Magazine
"It felt as if I had less opportunities because of the color of my skin"
Mariyah Gerber is the founder of the FSDIA movement that brings together skaters from all disciplines. (Credits: Steven Midura)
Over the last ten years, she has toured with Disney on Ice, Royal Caribbean, and Holiday on Ice! Mariyah Gerber is a professional figure skater who co-founded a movement (FSDIA) to make ice skating a more diverse and inclusive sport! She answered our questions from her home in Southern California. Let's learn more about her!
Mariyah Gerber: I started skating at five years old when a new arena in my area had opened up. The rink was only about twenty minutes from where I lived at the time. My grandma has always loved figure skating and signed me up for skating school as soon as classes were available.
I skated competitively and I was seventeen when I became a professional skater where I began to learn how to skate with a partner. When I was twenty-three I became very invested in learning adagio with my now husband. We worked incredibly hard to become a Principal level adagio team for Holiday on Ice.
I actually have very little background in Synchro. Now being a show skater I really see how many skills you learn in synchro that translates to ice shows.
My best skating memory is the last show of my first season with Holiday on Ice. My entire family flew to Berlin, Germany to watch my husband and I perform. I will never forget standing there taking my final bow in my beautiful brown costume, that was made just for me at the beginning of the season. It was definitely the most emotional closing of my career, I remember feeling so proud and like all of my hard work was worth it. Never in a million years did I think I would perform on that level and there I was with my family watching.
I do not really have anything that I always do before each performance. Sometimes if I need to uplift myself I like to dance and listen to music. That's it.
I have definitely faced racism in my career. At times, it felt as if I had less opportunities because of the color of my skin. Most people of color will tell you, you always have to work harder and be ten times better to be even considered on the “same level”. It is unfortunate but it is a reality most skaters of color face.
I was very fortunate to have been surrounded by several key role models in my career.
I worked with Atoy Wilson, Debi Thomas, and Derrick Delmore from time to time when I was competing. I participated in a Tribute show for Mable Fairbanks where I was surrounded by 20 plus skaters of color. I was protected by my skating coaches and family from the injustices in figure skating. I was taught that my black skin was beautiful at a young age so even when I was faced with racism I had the tools to overcome it.
My experiences is one of the reasons why I co-founded The Figure Skating Diversity and Inclusion Alliance.
Our mission is to foster a more diverse and inclusive figure skating environment world wide thru policy change, program development and funding for the next generation of athletes.
I recommend doing what you need to do for your hair or skin-tone. Certain hairstyles do not work on certain hair textures. Certain colors do not show up on darker skin. That is okay!
You should not feel like you have to bend over backwards to fit into a box that was not created for you.
This sport taught me how to be strong and resilient. It also taught me to never give up.
Figure Skating is for EVERYONE and there is not just one way to be successful in this sport. There are so many avenues that can bring you so much joy. Every person’s idea of success in skating is different and that is okay.
Never put anyone down for their dreams because they do not align with your own. Your dreams are your dreams and it is the same for them.
My advice to anyone who wants to start skating is to never let anyone stop you. This space can be for you and provide you with so much joy. Let the ice be your happy place as it is for so many others.
The Founders of The Figure Skating Diversity and Inclusion Alliance (FSDIA) are myself, Michelle Hong, and Elladj Blade.
I have known Michelle for years at a distance but reconnected after the death of George Floyd when she reached out to see how I was handling everything emotionally.
We both introduced ourselves to Elladj after seeing how active and passionate he was about the Black Lives Matter Movement.
After several conversations, we found ourselves on the phone for hours to try and create a program that is now called The Figure Skating Diversity and Inclusion Alliance.
Elladj had the idea of creating something like the Alliance for several years now. And when the three of us came together, we really dove into what that looked like and what we wanted to accomplish.
At the beginning, we spent several hours brainstorming and we brought in several key people that are now heavily involved in FSDIA.
Two things that we really wanted to address from the beginning is the lack of representation of skaters of color in figure skating and we wanted to build community amongst skaters of color and allies.
We have such an incredible team and I really can see FSDIA making major changes in the skating community long term.
We have several projects in the works and will be sharing all of our updates on our social media platforms. We hope to be a long term safe space for skaters of color and allies. I believe that FSDIA will definitely be a huge asset to the figure skating community and I am incredibly honored to be apart of it.
The answer is Yes. FSDIA’s environment is very open and one thing that I think makes us extremely unique is that we have skaters from several different backgrounds heavily involved. We currently have synchro skaters, professional show skaters, contemporary skaters, Olympic level skater, Special Olympic skaters, collegiate skaters and so many more apart of our growing team.
Our focus is the BIPOC skating community right now but we have members from all nationalities. We celebrate all of our members no matter what level they are, what they look like, or what discipline they do in skating. We are a safe space for all.
So please join us as we change the narrative.
This Sunday, follow Mariyah also on the OneTeamMVMT Instagram account!