Ward:
https://youtu.be/iCwLSuBp9wo

Bobby Beauchamp:
https://youtu.be/Dw-fEWVOdJY

Derrick Delmore:
https://youtu.be/2kwiVMnxpoQ

Vanessa James & Yannick Bonheur:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw-I0K855vI

Tai Babilonia:
https://youtu.be/SuqrWskLOpc

Robin Szolkowy:
https://youtu.be/klPZMsTuwws

Asher Hill:
https://youtu.be/qhsgS_2ybXY
 

ladyjane

Medalist
Joined
Jun 26, 2012
Country
Netherlands
What an excellent idea. Gives me a chance to enjoy some great performances too!
 

YuBluByMe

May Rika spin her hair into GOLD….in 2026.
Final Flight
Joined
Mar 21, 2018
There’s American skater Emmanuel Savary, too. His jumps are very good (when he lands them) and he has a 4S.
 

Harriet

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 23, 2017
Country
Australia
Darian Kaptich's bronze medal winning performance at Australian Senior Nationals 2019-20.

Noémie Bodenstein's silver medal winning performance at Swiss Senior Nationals 2019-20.

Harley Windsor and Katya Alexandrovskaya's Junior Worlds winning performance in 2017 (for those who don't know, Harley is of Aboriginal Australian descent and in 2018 became the first Indigenous Australian athlete to compete at a Winter Olympic Games).

Nadjma Mahamoud's free skate at French Nationals 2015.

And of course Elladj Baldé's magnificant SP and FS at his final Canadian Nationals in 2018.

Plus I'd forgotten about this young lass till just now: Clemence Mayindu of France coping very professionally with a music problem at the Santa Claus Cup in 2019.
 

Harriet

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 23, 2017
Country
Australia
It's late, I should be in bed by now, but I just remembered watching Antonio Souza Kordeiru and his partner Lana Petranovic skate at Euros in January.

Night all! :bed:
 

CanadianSkaterGuy

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 25, 2013
Rohene Ward is a gift.

:love: Here's an interview with him:

http://www.manleywoman.com/episode-67-rohene-ward-part-1/

"When I was 15, 16, that was definitely the year that it changed. By that point I had been to Nationals multiple times, the stakes are higher, it was becoming more expensive. I was a junior at the age of 13 so I was giving interviews and things, and my coach was like, uh, you have to watch the way you speak, you can’t talk like this, you can’t talk like that. And that’s when I finally recognized, well, I was black, and in a sport that was predominantly white. And there was something wrong – well, not wrong, but there was just something not, you know, that I wasn’t exposed to. And how to balance at 15 – I want to fit in my community, but I want to fit in at the ice rink as well. And that was a very very very tough time for me. It was really really difficult, because that’s when my insecurities of being underprivileged and different started to affect me. Especially when I was skating, even in my safety net, it was now threatened. Because I wasn’t just a little kid anymore, it was, like, well, he’s black. As a black male, it’s interesting, but that’s what was being said to my coach. Like, you’re staying in the same hotel room as him? He’s a 15 year old black male. But they didn’t know my heart, and she did. And shame on them for saying and thinking that, but that was the reality I lived in. We were kicked out of skating clubs because of me and my behavior, or my “lack of” discipline and too much talent. Like, I walked around with smiles on my face all day, and I could be on the ice and have fun and chit-chat and still get my job done, and to them, they thought that I was undisciplined and didn’t work because I did opposites. Well, my coach told me to do, and I’m glad she did. They thought I was goofing off, but she knew what she was doing, she kept me occupied and focused. And she tried to keep those things away, but it’s hard to keep those things away when you’re compared to OJ Simpson. It’s like, those are the kinds of things I didn’t realize at that age, but when I was 15 it was constant. [snaps fingers] Constant. When I look back at those things, it’s like, wow, and to think that I was going through that. I feel like I dealt with it very well [laughs]."
 

