JY Sun Finds a Stronger Sense of Self as Adult Skater

After skating as a young kid, JY Sun rediscovered their love of skating and a stronger sense of self as a queer and AAPI skater thanks to the support of the adult skating community. 

By Jillian L. Martinez

 

JY Sun (they/them) started their skating journey in upstate New York at 6 years old on a homemade rink in a neighbor’s backyard. According to Sun, now 31, there was not much else to do in the winter besides skate. Like many kids, Sun tried a variety of other sports, but skating was the one that appealed most to the young athlete – and the one for which they had a talent. 

JY Sun competes at the 2023 U.S. Adult Figure Skating Championships. JY is an Asian Man with short black hair. He is wearing a long sleeve maroon top with jewels on the front and black pants. He stands with his arms outstretched and his right leg extended outward
Sun competes at the 2023 U.S. Adult Figure Skating Championships where they earned silver in the championship masters junior-senior men's event 

For more than 10 years, Sun competed and rose to the level of junior. But at that point, Sun was ready to hang up their skates.

“I was burned out [by the time I reached high school]. I actually won Junior Nationals [at the intermediate level] in 2004, and then I had a growth spurt,” Sun stated. “That was followed by a lot of injuries. By the time I was ready to go to college, it seemed like the right time to close this chapter [of skating] and focus on school. I didn’t enjoy it anymore.”

Sun decided to attend the University of Delaware, which has an active and vibrant collegiate skating community. However, they chose to disconnect with the sport completely during those years and be a full-time student. In 2019, after moving to Chicago to pursue graduate school and a new career, Sun began meeting adult skaters through an old friend and former competitor.

“All these people happened to be queer. They happened to be Asian or AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander). And, they all happened to be adult skaters who introduced me to other adult skaters,” Sun said.

Soon, Sun found themself going to public sessions with their new friends at local rinks. When winter came, the group then started attending sessions at outdoor rinks.

“It became a part of how our group socialized,” Sun, who also met their partner through this group of friends, said. “We ended up meeting a lot of other adult skaters through this process. I learned the adult skating community is incredibly supportive. [The community] is truly people who are doing it because they love to skate.”

Gradually, Sun tested their old skills and jumps. Once their body was able to perform doubles, Sun began to work on their triples. After several months of practice on and off the ice, the jumping consistency spurred a new idea.

“I asked myself, ‘Should I start competing again?’” Sun said. “I had met more and more adult skaters … and I started noticing other skaters [Daniel Palmeri and Michael Solonoski who I used to compete and train with being super active and involved. More than anything, I felt like there was something I wanted to prove to myself.”

Sun first competed at the 2021 Midwestern Adult Sectional Championships and went on to win gold at the 2022 U.S. Adult Figure Skating Championships presented by Prevagen in the championship masters junior-senior men's event. A silver medal followed when Sun returned to the Championships in 2023.

Although a very technical skater, Sun credits their success as an adult to more to being kinder to themself when training and not being afraid to be vulnerable on the ice.

“I have a stronger sense of self now than I used to. When I was younger and competing as a teenager, I was very much ‘in the closet,’” Sun explained. “Since then, I’ve come out as queer and identify as non-binary. There have been a lot of non-skating life experiences that make me feel like a more complete human being.”

In addition to their own life experiences, Sun has also experienced social and political changes around LGBT and queer issues in the country.

“I’m not even that old – I’m 31,” Sun emphasized. “But, I feel like times are very different now than even when I was young.”

To put into context, Sun was 4 years old when the Defense of Marriage Act was passed in 1996 by the U.S. Congress and banned federal recognition of same-sex marriage while limiting the definition of marriage to the union of one man and one woman. It was not until 2015 that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states could not ban same-sex marriages. A year later, according to CNN, the 2016 Rio De Janeiro Summer Olympic Games saw 41 openly lesbian, gay and bisexual Olympians, compared to 23 in London 2012.

“There are so many more explicit examples of what it means to be queer in different spaces, skating included,” Sun said. “[In skating], we had Rudy Galindo in the 90s, but then we didn’t really have any open examples of queerness after that. Johnny Weir didn’t come out until after the height of his skating career [in 2011].”

However, in 2022, more history was made with Timothy LeDuc becoming the first non-binary athlete to compete at the Winter Olympic Games.

“It’s an incredible transformation compared to what was visible to me when I was younger. [Because of it], I feel so much more comfortable in my identity as a queer individual and as non-binary,” Sun said. “I see so many more examples from both adult skaters as well as from younger skaters.”

Reflecting on their life, Sun wishes they would have had strong examples of queer people leading and thriving, not only in skating, but everywhere when they were younger. According to Sun, skating still has a way to go in breaking down gender segregation and norms and heteronormativity. Nonetheless, the increase in representation and visibility today have helped Sun “thrive as an individual in the sport and as a human.”

“I am not getting any younger, but I am a better skater now than I ever was,” said Sun, who not only aspires to land a triple Axel but to, also, embody a range of emotions in their artistry-filled performances. “That’s part of the fun of skating. You always find ways to surprise yourself.”

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