Six NextGen Athletes Close Out the Junior Grand Prix Series in Italy

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OTTAWA, ON (October 6, 2022) – Six Canadian athletes are heading to Egna, Italy for the last stop of the ISU Junior Grand Prix series, taking place from October 12-15, 2022, following a hugely successful season that saw Canada claim five medals in pair and ice dance. The Canadian team will be comprised of one man, one woman, as well as two ice dance teams. 

Competing in her first ISU Junior Grand Prix will be 15-year-old Rose Theroux. Theroux is no stranger to international competition, having competed at the 2022 Cup of Austria where she narrowly missed the podium by 3 points. 

Aleksa Rakic will be competing at his second ISU Junior Grand Prix of the season, having previously finished seventh in Ostrava, Czech Republic. Last season, Rakic claimed a silver medal at both the 2021 Ice Challenge and 2022 Skate Canada Challenge in senior men.  

Junior Grand Prix silver medallists Sandrine Gauthier and Quentin Thieren will be looking to add another medal to their collection, while promising ice dancers Marianne Hubert and William Oddson will aim to improve upon their 10th place result earlier this season.  

Competition kicks off on Thursday, October 13 with the men’s short program and rhythm dance. Friday, October 14 will see women skaters take the ice for their short programs and ice dancers complete their free programs. The event concludes on Saturday with the men’s and women’s free programs. For more information and schedules, click here.     

Team Canada 

Name | Age | Hometown | Coach | Training Location 

Women 
Rose Theroux | 15 | Ste-Victoire-de-Sorel, Que. | Marc-André Craig & Amélie Fortin | Chambly, Que.   

Men 
Aleksa Rakic | 18 | Burnaby, B.C. | Joanne McLeod | Burnaby, B.C. 

Ice Dance 
Sandrine Gauthier | 18 | Saint-Constant, Que. & Quentin Thieren | 18 | Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Que. | Patrice Lauzon & Benjamin Brisebois | Montreal, Que.
Marianne Hubert | 18 | Trois-Rivières, Que. & William Oddson | 20 | Calgary, Alta. | Kim Slopak-Weeks & Tyler Myles | Calgary, Alta 

Team Leaders – Andre Bourgeois & Manon Perron
Medical Team – Sylvia Ciurysek
Officials – Limin Jao & Reaghan Fortin 

Two Canadian Ice Dance Teams to Compete at 2022 Budapest Trophy

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OTTAWA, ON (October 5, 2022) – Two Canadian ice dance teams will be competing at the 2022 Budapest Trophy, taking place from October 13-16, 2022 in Budapest, Hungary. This competition will give skaters a chance to compete internationally prior to the start of the Senior Grand Prix season, which kicks off with Skate America on October 21-23. 

Olympians Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha will be competing for the second time this season after finishing first at the 2022 Ondrej Nepela Memorial last week. The pair placed 13th at the Beijing Olympic Games and claimed bronze at the 2022 Canadian Tire National Skating Championships earlier this year.  

They will be joined by Alicia Fabbri and Paul Ayer, who captured gold at the 2022 Skate Canada Challenge and placed 7th at the 2022 Canadian Tire National Skating Championships. The next event for both teams will be Skate Canada International, set to take place from October 28-30 in Mississauga, Ontario. 

Competitions start on Friday, October 14th with the rhythm dance, followed by the free dance on Sunday, October 16th. For more information about the event, please click here. 

Team Canada 
Name | Age | Hometown | Coach | Training Location 

Ice Dance
Alicia Fabbri | 19 | Terrebonne, Que. & Paul Ayer | 24 | Brossard, Que. | Marie-France Dubreuil & Patrice Lauzon | Terrebonne, Que.  
Marjorie Lajoie | 21 | Boucherville, Que. & Zachary Lagha | 23 | Saint-Hubert, Que. | Romain Haguenauer | Montreal, Que. 

Team Leader – Mike Slipchuk 
Official – Leslie Keen 

A Large Canadian Contingent to Tackle Sixth Junior Grand Prix

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OTTAWA, ON (October 3, 2022) – Following a great showing at the fifth Junior Grand Prix, which saw four Canadians finish in the top-10, a large Canadian contingent return to Gdansk, Poland for the sixth event of the series. A total of fifteen athletes will be competing at the event scheduled from October 5-8, including one woman, two men, three pair teams and three ice dance teams. 

14-year-old Hetty Shi will be competing at her first Junior Grand Prix and will be the sole Canadian entry in the women’s category. Hetty previously competed at the 2022 Egna Spring Trophy in Italy and showed a lot of promise as she captured a silver medal in novice women. 

This will also mark Edward Nicholas Vasii’s first Junior Grand Prix participation, after the Montréal native finished 5th in novice men at the 2022 Egna Spring Trophy last season. He will be joined by current Canadian champion Anthony Paradis, who bounced back from fourth to first in order to claim gold at the 2022 Canadian Tire National Skating Championships.   

In the pair discipline, Canada will be sending three solid teams who have already competed in the series this year and have all stepped on the podium. Leading the team will be Chloe Panetta and Kieran Thrasher, who captured a bronze medal at the Ostrava Junior Grand Prix. The first-year junior pair teams comprised of Ava Kemp & Yohnatan Elizarov and Ashlyn Schmitz & Tristan Taylor will bolster the Canadian firepower, having won silver and bronze medals respectively at the Riga Junior Grand Prix. 

Nadiia Bashynska and Peter Beaumont will be setting their sights on another podium finish after winning their first international gold medal last weekend at the fifth ISU Junior Grand Prix. They will be joined by Chaima Ben Khelifa & Everest Zhu and Jordyn Lewis & Noah McMillan who placed fifth and seventh respectively at their first ISU Junior Grand Prix of the season.  

