February 4, 2023 9:58 AM PST
I'd like to say up front....I'm TOTALLY okay with who you are. If you are reading this thinking I might be disrespectful to the transgender community, then you will be disappointed.
I'm writing from the concern as an athlete myself, a competitive figure skater at one time.
Recently in Finland, Figure Skater Minna-Maaria Antikainen was showcased. Minna-Maaria Antikainen is transgender. That's fine, again, be who you are, however, here's my issue.
To become a "figure skater" you have to go through many levels of training from beginner to advanced. Beginner skaters during the 1970's started out as Pre-Alpha's. After Pre-Alpha, you had Alpha, Beta, Delta and Gamma. Once you completed all of the testing requirements for each of these levels, you now graduate to Freestyle 1. Once you are at Freestyle 5 to 6, you have completed all of the requirements and are now in training for pefecting double jumps and I would guess now that it's 2023, triples and quads follow. I had to give you this information first before I could share my issue.
My issue is that Minna-Maaria Antikainen was not ready nor at the level to perform in the center of the ice and subsequently fell. All skaters fall, my issue is not the fall, my issue is that I'm not sure it was in the best interest of Minna-Maaria Antikainen to be highlighted prematurely as a feature skater because of being the first "transgender". Minna-Maaria Antikainen was likely still in the Beta stage of skating, which there is nothing wrong with, but how much more profound would it have been if Minna-Maaria Antikainen could have worked on the skating craft more to have been able to give a better performance, instead, I sense there was pressure to feature Minna-Maaria Antikainen and the reasons were for headlines and not for the best interest of the skater. I will not post the video, because any video I saw was subsequently followed by nasty comments that I felt were unfair, but I am writing about this because I believe this is an integretity issue on behalf of whom made the decision to highlight Minna-Maaria Antikainen prematurely in an exhibition performance.
The other observation to note, as a skater, if you have not performed in front of people and competed often, you are usually not comfortable in front of a crowd. When you go out to skate your are likely "stiff" with fear and my impression was Minna-Maaria Antikainen was overwhelemd with stage fright, which again, is totally normal and it gets better, but then I go back to was Minna-Maaria Antikainen ready to perform. It's a coaches job to be honest with their skaters.
I'd like to say up front....I'm TOTALLY okay with who you are. If you are reading this thinking I might be disrespectful to the transgender community, then you will be disappointed.
I'm writing from the concern as an athlete myself, a competitive figure skater at one time.
Recently in Finland, Figure Skater Minna-Maaria Antikainen was showcased. Minna-Maaria Antikainen is transgender. That's fine, again, be who you are, however, here's my issue.
To become a "figure skater" you have to go through many levels of training from beginner to advanced. Beginner skaters during the 1970's started out as Pre-Alpha's. After Pre-Alpha, you had Alpha, Beta, Delta and Gamma. Once you completed all of the testing requirements for each of these levels, you now graduate to Freestyle 1. Once you are at Freestyle 5 to 6, you have completed all of the requirements and are now in training for pefecting double jumps and I would guess now that it's 2023, triples and quads follow. I had to give you this information first before I could share my issue.
My issue is that Minna-Maaria Antikainen was not ready nor at the level to perform in the center of the ice and subsequently fell. All skaters fall, my issue is not the fall, my issue is that I'm not sure it was in the best interest of Minna-Maaria Antikainen to be highlighted prematurely as a feature skater because of being the first "transgender". Minna-Maaria Antikainen was likely still in the Beta stage of skating, which there is nothing wrong with, but how much more profound would it have been if Minna-Maaria Antikainen could have worked on the skating craft more to have been able to give a better performance, instead, I sense there was pressure to feature Minna-Maaria Antikainen and the reasons were for headlines and not for the best interest of the skater. I will not post the video, because any video I saw was subsequently followed by nasty comments that I felt were unfair, but I am writing about this because I believe this is an integretity issue on behalf of whom made the decision to highlight Minna-Maaria Antikainen prematurely in an exhibition performance.
The other observation to note, as a skater, if you have not performed in front of people and competed often, you are usually not comfortable in front of a crowd. When you go out to skate your are likely "stiff" with fear and my impression was Minna-Maaria Antikainen was overwhelemd with stage fright, which again, is totally normal and it gets better, but then I go back to was Minna-Maaria Antikainen ready to perform. It's a coaches job to be honest with their skaters.