I've been thinking about this for a while and coming to the conclusion that whatever the ISU is doing to expand access and increase the diversity of both skaters and officials...doesn't, shall we say, appear to be having a ton of impact as yet. What are some additional strategies that you think might help given the situation as it stands right now?
One thing I thought of was applying quotas, particularly for officials. Quotas are a strategy known to work in improving diversity of participation and representation in many areas, including business and politics. What if the ISU implemented a quota requirement that at least 50% of tech panel members and judges at all major events (basically, Grand Prix events on up) must be drawn from non-traditional skating countries, or must be under the age of 40, or must be of colour? How would that impact the patterns we tend to see of bias, unofficial bloc judging and reputation-based calling/judging? This could be backed up with financial support to national federations that actively work at recruiting and retaining skaters from low SES backgrounds, skaters and officials of colour, new officials from outside the sport, etc..
Another thing was opening mainstream competitions to same-sex dance and pairs teams, and developing new element options of equivalent value to allow for variations based on partners' upper/lower body strength combinations etc. This would enable more partnerships from more countries to form and open up additional possibilities in terms of elements and choreography. Imagine a dance program where the lead and the follow had the option of switching roles between elements in the way same-sex dancesport couples sometimes do, or a pairs program in which each partner could be both a thrower/lifter and a throwee/liftee at different points, and where lead/follow/thrower/lifter/throwee/liftee roles were explicitly delinked from the gender of the skaters...
Another was creating, and financially supporting, a category of 'skaters/officials without federations' to enable people from countries where it's not financially or environmentally sustainable to build an Olympic-sized rink that's available all year round to compete under their preferred flag if they want to. This would open a route for people from much smaller countries, people with unclear citizenship such as the children of refugees, and people from ethnicities not stereotypically associated with skating to access resources and training, and potentially even advance to Olympic level following the model of the Refugee Olympic Team for stateless athletes.
Any other ideas spring to your mind?
One thing I thought of was applying quotas, particularly for officials. Quotas are a strategy known to work in improving diversity of participation and representation in many areas, including business and politics. What if the ISU implemented a quota requirement that at least 50% of tech panel members and judges at all major events (basically, Grand Prix events on up) must be drawn from non-traditional skating countries, or must be under the age of 40, or must be of colour? How would that impact the patterns we tend to see of bias, unofficial bloc judging and reputation-based calling/judging? This could be backed up with financial support to national federations that actively work at recruiting and retaining skaters from low SES backgrounds, skaters and officials of colour, new officials from outside the sport, etc..
Another thing was opening mainstream competitions to same-sex dance and pairs teams, and developing new element options of equivalent value to allow for variations based on partners' upper/lower body strength combinations etc. This would enable more partnerships from more countries to form and open up additional possibilities in terms of elements and choreography. Imagine a dance program where the lead and the follow had the option of switching roles between elements in the way same-sex dancesport couples sometimes do, or a pairs program in which each partner could be both a thrower/lifter and a throwee/liftee at different points, and where lead/follow/thrower/lifter/throwee/liftee roles were explicitly delinked from the gender of the skaters...
Another was creating, and financially supporting, a category of 'skaters/officials without federations' to enable people from countries where it's not financially or environmentally sustainable to build an Olympic-sized rink that's available all year round to compete under their preferred flag if they want to. This would open a route for people from much smaller countries, people with unclear citizenship such as the children of refugees, and people from ethnicities not stereotypically associated with skating to access resources and training, and potentially even advance to Olympic level following the model of the Refugee Olympic Team for stateless athletes.
Any other ideas spring to your mind?