Kaitlyn Weaver: Why Skate Canada's gender rule change for pairs and ice dance teams matters

The world of figure skating is being shaken up with major rule changes in Canada.

In October, Skate Canada, the sport's governing body in the country, changed the wording in its by-laws to allow pairs and ice dance teams to be comprised of any "two skaters", regardless of gender.

It means in pairs and ice dance at all Canadian events, teams will no longer have to be made up of one man and one woman – same-gendered and non-binary couples can now compete at all levels in the country.

That came as the result of a recommendation put forward by the body's Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Working Group. Two-time Olympian and three-time World Championships medallist Kaitlyn Weaver, who is on the committee, tells Olympics.com that the idea for the change came about when she was watching last year's Beijing 2022 figure skating competition.

Weaver, who competed for Canada at Sochi 2014 and PyeongChang 2018 before retiring from competitive skating, came out as queer in June 2021. In the exclusive chat with Olympics.com, she says watching her friend Timothy LeDuc compete in the pairs event for the USA in Beijing was like an Eureka moment for her.

LeDuc's participation at Beijing 2022 was notable, becoming the first openly non-binary athlete to compete at the Olympic Winter Games in figure skating. And LeDuc, who uses they/them pronouns, was skating in Beijing despite the ISU rulebook requiring pairs teams to consist of a man and a woman.

"I was thinking about Timothy and I looked up the rule in the ISU handbook about what defines a 'team'," Weaver remembers. "And the rule, of course, states that a team is made up of a man and a woman, and Timothy is a non-binary athlete. Timothy is at the Olympics and yet this rule states that Timothy should not be at the Olympics and they're there in spite of this rule.

"It just made me think, 'How many people are we missing? How many people don't see themselves represented in our sport and then leave it?'," Weaver adds. "That made me pretty frustrated seeing that Timothy was there in spite of not being within their full identity.

"So we did a lot of research and thought about it on the scale from the grassroots up, not just the elite, and we decided with the unanimous passing from the board to change what the definition of couple or team is, to two skaters."

Kaitlyn Weaver on dealing with critics of the new rules

The new policy had both its vocal supporters as well as its opponents. However, Weaver prefers to be optimistic about the potential impact of the rule change.

"Hopefully we'll be seeing skaters feel safer on the ice and be able to present in however they feel most authentic," she shares. "There were people that were critical of it, and are critical. And that happens with change of any kind. So that's okay.

"The goal is to allow everyone to be able to do what they love to do and not be restricted by gender. That can be for people who don't identify as man or woman, but also who just want to skate with their friend – it doesn't have to be (about a queer person), it can be any story under the sun.

"I think that's really important to point out, because I think some people are afraid of the stories that we might see. That's okay, but I think that there's so much room at the table for everyone to be able to tell their own stories no matter what they are."

However, there was also support – both from abroad as well as at home, notably from two-time Olympic ice dance champion Scott Moir and his fellow coaches at the Ice Academy of Montreal.

"I know Scott Moir is supportive of this rule change as well," Weaver confirms. "He has many solo dance women and these women can skate and they're not able to fully realise their potential because there's not as many young boys that want to skate ice dance right now.

"So I know that he and his partner in coaching, Madison Hubbell, are really looking at partnering between women and the stories that women can tell and really diving headfirst into the work. So definitely in Canada, I think we'll see something hopefully soon."

Kaitlyn Weaver's catalyst for change

Weaver's experiences after coming out as queer in 2021 shaped her approach to proposing the new policy to the national federation and her working group.

"As an out queer woman, I think about gender differently than I ever did before," Weaver offers. "I think about presentation differently in terms of presentation of our gender. I think about skating being gender performance.

"As an ice dancer, when I took the ice it was about being the most feminine, the most womanly, and Andrew (Poje), my partner, being the most masculine. And we fit the mould. It wasn't until I was learning about how there's not really a lot of space for any other types of presentation that I was like, 'Oh, this is maybe not okay.'"

The rule change, while too late for her own career, is something she hopes will help other young queer skaters who are in the position she found herself in years ago.

"I think Andrew was my perfect partner, 16 years and counting, and we still love to skate together," Weaver clarifies. "We do love to tell a romantic story, that is just what we're good at.

"But I think as a young queer woman, to see other identities represented would have meant the world to me because I felt like I was alone. I was sure that I was alone. I didn't feel comfortable coming out publicly until I was far from the competitive sphere, so that if someone wanted to judge me, it didn't impact Andrew, it didn't impact our career, or our results.

"I think it's time to say we can still tell those romantic stories, but we can also tell these other ones with all of these different types of people. And they're just as worthy of being told."

Why this rule change is limited to Canada, for now

It is important to note that as of now, this is a change to Skate Canada's organisational by-laws and affects only competitions organised for and held by the federation within Canada.

At the international level, no other national skating federation has yet announced a similar rule change. The International Skating Union, which runs the major global competitions and oversees the Olympic Winter Games figure skating events, has also not changed its rulebook.

However, Weaver is hopeful that might change in the future, and has proposed the rule change to the ISU – at least for ice dance, as she is the athlete representative on the ISU's Ice Dance Technical Committee.

"I have brought this forward. It has been received. We are discussing and I'm looking forward to a great discussion," Weaver says. "I think the group knows that I will advocate for this. I'm but one in a group, a very global group. So, you know, I can only do so much."

The disparity between Skate Canada's national rules and the current international regulations does provide for a hypothetical scenario in which a team that is not made up of one man and one woman could win Canada's national championships but be ineligible to compete in ISU events.

"The world has noticed," Weaver states. "I'm proud to be on the group that is helping to lead the way and say, 'We're going to do this here and everyone else can follow suit if you want.' The ISU has begun talking about it, at least in the Ice Dance Technical Committee – that's only a small subset of a very large federation.

"But, baby steps."