The Junior Grand Prix in figure skating is held without the participation of Russians, therefore, it does not arouse much interest among domestic specialists and fans.
Nevertheless, the stage in Riga drew attention to itself by the fact that for the first time in history a transgender girl performed for this sport - 14-year-old Brazilian Maria Joaquin Reikdal.
This was made possible thanks to rule changes that were approved by the ISU in 2021, shortly after the Tokyo Olympics.
According to them, to move from the male category to the female one, it is necessary that the total testosterone level be below 5 nmol / l for 12 months before the first tournament and during the entire subsequent competitive period.
"A symbol of the fight against prejudice"
Maria Joaquina, along with her brother and sister, were adopted by Kleber Reikdal and Gustavo Uchoa Cavalcanti.
Then her name was Joao.
As foster parents recall, they did not immediately understand why one of the children was behaving strangely.
Although the shelter coordinators said that the eight-year-old boy liked to try on women's clothes and grew his hair long.
At some point, Joao told his fathers about his problem.
They resisted for some time, but nevertheless went to meet the wishes of the child and went to a clinic in Sao Paulo.
At the moment, now Maria Joaquina visits doctors once a month who use pubertal blockade for “treatment”.
That is, agents that suppress the release of testosterone during puberty.
She will take these drugs until she is 16 years old.
At the same time, as Cavalcanti noted, the hormone level in the daughter was initially even lower than that of her sister.
Simultaneously with the external transformations, Maria Joaquina began to engage in skating and rollerblading.
The choice is quite predictable, since both adoptive parents train figure skaters.
The girl's success was not long in coming.
In 2019, she took the silver of the national roller skate championship and won a ticket to the South American championship.
However, at first she was not allowed into the tournament, because according to the documents, the athlete remained a boy and, therefore, did not have the right to take part in women's competitions.
This kind of corrections in Brazil, when it comes to minors, are resolved through the courts.
Maria's family achieved a positive verdict, but it was received right before the start of the athletes' performance, and Reikdal was also unexpectedly set to demonstrate the program under the first number.
As a result, the girl did not have time to warm up, got nervous and failed the rental, allowing four falls at once.
Kleber and Gustavo then made a real scandal in the media, saying that their daughter was harassed at the tournament.
In addition to the incomprehensible situation with the starting number, they drew attention to other strange things.
So, Maria Joaquina was deprived of the right to the official tracksuit of the Brazilian team.
In addition, the girl was not invited to a group photo with the winners.
And the most outrageous was the ban on going to the women's toilet.
Later, the organizers of the championship tried to refute this information.
Allegedly, Reikdal visited the restroom with her father, which is unacceptable, only a woman could accompany her there.
This story made the young athlete popular in Brazil.
Many began to consider her as a symbol of the fight against prejudice, the transgender even took part in the filming of the video of the famous transvestite Pabllo Vittar, where she skates in a beautiful white suit.
Brazil's main hope for the 2026 Olympics
After the failure in the tournament, Maria Joaquina did not give up and continued to train, concentrating more on figure skating, since this is an Olympic sport.
She wants to compete at the Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo Games in 2026.
The athlete will be 17 years old by that time, which means that the Brazilian will pass according to the age limit.
They are betting on a transgender person in the national federation.
After the retirement of Isadora Williams, who took part in the Olympics in Sochi (30th place) and Beijing (24th place), a worthy replacement has not yet been found for her.
In the absence of serious competition, Reikdal won the last two junior national championships by a huge margin, and is so far the only athlete capable of competing at the international level.
Even on ice rinks, which are a quarter smaller than those officially accepted in figure skating, she managed to learn how to perform a triple salchow.
Therefore, at the beginning of the year, Maria Joaquina went to Italy for an internship for three months under the state program in order to learn how to make turns correctly and work out other more complex elements.
This season at the junior level, Brazil took advantage of its quota and declared the girl for two stages of the junior Grand Prix.
She has already performed in Riga, taking the penultimate 33rd place.
In the short program, Maria Joaquina fell on the step sequence, and in the free program, she did not finish the very triple salchow.
However, this is only the beginning of her journey at the international level.
For the second time, the skater will take to the ice at a tournament in Italy.
In the case of Reikdal, the fact that the Brazilian is one of the first transgender athletes in the world to start blocking testosterone before the onset of puberty draws attention to itself.
And using her example, it will become clear in the near future whether the restrictions that FINA has recently introduced for transgender people are correct.
Recall that the International Swimming Federation will now allow to compete if the changes occurred before the age of 12, that is, before the onset of puberty.
According to experts, such a decision is justified.
As Marina Kalashnikova, an endocrinologist, doctor of medical sciences, professor of the Department of Endocrinology at Sechenov University, explains, the formation of the musculoskeletal system in a person occurs before the age of 20, and after this age it is unfair to compare the level of development of the male body with the female.
We are talking primarily about muscle strength, body weight, height.
And on the example of a Brazilian woman, it will be possible to see this theory in practice.