Despite loosening rules, few women figure skaters pick pants

In addition to comfort, practicality and a chic look, skaters in pants said they saw it as a way to match their male partners, as well as align with the music for this season. The International Skating Union chose “Street Dance Rhythms,” with style options including hip hop, disco, swing, krump, popping, funk, jazz, reggae, reggaeton and blues.

Canadian ice dancer Piper Gilles wore a orangesicle-colored, carnivalesque, Elton John-inspired one-piece for the ice dance competition, though she previously wore a skirt version of it for the medley team event the first week of the Games.

“I was actually kind of nervous about wearing pants this year. That was something that I’d never done before,” Gilles said. “We’ve always been told to wear skirts so it’s kind of fun to be able to break out of that.”

While few figure skaters wear pants in competition, nearly all do so during practice sessions.

“You don’t have the weight of the skirt, like when you turn and stuff, and it feels more like practice because in practice, I just wear pants. So I find it, I think, (it is) more comfortable,” said Marjorie Lajoie, a Canadian ice dancer who wore a black unitard accented by a teal-colored, sash-like ruffle in a nod to Hollywood red carpet glamour in her “Funkytown” rhythm dance performance. “You shouldn’t be forced to wear a skirt.”