Competitions kick off on Thursday, October 6 with the women, men and pair short programs. Friday, October 7 will see pair and women complete their free program and ice dancers perform their rhythm dance. The event concludes on October 8 with the free dance and men’s free program. For more information and schedules, click here.  

Team Canada 

Name | Age | Hometown | Coach | Training Location 

Women 
Hetty Shi | 14 | Mississauga, Ont. | Andrew Evans & Paul Parkinson | Mississauga, Ont. 

Men
Edward Nicholas Vasii | 16 | Montréal, Que. | Yvan Desjardins &  Violaine Émard| Rosemère, Que.
Anthony Paradis | 15 | Boisbriand, Que. | Yvan Desjardins & Ann-Julie Dion | Rosemère, Que. 

Pair 
Ava Kemp| 14 | Winnipeg, Man. & Yohnatan Elizarov | 18 | Winnipeg, Man. | Kevin Dawe & Andrew Evans | Winnipeg, Man.
Chloe Panetta | 19 | Laval, Que. & Kieran Thrasher | 18 | Amherstburg, Ont. | Bruno Marcotte & Brian Shales | Oakville, Ont.
Ashlyn Schmitz | 16 | Shellbrook, Sask. & Tristan Taylor | 20 | Regina, Sask. | David & Vicki Schultz | Regina, Sask. 

Ice Dance 
Nadiia Bashynska | 18 | Ajax, Ont. & Peter Beaumont | 21 | Ajax, Ont. | Carol Lane & Juris Razgulajevs | Scarborough, Ont.  
Chaima Ben Khelifa | 17 | Laval, Que. & Everest Zhu | 19 | Waterloo, Ont. | Shawn Winter & Elise Hamel | Pierrefonds, Que.
Jordyn Lewis | 18 | Komoka, Ont. & Noah McMillan | 18 | Ilderton, Ont. | Scott Moir & Cara Moir | Ilderton, Ont. 

Team Leaders – Carolyn Allwright & Andre Bourgeois 
Medical Team – Olesia Markevych & Pat Stanziano 
Officials – Karen Butcher & Jeff Lukasik  

Canadians Bashynska and Beaumont dominate for gold at ISU Junior Grand Prix

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GDANSK, Poland (October 1, 2022)  – Nadiia Bashynska and Peter Beaumont of Ajax, Ont., reached new heights Saturday with a victory in ice dancing at the fifth stop on the ISU Junior Grand Prix figure skating circuit.

It was their first win in six career junior Grand Prix appearances.

Bashynska and Beaumont smashed the scores they posted in a bronze medal showing at the world junior championships last season, totalling 170.34 points. Phebe Bekker and James Hernandez of Great Britain were a distant second at 158.85 and Celia Fradji and Jean-Hans Fourneaux of France third at 157.11.

The Canadians were initially scheduled to compete at the Junior Grand Prix in Armenia last month which was cancelled.

‘’We were basically prepared weeks ahead of time,’’ said Bashynska, 18. ‘’For Peter and I we’re pretty lucky that we motivate each other every day. So even when we found out about the cancellation we were able  to push through and keep sharp for this competition.’’

Hailey Yu and Brendan Giang of Burnaby, B.C., posted the fourth best free skate but remained sixth at 145.35 and Dana Sabatini-Speciale of Springwater, Ont., and Nicholas Buelow of Barrie, Ont., were 12th out of 24 entries.

Japan was 1-2 in women’s competition. Mao Shimada took the gold with 217.68 and Mone Chiba was second at 205.82. Chaeyeon Kim of South Korea was third at 195.46.

First-year national junior team member Kara Yun, 13, of Burnaby, B.C., was 10th at 166.88. There were 49 entries.

In the men’s event, Lucas Broussard of the U.S. took the title with 209.39 roaring back from fifth spot after the short. Yudong Chen of China jumped from 16th after the short to win the silver with 201.84 and Raffaele Francesco Zich of Italy was third at 200.73.

Alec Guinzbourg of Aurora, Ont., was 10th with 184.00, Rio Morita of Thornhill, Ont., 15th and David Bondar of Richmond Hill, Ont., jumped six spots to place 18th.

The next stop on the circuit is October 6-8, again in Gdansk.

Full results :http://www.isuresults.com/results/season2223/jgp5pol2022/

Lajoie and Lagha win gold at ISU Challenger Series event

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BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (October 1, 2022) – Canadian ice dancers Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha  won their first international senior event Saturday at the Nepela Memorial figure skating competition, a stop on the ISU Challenger Series circuit.

The 2022 Olympians posted an ISU event personal best score 193.35 points bettering the 192.11 they skated at the 2020 Four Continents meet.

Eva Pate and Logan Bye of the U.S. were second at 178.69 and Marie Dupayage and Thomas Nabais of France third at 165.78.

For their first senior victory, Lagha, from St-Hubert, Que., and Lajoie, from Boucherville, Que., the 2019 world junior champions, weren’t screaming off the rooftops.

‘’It was O.K. for a first skate despite a little mistake,’’ Lagha, 23. ‘’We don’t want to do mistakes anymore.’’

Lajoie, 21, was happy to return to competition.

‘’It was a long time since we competed,’’ she said. ‘’You have to get use to that feeling again and for us, we wanted to skate very good and have a good result. But there is a lot to improve.’’

Lajoie and Lagha were the only Canadians at the event.

Full results: Challenger Series Ondrej Nepela Memorial 2022