![\"Karina](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Karina-Joe-Photo-Credit-Josef-Pinlac.jpg\" "\\"Former")
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Karina Manta and Joe Johnson are coaching the next generation of figure skaters.<\/p>\n
Photo: Josef Pinlac<\/p>\n
As the current members of Team USA skated for Olympic gold medals in Milan this month, two retired competitors have made a home here in New York City to help coach the sport\u2019s next generation.<\/p>\n
Karina Manta and Joe Johnson spent five years as ice dance partners on Team USA before retiring from competition in 2019. They then travelled with Cirque du Soleil\u2019s ice show and competed as pros on the UK television show, \u201cDancing on Ice.\u201d Now, the pair coach at Chelsea Piers Sky Rink.<\/p>\n
The duo may have met on the ice, but their close friendship has remained constant since they first met thirteen years ago.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel really grateful that we still have a relationship to the sport where we love it and we still skate together,\u201d Manta said. \u201cEven without that competition, it\u2019s something that we enjoy and want to participate in.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
But finding an ice dance partner isn\u2019t easy. Skaters often have to uproot their lives and move to a different state or country to train with a partner. Manta \u2014 who moved away from home at 16 to live on her own and train with her first partner \u2014 said the training process is like a never-ending group project.<\/p>\n
In 2013, Manta and Johnson were both training in Colorado Springs after their previous partnerships had ended when Manta\u2019s coach sent a Facebook message to Johnson\u2019s coach.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was funny, because I was on the brink of quitting,\u201d Johnson said. But after the two tried out together, they decided it was a match and officially began their partnership.<\/p>\n
Anyone can skate, regardless of identity<\/p>\n
After Manta publicly came out as bisexual in 2018, the duo became the first openly LGBTQ+ team to compete for Team USA. In ice dancing, there is often an assumption that there must be a romantic element between partners.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Johnson said he doesn\u2019t understand the \u201cpearl-clutching around the idea of two women or two men skating together,\u201d as same-sex pairings are not permitted to compete in the United States or international competitions.<\/p>\n
While competitive figure skating is traditionally known for its strict adherence to gendered stereotypes, Manta and Johnson said they have seen tangible progress in terms of queer representation in the sport. Recently, Amber Glenn became the first openly LGBTQ+ woman to represent the United States in Olympic singles figure skating at the current games.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do fundamentally believe that skating is for everyone,\u201d Johnson said, with Manta adding, \u201cand that it can be really empowering.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
As coaches, the duo love to help inspire their students \u2014 who range in age from three to 81 \u2014 to discover the joy and fun in skating.\n<\/p>\n
Growing up in the sport can be demanding \u2014 Manta began skating at six, and Johnson at eight. Johnson said that it\u2019s important to understand the responsibility a coach has when helping develop a young skater\u2019s skills, and to encourage a strong sense of bodily autonomy.<\/p>\n
The pair especially loves teaching adults looking for a new hobby, to learn to skate, and to help them grow confidence and fall in love with the sport.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be with these people who are just first stepping on the ice and are afraid of it, and then to see by the end that they\u2019re comfortable and they can come skate for fun makes me feel like I\u2019m a magician,\u201d Manta said. \u201cI treasure that I get to be a part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Karina Manta and Joe Johnson are coaching the next generation of figure skaters. Photo: Josef Pinlac As the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[29241,58384,58385,9,56,63,65,64,15559],"class_list":{"0":"post-137476","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-figure-skating","9":"tag-joe-johnson","10":"tag-karina-manta","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-ny","13":"tag-nyc","14":"tag-nyc-headlines","15":"tag-nyc-news","16":"tag-olympics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}