A Woman with a Woman: Champions Gabriella Papadakis and Madison Hubbel Ready to Revolutionize Pair Skating

La patineuse américaine Madison Hubbell a décidé de bousculer les codes. EPA – ROMAN PILIPEY

Breaking the codes and reinventing the discipline: the ambition of the two skaters. 

Recently retired from competitions, ice dancers Gabriella Papadakis and Madison Hubbell decided to shake up the codes of skating by skating together for an all-female duet. “The reactions have been super positive”, they say. “I'm thrilled that there are more and more people who are willing to push the boundaries and ask the question 'Why not?'”, says Madison Hubbell on the sidelines of the “Art on Ice” show they are performing in Zurich, Switzerland, on Thursday.

How did you come up with the idea of ​​skating together ?

G. P.: With Madison, we trained together for 7 years in Montreal. We were competitors but also friends and one day during training, we skated together, a bit for fun, for fun. And in fact, we realized that it was pretty cool and enjoyable. We said to ourselves that when we finished our competitive careers, we would try it for real. It had kind of stayed like that on the side, we didn't really think about it anymore, but after the Olympic Games (2022 in Beijing), she said to me: “Hey, do you want to skate together, it would be fun to explore that”. What we did.”

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What was the reaction in the skating community, which can be a fairly conservative community?

G. P.: The reactions have been super positive, I think for people it's interesting to see something new, and it means a lot to a lot of people too, two women skating together. Honestly, it's been a lot of positive feedback.

Is there behind this initiative the desire to shake things up, to be a bit of an ambassador for change? ?

M. H.:The sports world can definitely be more conservative than, say, the art world, and I think ice dancing kind of bridges that gap. We love to be inspired by art and yet we stick to the rules. So I'm really excited that there are more and more people who are willing to push the boundaries and ask the question, “Why not ?”. That's the conversation that Gabriella and I would love to start. I think it would be really fun in the future to have a team of two women who could have a competitive career. That might be my dream for this next step of the journey.

G. P.: We wanted to do our bit. That wasn't really the original intention, but it became that way because we realize what it can mean. It's an opportunity to show not only what it can look like, that it can be interesting and beautiful, and also that it attracts a lot of people, a lot of attention, which can only be positive for the sport.

Did you both find your marks easily?

M. H.: The feeling of skating with Gabriella is very different. I'm used to a male partner who is taller than me, heavier than me. The elements that we choose to do are obviously very different, but it's been really fun to explore how to highlight each other's strengths that are maybe quite similar, but in a way, quite different from each other.

G. P: I haven't skated with anyone other than Guillaume (Cizeron). So that alone is a challenge. Sometimes it allows me to be in physical situations that I hadn't really experienced with Guillaume, and I find that enriching.

You were saying that the reactions have been rather positive, do you think that conversely two men skating together would have been as well received ?

M. H.: Absolutely. I'm quite curious to see all the different iterations of what a couple can look like, what their strengths could be and how it could work in competition. I think people are ready. What interests me the most is how to make all of this fit into the current rules of competition in skating.