Why is it OK that girls in skating burn out so young?

We’d be outraged if the most promising male athletes consistently peaked in their early teens.

Chances are extremely high that the ladies champion of the 2020 World Figure Skating Championships will be either 15 or 16-years-old. On it’s own, that’s fine. I happen to think that teenage girls are the best of us. What’s not OK, is that we’re just watching those girls walk toward a cliff.

If history is anything to go by, these girls —currently all but unbeatable — have maybe two more years before they’re washed up. A couple more years ‘til they’re 20, and male coaches are telling the press that, “It’s time for her to stop skating,” and “I wish her success as a wife and grandmother.” (Oh, actually that last one was about a 17-year-old).

It’s not a problem that teenage girls are good at skating. It’s a problem that they are trained in such a firestorm of pressure and treated so expendably that their future in the sport is over as fast as their childhoods.

This problem is most glaring within Russian skating (and particularly under coach Eteri Tutberidze), where there’s a glut of ladies talent, but it’s a global issue as well.

Since 1927 when Norwegian skater Sonja Henie won the World Figure Skating Championships at the age of 14, teenage girls have had a constant impact on figure skating. In 1998, American Tara Lipinski won an Olympic gold medal at 15 and then peaced out of the sport. The current Japanese national champion, Rika Kihira, is 17-years-old. The current Korean national champion, Young You, is 15-years-old. The current American national champion, Alysa Liu, is 14-years-old.

The general explanation for this seems to be that younger girls’ bodies are just better at the technical side of skating. That you’re naturally going to be more successful when you haven’t gone through puberty yet and your body type resembles a stick. And while that’s certainly true in current practice, I really don’t see any reason why it has to be that way.

Women in pairs skating have great success doing incredibly difficult technical skills in their late-20s. There are men who can do quads in their 30s. And yes, skating is hard on the body. But like so is American football, and those guys are just getting started at 18!

In skating, the world seems content to just let girls peak at 16. There is no men’s sport where that is OK. If the most promising male athletes were peaking in their early-teens, sport officials and fans would be outraged at the lost potential.

In skating, at least, there just seems to be less of a commitment to helping girls achieve their athletic potential as they grow into women. Too many coaching teams and national federations seem willing to just cash in on kids and then throw them out leaving them to cope with mental health issues and eating disorders on their own. The International Skating Union leaves the safety of athletes up to national federations who often pass the buck down to individual skating schools and rinks.

I’m done accepting that as normal.

I do think that part of the problem is that skating is often perceived as something that you do before your real life starts. You’re unlikely to get rich, or honestly even break even, as a figure skater. Only the best of the best skaters make anything close to decent money. And in a world where youth is capital for women, there’s not really any time to waste in getting your post-skating life started.

There’s been talk from coaches, particularly those with older athletes (in a world where 23 is old lol) who struggle to compete against the teenagers, that the minimum age limit for international competition should be raised up from 15 years-old. And maybe that would help some. But would it be enough to change the culture of the sport so that it values girls for longer than a couple of years? So that it values women?

I want all of these girls to skate for as long as they want. I want them to retire at 18 and go to med school if they want. I want them to compete for medals into their 20s if they want.

Mostly, I just want the skating world to see girls as people and not products.