SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Olympic ice dancing competitions are fan favorites. You've got dramatic costumes, sweeping lifts, romantic storylines and always a man and a woman skating together. There is a push to allow same-sex couples in ice dancing, but it has little to do with visibility for LGBTQ athletes. It is more about one of the sport's deepest structural problems, a big imbalance in the number of male skaters compared to how many women want to compete. Oregon Public Broadcasting's Lillian Karabaic reports.
LILLIAN KARABAIC, BYLINE: At the national ice dance competition in Finland in December, 20-year-old Emma Aalto wears a black bedazzled dress and French braids. When her free dance to Bjork's "It's Oh So Quiet" starts, she doesn't reach for a man's hand.
(SOUNDBITE OF BJORK SONG, "IT'S OH SO QUIET")
KARABAIC: Instead, she twirls around her best friend Millie Colling, wearing a matching black dress. This moment almost didn't happen. Aalto had spent years searching for a male partner, even traveling to Italy, but had no luck. Ice dance, by rule, is supposed to be a man and a woman. Without a partner, Aalto wouldn't have a career. That changed the day she saw two women skating together.
EMMA AALTO: I don't think I would have even thought about it, probably, if I hadn't seen it.
KARABAIC: The idea seemed simple - why not skate with her best friend? The team pushed Finland's skating federation for a rule change. It once read, man and woman. Now it reads, skater A and skater B. And on the ice, Aalto had to learn to lift her partner.
AALTO: It was very weird at first because I've been taught to be the one who is lifted. I didn't want the man's role. I just wanted to be me. I didn't want to be perceived as a man.
KARABAIC: Aalto and Colling's partnership is the result of a supply and demand problem in ice dance. Two-time Olympic ice dancer Kaitlyn Weaver estimates there's roughly one boy for every 200 girls in skating.
KAITLYN WEAVER: I was 5 years old when I understood that the boys were extremely valuable.
KARABAIC: Right now, if a talented young skater like Aalto can't find a male partner locally, she might search internationally. Some families relocate. Many change citizenship. Often, teenagers move alone to countries where they don't speak the language. That can lead to isolation, depression and abusive dynamics in partnerships. Weaver said allowing open gender teams - two women, two men or partners of any gender identity - could widen the pool overnight.
WEAVER: If you had more availability, perhaps you could find your perfect partner without having to represent Azerbaijan.
KARABAIC: But this isn't just about numbers. Ice dance is judged on aesthetics.
WEAVER: Ice dance is inherently competitive gender performance. A man must look like a man, and a young woman must act like a lady.
KARABAIC: Women are expected to be small enough to lift, men tall enough to lift them. 2022 Olympic champion Gabriella Papadakis thinks this could open ice dancing to more body types.
GABRIELLA PAPADAKIS: Where, for example, a girl could be tall and muscular because then she could be able to lift.
KARABAIC: Weaver is part of the International Skating Union and is pushing for Finland's rule change to go international. But she says it's politically complicated in a sport that's very slow to change. In some countries, two women dancing together is seen as too socially progressive. Weaver believes open-gender ice dance is needed to broaden the sport's appeal.
WEAVER: If we want more people to enjoy this beautiful sport, then we have to look at who's not here and also how are we going to make it more accessible? And this is just such an easy way to fix that.
KARABAIC: And if that change happens, perhaps Emma Aalto and Millie Colling can one day perform their free dance on Olympic Ice. For NPR News, I'm Lillian Karabaic. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.