Today, Thursday, February 6, 2025, the Art on Ice show will host a unique event: Gabriella Papadakis and Madison Hubbell, two great figures of figure skating, will perform together on the ice in Zurich. A performance that marks a small revolution in a sport where mixed duets have always been the norm.
Five-time world and Olympic champion Gabriella Papadakis and 2022 Olympic and world champion Madison Hubbell are set to perform an extraordinary number for the audience. While this is not a competition, it is the first time that two skaters of this level have performed together at a gala of this magnitude.
The initiative took shape on social media, where the two athletes, based in Canada, shared training videos together. Spotted by the organizers of Art on Ice, they were invited to join the event. “Their performance will not only be world-class, but revolutionary,” said Oliver Höner, the show’s producer.
This all-female duo requires a new technical approach. No traditional lifts, because current training only prepares men for this role. Similarly, the classic dynamic of pair skating, where the man leads and the woman follows, must be rethought. “We had to relearn together, understand that we didn’t know how to do this at all,” Papadakis confides.
Hubbell explains that even simple gestures, such as hand position, require adaptation. But beyond the technical aspects, their performance raises a larger question: that of the evolution of figure skating.
Today, the International Skating Federation (ISU) still requires mixed-gender pairs in competition. Only Canada changed its rules in 2022, allowing pairs of the same gender to compete at the national level.
While Papadakis did not approach this performance with an activist intention, she acknowledges the impact of their duet: "A lot of people want to see this. Skating has to evolve along with society to stay relevant." The Zurich audience is therefore preparing to witness a performance that could well mark a turning point in the history of figure skating.
