Kailey Hops is a 19 year old religious Jewish athlete from West Orange, New Jersey. She says she was raised Modern Orthodox.
Kops took Israeli citizenship years ago when she joined Team Israel as a young skater in New Jersey. She actually retired from skating in 2019, and after spending her gap year in Israel ina seminary, got the call to come out of retirement to partner with Evgeni Krasnopolski, and Israeli Oympian whop found himself in need of a partner. Despite their short time skating together as a team, they successfully qualified for the Olympics and will soon represent Team Israel at this world stage facing off with the world's top athletes.
There are some interesting tidbits in this JP article on the story, including that Kops skates at competitions on Shabbos but walks to the rinks and arenas and arranges lodging and kosher food via Chabad.
Good luck to Kops and Krasnopolski. We'll be rooting for you!
Here is an interview with Hailey Kops and also a video of a recent competition:
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"Kailey Hops" needs to be fixed in the opening paragraph.
ReplyDeleteI don't know.....I ain't no frummie.....but....
ReplyDeleteShes stretching the "Orthodox" boundaries by a lot.
I mean her outfits,though they are pretty standard in that field.
The dancing and touching with a male partner, lifting her up.
I know that you can say its "work" not "Derech Chiba".
But it's still a very romantic/sexualized type interactions that are required.
It just doesn't compute to me.
If this quality of performance is after "retirement," wow, she's talented.
ReplyDelete