'I had one year in junior and then I was too old:' structural age rules and the girlification in Canadian elite women's figure skating

Young girls or young women with girlish figures now commonly enter into women's elite figure skating. This 'girlification' can be partly attributed to the structural age rules, the rules that govern the age-specific training advancement in figure skating. The purpose of this research was to explore how the female elite Canadian singles figure skaters experienced the structural age rules during their careers. To examine the skaters' experiences, 10 former elite Canadian women singles skaters were interviewed. A critical feminist lens was used to interpret the interviewees' experiences with the structural age rules that might sustain domination of girls in the women's event.