Two Howard University students have formed the first figure skating team at an HBCU. The team makes its competition debut this weekend.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Well, Howard University’s ice skating team is set to make history this weekend. The first figure skating team at a historically Black university is about to take part in its first intercollegiate competition. NPR’s Adam Bearne laced up his skates and took to the ice to meet the team’s founders.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Ooh, lord.
ADAM BEARNE, BYLINE: In the middle of a small outdoor rink in Washington, D.C. Maya James and Cheyenne Walker are showing off their scratch spins. Arms above their head, they turn like a top, slowly at first, before getting faster and faster.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Whoo (ph).
BEARNE: Both have been skating since the age of 7. But for James, growing up in Chicago, it wasn’t always easy.
MAYA JAMES: ‘Cause it wasn’t many people that look like me doing it. So when I would go to a new rink, or even sometimes at my home rink, I would be the only Black person on the ice. And it kind of felt like those eyes were on me.
BEARNE: Cheyenne Walker had a much better experience getting into the sport in New York.
CHEYENNE WALKER: I was fortunate enough to be in figure skating in Harlem, which was unique of its kind because it was an organization for women of color. So I grew up seeing women of color and people of color skate and being present in the sport.
BEARNE: But when it came time to go to college, Walker faced a tough choice.
WALKER: It was very difficult to figure out, like, whether I wanted to go to school and continue to skate or if I wanted to go to a school that I knew was meant for me. I ultimately ended up choosing Howard because Howard just felt like home when I visited it.
BEARNE: It might have felt like home, but she was missing skating. So was James.
WALKER: She DMed me and was like, I’m thinking about starting a club. So when Maya reached out to me,…
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