Skaters unite to advocate for more diversity

[Elizabeth]

In these times of change and ongoing attempts to create/support more diversity in skating, a non profit organization was created a bit "ahead of the curve" - Diversify Ice Fellowship & Foundation (DIFF). As stated on their website about the Fellowship, the DIFF Program is a figure skating development program for qualified skaters who experience hardships in the sport. It was created by Joel Savary, a coach who has recognized the many barriers to figure skating. The Program attracts underrepresented figure skaters who have demonstrated talent and need. Intrinsically, the program is designed to diversifying figure skating by developing a cadre of potential champions in figure skating. We hope to get there by sponsoring, mentoring, providing opportunities, and networks for skaters who wouldn't have access to these resources.

Joel Savary, a minority coach, experienced, as an African American teenage boy, that participating in figure skating was not widely accepted among his peers. The Be DIFFerent Campaign Joel created is a program geared towards inspiring minorities to Be DIFFerent and try figure skating as a sport. The aim is to challenge preconceived notions among minorities about figure skating and to revitalize interest in the sport among minority groups.

Joel Savary is currently most noted for his work with his younger brother, Emmanuel Savary, who has won the U.S. Jr. National Championships. Along with Emmanuel’s head coaches, he has helped to cultivate his brother to be a competitive Team USA athlete who has now reached the Senior Mens Championship level.

An article related to other skating supporting this: http://amsterdamnews.com/news/2020/jul/ ... wA.twitter

As reported in another thread, Asher Hill (who is mentioned in the article linked above) has been quite outspoken about race-related issues in figure skating. He recently appeared on an episode of "The Agenda with Steve Paikin" - the video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FRCsyhUR9Q