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How Competitive Figure Skating Shaped a Sibling Relationship

The Embodied logo, which features the silhouette of a person that is dark blue with small white dots all over it, like stars. There is a cartoon person standing in front of the silhouette with brown skin, brown hair and glasses wearing a white long-sleeved shirt, yellow pants and white shoes. She is pulling back the dark blue fabric to reveal a yellow-orange interior to the silhouette. The background of the logo is light blue and has the word "Embodied" at the top, with the NPR Network logo underneath it on the left-hand side and WUNC underneath it on the right-hand side.

For 11 years, siblings Brad and Jocelyn Cox were a competitive figure skating duo. Through countless hours of training and performing together, the pair forged a tight bond that has served them far beyond their competition days.

Pair figure skating is a sport of coordination, musicality and high-risk maneuvers. Being successful requires a lot of trust and teamwork. So what is it like when your partner is your sibling?

Brother and sister Brad and Jocelyn Cox tell Anita about their 11 years of competing together and how their partnership continued into adulthood when they became coaches — and then caregivers.

Jocelyn Cox is the author of Motion Dazzle: A Memoir of Motherhood, Loss, and Skating on Thin Ice.” Brad Cox is a figure skating coach.

Read the transcript

Kaia Findlay is the lead producer of Embodied, WUNC's weekly podcast and radio show about sex, relationships and health. Kaia first joined the WUNC team in 2020 as a producer for The State of Things.
Anita Rao is an award-winning journalist, host, creator, and executive editor of "Embodied," a weekly radio show and podcast about sex, relationships & health.
Amanda Magnus is the executive producer of Embodied, a weekly radio show and podcast about sex, relationships and health. She has also worked on other WUNC shows including Tested and CREEP.