#232 February 14th, 2022 [Blind Landing]

If you're taking in clips from the 2022 Olympic games and thinking, "Didn't we just wrap up the last games??"; you're absolutely right. The International Olympic Committee has done everything it can to maintain the cadence of the games and hold onto the old normal — the way things ought to be as far as its committee members are concerned.

And so the story goes.

The entrenched institution run by a group of people who "used to do something" end up perpetuating a need to conform to whatever has been established – the so-called standard. It's a story as old as Zeus.

Backdropped by the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games, Blind Landing returns to cover figure skating with an insightful and well-researched anthology series.

Its first entry is Out On The Ice which goes on to unpack things like how the figure skating establishment embraced exaggerated ideas of masculinity in reaction to the stereotype about male skaters being gay, what some icons like Randy Gardner, Tim Goebel and Adam Rippon had to endure as a result, and what that does to the sport at-large.

Hosts Air Saperstein and Chris Schleicher peel back the curtain on the culture of figure skating and what happens when the stakes get raised on the world's stage. Hear LGBTQ+ athletes' lived experiences in confronting the idea of what success in the sport really means and understand how societal milestones helped chip away at figure skating's institutionalized homophobia and preference for heteronormativity.

Later on, understand Mabel Fairbanks' journey through American segregation in the 1940s, what it took to get on the ice and how her adversity created a stepping stone for other figure skaters of color.

Blind Landing celebrates the different identities within the rigid confines found in figure skating and culture it brings. In overcoming preconceptions, figure skating may offer a template for us all to be inspired by so we can stick the landing while having a say in way things ought to be.

Have a listen and let us know what you think,

Stephen and EvanYour Podcast Delivery crew

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