Diversify Ice aims to get more Black and brown skaters on the ice

A national figure skating coach is on a mission to attract more Black and brown skaters to the sport.

Joel Savary, who notably coached his younger brother Emmanuel Savary to a U.S. Junior National Championships title in 2009, founded the Diversify Ice Fellowship and Foundation seven years ago to combat the racism and lack of diversity he saw first as a skater and later as a coach.

"I started Diversify Ice Foundation in 2017 when I started to realize just how expansive this issue was, not only in my community, so I really wanted to provide those sponsorships, mentorships, networks and opportunities to skaters across the country," Savary told ABC News about the foundation's goal.

Diversify Ice is a nonprofit focused on mentoring and sponsoring minority skaters who want to pursue competitive figure skating careers. Today, the foundation assists skaters with finding ice time, getting quality skates and costumes, consulting and coaching.

According to U.S. Figure Skating data from 2023, only 2% of skating fans identified as African American, and in 2022, the U.S. national team made headlines for not having a single Black athlete competing on its roster that year.

"If you look to today, just in the past few years, my brother Emmanuel Savary and Starr Andrews were the only two people of color at the Senior Figure Skating Championships to have competed," Savary said.

The Diversify Ice CEO is now also one of the coaches of the Howard University Figure Skating Team, the first figure skating team of any historically Black college or university.

As a coach, Savary seeks to raise awareness about the biases that are prevalent within figure skating.

"We are astutely aware of just the differences in what we might consider artistic," Savary said. "For one, people of color, a lot of times, have a slightly different body type and in the way that we hold our hair, hold our positions. If it doesn't fit the body type that a judge may be used to, they may take deductions for that."

It's one of the many lessons the Howard team, composed of skaters like Maya James and Cheyenne Walker, consider when they take to the ice. The collegiate team recently made history by becoming the first HBCU figure skating club and the first one to compete in a collegiate competition at the University of Delaware's Blue Hen Ice Classic.

"While they did not receive a medal here, we believe that the win was coming out here, having these skaters skate their best after just a few months and getting out here and making history," Savary said after the event, which was held Feb. 24-25.

"Coming in as a new team, whether it's the Howard team here or even any of our other competitive skaters at the elite national, international level, one thing we do is explain how important it is to just stay true to who you are," the coach continued.

James, meanwhile, told ABC News that she has come a long way since co-founding the Howard collegiate team and encourages more young Black kids to pick up figure skating, a sport she hopes to compete in even after she eventually graduates from Howard.

"Growing up, I was mostly the only Black girl on the ice, so I just felt kind of like the oddball, but I'm happy I can have a team where people look like me and we're all supporting each other, having that community," James said.

James' teammate, Gabrielle Francis, agreed.

"For anybody who's thinking about becoming a figure skater that looks like me, almost looks like me, doesn't look like me, I hope you encourage yourself to go out there and skate," Francis added. "Let's change the face of figure skating to something more inclusive."

At the end of the day, Savary has one major goal he hopes to achieve with Diversify Ice.

"I want to see this sport really become reflective of who we are in America. And what we are is colorful," he said.