Andrews and Gasparotto Reflect on History made in San Jose

The 2023 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships last month in San Jose, California, gave the world a glimpse into what the next four years might hold for Team USA. The new champions are a mix of seasoned veterans and athletes who are finding themselves atop the podium for the first time. Stories of perseverance and sacrifice were not in short supply in the Silicon Valley, but for the athletes, it was about finding a way to set that all aside and just skate.
 
Beyond the headlines, however, there was a story that was decades in the making, of two women who, in their pursuit of competitive glory, have continued to blaze the path that others laid forth for them in seasons past.
 
When Starr Andrews and Alexa Gasparotto took to the ice for the championship women's short program, it was the first time that two Black women competed in the event in the same season in 23 years.
 
Andrea Gardiner, the 1997 U.S. junior ladies champion, and Cohen Duncan, the 1994 U.S. novice ladies champion, were the only other duo to accomplish this feat in Cleveland, Ohio, all the way back at the 2000 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. In that championships-level event, Gardiner finished in fifth place, just one placement away from earning a medal, which would have made her only the second Black woman, after two-time champion Debi Thomas, to have stood on the U.S. Championships podium. In San Jose, Andrews broke that 35-year drought when she captured the pewter medal in her sixth appearance in the event.
 
"That's amazing," Andrews said. "I wish I had done better, but it's still an amazing accomplishment. Just to be able to see where I've come from the last couple of U.S. Championships to being on the podium is incredible for me, so I'm really excited to see how the rest of my skating career goes. I hope that I can continue to do be successful and hope that there are more African American and people from the BIPOC community who can do the same thing and show their excellence because they are amazing."
 
Andrews, 21, is a veteran of the last six U.S. Championships, but she first came into prominence when a video of her "Whip My Hair" (Willow Smith) program went viral when she was just 9 years old. While competing at the elite level can be daunting in and of itself, doing so as an internet sensation who happens to be one of the few Black athletes in the sport could be too much to bear. Andrews admits that she has felt the weight of expectation but is getting better about navigating it.
 
"A couple years ago I would say I was a little bit overwhelmed just because I was this young kid still trying to figure everything out and growing up," she explained. "I've grown up in this sport and I was trying to figure out where my way around. I felt so much pressure not just from myself because I always put a lot of pressure on myself but whenever I mess up, I just felt like I disappointed everybody. This sport is not always going to be butterflies and rainbows — you're going to fall and you're going to make mistakes. Now I feel encouraged to do even better knowing that I have so many people looking up to me and it encourages me and makes me want to work harder and do better and just put my heart out on the ice every single time I go out there."
 
Gasparotto, 19, made her U.S. Championships debut in San Jose, and electrified the audience with her lively performances. The Michigan native came into the competition prepared to soak in the spoils of all of her hard work, but soon realized that being in the limelight also comes with responsibility.
 
"I just expected to take everything in knowing that this is my first time really get a good look at everything," she said. "I approached the competition as a big learning experience, and my main goal was to get myself out there and make sure that everybody saw me. Now I realize the influence that I can have as a role model for the younger kids who maybe never saw a place for them in the sport — that seeing more people of color in this sport could lead to other kids to try figure skating."
 
While most of the feedback that Andrews and Gasparotto received were overwhelming positive and celebratory in nature, there are still the detractors who are critical or even hurtful.
 
"I didn't realize how much support I had — all of the people coming up to me congratulating me saying that they want to see me in the future that they're super proud of me even though they don't know me just means so much," Gasparotto said. "Online there are some negatives just talking about it's a shame they didn't honestly like me. Not to be rude, but I don't care about any of the haters. I don't pay attention to them."
 
Andrews, who has shared that she has been criticized on social media in the past, shared Gasparotto's sentiment.
 
"I completely agree with her I think that those comments are irrelevant," she said. "That person has no clue what you put into what you do, and they really don't have a say on anything like those are just empty words. It's kind of funny because they have no clue that I trained two or three hours a day and then I work out three times a week and I put in so much work. What they said really doesn't matter."
 
Both athletes credit Mabel Fairbanks, the trailblazing skater who, nearly a century ago, started to dismantle the status quo of excluding Black skaters from taking part in the sport. Andrews is a 2021 Mabel Fairbanks Skatingly Yours Award recipient, while Gasparotto was awarded the same honor in San Jose. And when Andrews learned of her podium finish, she admitted that she felt her presence in the arena.
 
"I feel like that she would be speechless with tears of joy," Andrews said. "I cannot express how proud I feel like she would have been — I know that she is looking down she is very proud but if she were here, she would give a very big nod and big thumbs up and hugs to everyone knowing that her legacy is still continuing and we're still taking in all of the things that she's done and pushing forward in figure skating."
 
Through 1979 World Champion Tai Babilonia, who trained with Fairbanks, Andrews learned a lot about the legendary trailblazer.
 
"I think that she's an incredible woman and I can't imagine what she went through when she was trying to skate," Andrews said. "Her persistence was amazing because being turned away like that it would break my heart like I wouldn't know what to do like I would just feel so broken especially with doing something that I love, and somebody tells you can't do it; I think that she has paved the way for me definitely and for other African American skaters and I think that she's always listening."
 
Gasparotto sees what Fairbanks did as kind of a guidebook for Black athletes in the sport.
 
"I feel like it was important to hear the stories about how there was a Black athlete who didn't allow barriers to deter her from participating in the sport," Gasparotto said. "She had such determination and she operated with blinders on to keep her focused on what she wanted to accomplish. Hearing her stories and how she overcame so much is an important part of figure skating especially for Black athletes."
 
An added dimension to what Andrews and Gasparotto have accomplished is that they both did it with a Black coach at the boards. Andrews is coached by 1998 World Junior Champion Derrick Delmore while Gasparotto is led by celebrated choreographer Rohene Ward.
 
"Derrick competed at the U.S. Championships many times, so he knows how it all works," Andrews said. "He knows how to handle things when [things] don't go well. I think that that is something that is great to have as a student."
 
Gasparotto met Ward at a Diversify Ice event, which eventually led to the two teaming up to help Gasparotto meet her goal of competing at the U.S. Championships.
 
"He stood out to me as a competitor, and when we met, he was complimenting me so much on my skating and tell me how I can go super far," she recalled. "It really just stuck with me knowing that I was a fan of his for so many years and he had all these positive things to say to me which was really important to me. I saw him again at Skate Detroit and he said that he really wanted to help this girl accomplish her dream. He felt like I could do so much more with this sport, and we had a big talk and that's when I decided to start working with him."
 
Both Andrews and Gasparotto are encouraged by what they see around them and hope that there is a trend in having more people of color participate in the sport. Along with them, Mark Sadusky, a Black pairs skater made his debut in the championship event in San Jose, while Kristina Bland, a Black ice dancer, competed in the junior event.
 
"Being the only Black skater (in my rink), I could hide in the corner, but I want everybody to see me no matter how they feel about me," Gasparotto said. "When Black kids see me, maybe that will inspire them to try the sport."