Alex and Maia Shibutani have admitted that they didn't have a lot of role models they could look up to in figure skating.
The ice dancing pair with the nickname "Shib Sibs" are a brother and sister competing in an event that focuses heavily on the artistry and interpretation of the music. With the dances requiring components such as the Rumba sequence, holds and lifts, the event lends its way to the performers skating with a romantic affection for one another.
The Shibutanis take a different approach.
That different approach shouldn't affect their score, in theory. No where in the ISU judging system does it say a pair has to be sensual or have sexual chemistry.
What pairs are actually judged on are their technical elements and the program components. The program components are made up of their skill, transitions, performance/execution, choreography, interpretation and timing.
It's the choreography and the interpretation where the Shibutani's have to be careful as siblings. The interpretation is looking at the translation of the music and the movements that are used to mirror it and its style.
Many routines are attempting to tell a love story, whether it be through the flirtatious Latin American sequence or the chemistry and passion in the holds and lifts.
In their free dance performance, the Shibutani's danced to Coldplay's "Paradise." During their performance, they skated with a pure joy that radiated as they danced the final story of their self-proclaimed trilogy. The story was about their journey to achieving an Olympic medal, according to Maia.
"Our emotional connection to the music and the journey we have been on is what makes this program our strongest creative concept yet," she wrote on a blog for Team USA. "The choice of the piece we were using didn’t just work because of the title of the song. Lyrically, 'Paradise' really speaks to us."
They finished with the bronze medal. Canada's Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir and France's couple of Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizero finished ahead of them on the podium. Their medals were deserving, but both pairs gave steamy performances filled with affectionate moments and erotic-looking lifts. Canada's pair had to tone it down for the Olympics, they said, after one of their lifts looked too much like a sex position, according to the Toronto Star.
They were technically perfect, and so were the Shibutanis. Their performance elements were stunning, and so were the the siblings'. Even though the Shibutani's perform with great artistry, the lack of sexual passion still could have an effect on the judges' scores, although we'll never truly know.
The judges could also be biased against the sibling pair. To put that in perspective, Charlie White told Yahoo! that he hid his marriage with Tanith Belbin so the judges would believe he and his partner, Maryl Davis, had a connection on the ice.
So does it hurt the Shibutani's that they are brother and sister? Social media seemed to think so, or at least thinks that the judges reward romance.
It's an uphill battle, but one the Shibutanis are already winning by medaling in PyeongChang.
