Social media trolls need to move on from criticizing the ice dancing Shibutani siblings
GANGNEUNG, South Korea – Let’s just get this out there: If you think the brother/sister combination Alex and Maia Shibutani competing together in ice dancing is weird or creepy or awkward or whatever, you’re welcome to your opinion.
But, and this is a big but, the problem isn’t theirs. It’s yours.
The Shibutanis put themselves in fourth place of figure skating’s ice dance competition at the end of Monday’s short dance.They already have a bronze medal thanks to their efforts in the team event last week.
They’re enjoying their second Olympics, but they are also active on social media, and they see what some sick minds say about them. Ice dance is a discipline that requires close contact between the pairs, who are generally only permitted to separate by no more than two arm lengths. Some, but not all routines, are based around musical and performance elements that tell a love story.
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Charlie White and Meryl Davis, the 2014 Olympic champions, deliberately kept White’s relationship with his now-wife Tanith Belbin private because they thought the crowd and the judges would respond better if they thought the dancers were in love.
Some people on the cesspool that Twitter can be, have an issue with the Shib Sibs, as they’re widely known, for taking part as siblings in such an event. The online comments are crude enough -- and from people with sad enough lives and so few followers -- that they are not worth repeating.
It takes perspective and strength to get to the Olympics. It takes nothing more than a few mindless keyboard strokes to sneer on the web. Maia Shibutani said she uses her Olympian virtue of competitive resilience to block out the nastiness.
“With the internet you expose yourself to people from all around the world but overwhelmingly we are feeling so supported,” she said. “And the people who don’t understand, they have families too. I just think it is so special that I can enjoy this with my sibling, and I think if they were in our shoes hopefully they would enjoy it too.”
Here is a hint for how to get the most out of watching the ice dance here at Gangneung Ice Arena. Celebrate the fact that there are three world-class American teams. There is Madison Hubbell/Zachary Donohue, currently in third. There’s Evan Bates and his partner Madison Chock, who is tough as heck and skated through an agonizing foot injury to help them to seventh. And there are the Shibutanis, unfailingly polite, ever-positive, and last week a rock of support for the likes of Adam Rippon, Mirai Nagasu and others during the team event.
If the concept of two siblings performing in a sport that requires athletic contact and has elements of romantic performance attached to it troubles you so deeply that you just can’t let it go, don’t go and sneer about it on Twitter. Here’s some advice, go watch something else. And get some help.
Actually, do what you like, because Maia and Alex don’t care. Nothing, and no one, is going to shift their focus ahead of the biggest night of their careers on Tuesday in the free dance, a session that offers them a shot at a second medal. They’re ready, and they are united.
“Our parents raised us in a way where we know how to take care of each other,” Alex said before urging critics to look at their own situation before making derisive comments. “Trolls have families. That’s the takeaway. (Through) our career done really well and we’re so proud to have gathered a group of people … that really appreciate our values. We care much more about that than the negativity, and even if we do hear the negativity, we know better.”
They do know better. And so should the trolls.