Meet Our New National Team Members!

Skate Canada is proud to welcome three new skaters to our national team for the 2024-2025 season. Learn more about how they got into skating and their accomplishments to date below, and then get ready to cheer on them, and the rest of our national team, throughout the season! 

ALEKSA RAKIC 

Burnaby, BC native Aleksa Rakic first got involved in figure skating in 2013 when, while taking CanSkate lessons, he would pass by the figure skating rink and was mesmerized and fascinated by all the jumping, spinning, and dancing to music. He asked his mom to put him in figure skating and to let him give it a shot. 

Six years later, he was crowned the Junior Canadian Champion at the 2019 Canadian Tire National Skating Championships. That fall he also made his Junior Grand Prix debut at the Croatia Cup where he finished 12th and finished just off the podium in fourth at the 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne, Switzerland.  

Competing nationally as a senior starting in the 2019-2020 season, Rakic finished fifth at the 2020 Skate Canada Challenge. He finished 14th in 2021 and then mounted the podium at the 2022 Skate Canada Challenge, taking home a silver medal. He had a tougher season in 2023, finishing sixth at Skate Canada Challenge and 12th at nationals but went on to compete at his first ISU Junior World Championships where he finished 13th overall. Rakic came back strong in the 2024 season and captured silver medals at both Skate Canada Challenge and the Canadian Championships and was also the top Canadian at the Junior World Championships, setting new personal best scores for both his short and free programs to finish eighth overall. 

He made his Senior Grand Prix debut in the fall of 2023 at Skate Canada International where he finished 12th. He’ll be competing in the 2024 edition of Skate Canada International this fall in Halifax, Nova Scotia. 

Coached by Joanne McLeod, 19-year-old Rakic skates out of the Champs International Skating Center of British Columbia. 

ANTHONY PARADIS 

Anthony Paradis of Boisbriand, Quebec started figure skating after watching it at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games and being so impressed by the sport. Crowned the Junior Canadian Champion at the 2022 Canadian Tire National Skating Championships, and a bronze medallist in 2023, Paradis moved up to the senior ranks for the 2023-2024 season and immediately made an impact, taking home a bronze medal from the 2024 Canadian Championships, and a fourth place at Skate Canada Challenge.  

He made his Junior Grand Prix debut at the 2022 Baltic Cup where he finished 10th and finished 13th at the 2023 Junior Grand prix in Osaka, Japan. At the 2024 ISU World Junior Championships he set new personal best scores in both of his programs to finish 15th overall. 

A very artistic skater, Paradis, 17, plays an active role in choosing the music and costume for his programs that he also helps to choreograph. He is coached by Yvan Desjardins and Violaine Émard out of the Patinage Miles-Îles Club in Quebec. 

HETTY SHI 

Hetty Shi first got involved in figure skating when she was six years old and her dad told her that she should learn figure skating for birthday parties since they lived in the cold state of Michigan, USA. “The moment I stepped on the ice, I realized I never wanted to get off and would beg my parents to go skating every day,” says Shi. “That’s how I realized I wanted to pursue figure skating.” 

Crowned the Novice National Champion at the 2022 Canadian Tire National Skating Championships, and the Junior National Champion in 2023, 16-year-old Shi made the move to the senior ranks for the 2023-2024 season and once again climbed onto the podium at the Canadian Championships, taking home the bronze medal. 

Shi, who calls Northville, Michigan, USA home, made her Junior Grand Prix debut in the fall of 2022 and finished 13th at the Baltic Cup. In 2023 she competed at the Junior Grand Prix in Bangkok, Thailand and finished seventh after setting new personal best scores for both of her programs. 

Coached by Rafael Arutyunyan and Brian Orser, Shi trains out of the Canadian Ice Academy in Mississauga, Ontario.