AshWagsFan

Edges for days.
Final Flight
Joined
Oct 14, 2017
Country
United-States
Thank you for this thread. :pray:

I’m also so happy we can look back on these skaters’ careers at the highest level of their sport. I’m happy to know they are successful, and represent black excellence, and they should be greatly appreciated!.
 
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sworddance21

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 18, 2014
:love: Here's an interview with him:

http://www.manleywoman.com/episode-67-rohene-ward-part-1/

"When I was 15, 16, that was definitely the year that it changed. By that point I had been to Nationals multiple times, the stakes are higher, it was becoming more expensive. I was a junior at the age of 13 so I was giving interviews and things, and my coach was like, uh, you have to watch the way you speak, you can’t talk like this, you can’t talk like that. And that’s when I finally recognized, well, I was black, and in a sport that was predominantly white. And there was something wrong – well, not wrong, but there was just something not, you know, that I wasn’t exposed to. And how to balance at 15 – I want to fit in my community, but I want to fit in at the ice rink as well. And that was a very very very tough time for me. It was really really difficult, because that’s when my insecurities of being underprivileged and different started to affect me. Especially when I was skating, even in my safety net, it was now threatened. Because I wasn’t just a little kid anymore, it was, like, well, he’s black. As a black male, it’s interesting, but that’s what was being said to my coach. Like, you’re staying in the same hotel room as him? He’s a 15 year old black male. But they didn’t know my heart, and she did. And shame on them for saying and thinking that, but that was the reality I lived in. We were kicked out of skating clubs because of me and my behavior, or my “lack of” discipline and too much talent. Like, I walked around with smiles on my face all day, and I could be on the ice and have fun and chit-chat and still get my job done, and to them, they thought that I was undisciplined and didn’t work because I did opposites. Well, my coach told me to do, and I’m glad she did. They thought I was goofing off, but she knew what she was doing, she kept me occupied and focused. And she tried to keep those things away, but it’s hard to keep those things away when you’re compared to OJ Simpson. It’s like, those are the kinds of things I didn’t realize at that age, but when I was 15 it was constant. [snaps fingers] Constant. When I look back at those things, it’s like, wow, and to think that I was going through that. I feel like I dealt with it very well [laughs]."

This quotation from him really got me..."On nerves in competition: It’s taken a long long time to be able to sit back and not get emotional about what was my problem." I hope (and imagine) it is an experience that helps him as a coach.
 

CanadianSkaterGuy

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 25, 2013
Going a little further back in the wayback machine, a skater with amazing presence (and amazing Russian splits)

Rory Flack Burghart

1991 US Open Professional Artistic Program

Yes! Best Russian Splits in the biz. Her story is actually incredible how she made a name for herself by competing in and winning the US Open of skating. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rory_Flack

She started at the age of 5 and almost quit due to racism, but continued on, and eventually met Mabel Fairbanks (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mabel_Fairbanks) a pioneer for African Americans in figure skating.
 

ladyjane

Medalist
Joined
Jun 26, 2012
Country
Netherlands
Oh my...seeing Elladj again has given me so much joy. The musicality, his enthusiasm and enjoyment. What a performer, and I must admit liking Keegan also at Canada's Nationals in 2018 (but then Keegan has been the ultimate sportsman always). But that's besides the subject of this thread. I hope I don't see colour, but I do admire these athletes especially because of the odds stacked against them. It's why I love this thread.
 

CanadianSkaterGuy

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 25, 2013
Suraya's backflip, okay now illegal but it really was an incredible, unmatched feat of pure athletic badassery :jaw: that will be remembered forever

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mVVy25e-vk

LOVE this! I always say I think the backflip onto one foot and straight up into a 3S is one of the hardest maneuevers in all of sports. :clap: :bow: :rock:

(I do love that even though it's illegal, another French skater Kevin Aymoz does an aerial cartwheel which pushes the boundaries juuust a bit. ;) )
 
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