PyeongChang 2018: Shibutanis make history with ice dance bronze

At the top of ice dancer Alex Shibutani’s Twitter profile sits a thread of eight posts that was originally written on Feb. 12, shortly after he, his sister and ice dance partner Maia, and the U.S. figure skating team captured the bronze medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics team event. In the conclusion of that thread, he wrote, “You don’t have to look like anyone else. You don’t have to be, or skate like anyone else. You don’t have to fit the mold or follow the path that everyone else is on. Just find, and be yourself.”

Maia and Alex Shibutani performing their free dance to Coldplay at the 2018 Winter Olympic ice dancing competition. (photo by Yuan-Kwan Chan / Meniscus Magazine)

Eight days later, the older Shibutani’s comments resonated even more after Maia and Alex won another bronze medal in the ice dancing competition behind Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada (gold), and Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France (silver). The accomplishment broke significant ground for several reasons:

The Shibutanis are the first ice dance team of Asian descent to win an Olympic medal. Make that, two medals. While Asian skaters have excelled in the other figure skating disciplines – starting with Kristi Yamaguchi and Midori Ito in 1992 in women’s singles, and more recently for men’s and pairs – ice dancing had long been dominated by European teams.

The Shibutanis are the second brother-sister team to win an Olympic medal. The first was Isabelle and Paul Duchesnay at the 1992 Albertville Games. “When we started skating together, Maia and I didn’t see any teams on the ice that looked like us,” Alex wrote in that same Twitter thread. “There weren’t too many sibling teams either…We have become successful BECAUSE we are siblings and family. Not in spite of that fact. We have challenged ourselves to grow, innovate, and embrace what makes us different from other teams BECAUSE our differences are what make us unique.”

Maia and Alex were the only members of the U.S. figure skating team to win multiple medals in PyeongChang. Much attention had been paid to the continued medal drought for the Americans in the singles and pairs disciplines, but it’s easy to forget that this was case for the U.S. in ice dancing as well until the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. That was when Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto broke through with the first medal of any color, a silver. Meryl Davis and Charlie White followed that result with another silver at Vancouver 2010 and a gold at Sochi 2014. With their bronze, Maia and Alex won the United States’ fourth straight medal in ice dancing. They were also the only members of the U.S. squad that captured the bronze medal the previous week in the team event to double their hardware.

Maia and Alex Shibutani during the short dance competition at Gangneung Ice Arena on Feb. 19. (photo by Yuan-Kwan Chan / Meniscus Magazine)

Despite their young ages, Maia, 23, and Alex, 26, have embarked on a long, gradual journey in the senior ranks that began when they were just teenagers. They announced after PyeongChang 2018 that they would take the 2018-2019 competitive season off, focusing instead on skating shows and other projects, having just signed with United Talent Agency. Their unique story is boosted by their social media presence, which includes a number of self-produced videos that give a behind-the-scenes look into the “Shib Sibs”‘ 14-year skating partnership, travels and family life.

Video: Maia & Alex Shibutani: Ice Dance Figure Skating Free Dance warm-up – 2018 Winter Olympics
video by Yuan-Kwan Chan / Meniscus Magazine

Video: Maia & Alex Shibutani react to Ice Dance Figure Skating Free Dance program – 2018 Winter Olympics
video by Yuan-Kwan Chan / Meniscus Magazine