Some skating thoughts on a spring day in May
While we wait for certain decisions to come down that will affect the Canadian team, a look at where we might be going next in this space
So we’ve entered one of those strange times of the year, fellow figure skating fans. That period when we’re just enough past the end of the previous season that it’s safely in the rear-view mirror, but the coming campaign hasn’t quite moved fully onto the horizon.
Mind you, things will accelerate in the next month or so (and we’ll get to some of the reasons for that in a bit), and new programs will become a little more fully developed (most of which will be kept a secret for a few months yet because … well, that’s just how it is).
All of that being said, it’s been a rather turbulent month or so in Canadian skating, at least in terms of who’s staying and who’s going (and that’s without getting into certain off-ice issues. If you know, you know). And those rumblings are far from done, although we suspect we’re near the finish line in that area. The conclusion of the Stars On Ice tour in Canada, which wraps up May 19 in Hamilton, should be the trigger point for the last round of this.
So there’s been some time to do some thinking, at least in this corner, and thinking usually leads to questions. And questions (with well-thought out answers … or at least that’s the goal) is something we like to do in this space. What follows are a few things that are front of mind right now (and we may add to this list later).
What the heck is going on with Canadian pairs?
This is probably THE question of the off-season so far. We’re hearing it from folks within Canada and others beyond our borders. And after all the news over the past two or three weeks, it’s understandable why.
Let’s start this segment by taking you back to our very well read ‘state of the union’ piece from about a month ago. We had our annual season-ending chat with Skate Canada high-performance director Mike Slipchuk and when the subject came to the pairs discipline in particular, this quote now truly stands out.
“We’re not sure about the status of a lot of the teams are right now, but with the juniors and Lia (Pereira) and Trennt (Michaud), that’s a great, great area to build around. And with Lia and Trennt now up in the top three (after their bronze at 2026 Worlds), it gives that time for these younger teams to get experience and develop.”
As it turns out, he may well have been underselling things.
The juniors he refers to, of course, are the teams that finished in the gold and silver medal positions at Junior Worlds in Estonia: Ava Kemp and Yohnatan Elizarov, and Jasmine Desrochers and Kieran Thrasher. They should do nothing but get better over the next quadrennial.
But beyond them, there’s a whole bunch of uncertainty. The run appears over for 2024 World champions, Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps, with the latter said to be retiring and the ageless Stellato-Dudek searching for a new partner because she’s not nearly done yet (something she indicated at the Winter Games in Milan).
We’ve seen the No. 3 team in Canada, Kelly Ann Laurin and Loucas Ethier, announce a split. So, too, did Fiona Bombardier and Benjamin Mimar, and the promising junior tandem of Julia Quattrocchi and Etienne Lacasse. Most (if not all) of them are looking for new partners.
All of this brings us back to the original question: what the heck is going on? There are always changes at the end of quad, but this seems like it’s a little bit on steroids, metaphorically speaking.
We’ve done some thinking about this over the past few weeks or so and we feel like the answer, at least in part, can be found in another Canadian winter sport played on ice: curling.
Hear me out on this one. For those who follow the “roaring game,” you know things like the Brier (Canadian men’s championship) and Scotties Tournament of Hearts (women’s nationals) are peak goals for each and every competitive team. But over the past decade or so, the emphasis has been more and more on getting to the Olympics.
So what you see happening at the end of each quadrennial — and in a very massive way — is a rash of teams breaking up and reforming, all of it with the intent of earning a spot in the Canadian Olympic trials, which next will be held in 2029.
It’s become all about the quad, to put it simply.
Maybe that’s what we’re seeing, but in a more extreme way than usual, in the pairs ranks in Canada. Skaters looking for just the right person that can take them through the next four years, with an eye on targeting their biggest dream at the 2030 Winter Games in France.
And there may well be lots of opportunity to come in pairs. While Pereira and Michaud have now established themselves as a tandem which belongs among the planet’s elite, nobody else behind them has quite shown themselves to be in that category yet (although Kemp and Elizarov, in particular, might well be on that track).
If Canada gets back to three pair entries for 2030, then that opportunity widens even more. Enough reason, indeed, to search for just the right match to take the best shot at seizing that moment when it comes.
What’s the biggest storyline we’ll continue to monitor?
Other than what happens with all this pairs chaos, you mean?
Hard to imagine anything else topping that, at least in the near future. There is no doubt a lot of fascination among skating aficionados about who ends up where and with whom, and that alone should be enough to keep the chatter going for a little while yet.
We’ve already expended plenty of words delving into where things might lie in certain disciplines depending on the retirements that may or may not come, and how that might shape the Canadian team for the beginning of the new quad, at least.
So let’s put a pin in that line of thinking for the time being.
(we’re likely about three weeks away from seeing a lot of that being cleared up. Especially with the release of the 2026-27 Grand Prix assignments by the International Skating Union being a little more than a month away, if the usual date for that is followed).
This one is going to take awhile to develop, but we’re particularly intrigued by what’s going to happen to the Canadian women, especially if four-time national champion Maddie Schizas calls it a day (and we’ll have more to say on that in a bit).
Specifically, we’re going to be very attuned to the direction that the soon-to-be 14-year-old prodigy from Alberta, Lia Cho, takes as she moves into an elevated level of her skating. She gets to go out on the Junior Grand Prix for the first time. She’s (finally) age eligible for the Junior World Championships.
Most exciting of all, she moves up to senior at the Canadian national championships in January in Mississauga, Ont., where she can become the youngest women’s champion in decades (and remember, she was less than a point shy of hitting the 200 mark overall at 2026 nationals in Gatineau, Que. Only Schizas did that in senior).
As far as what we’re looking forward in the next two or three months? That’d be the chance to introduce readers here to some new faces that we haven’t written about before, which is always something that is enjoyable and invigorating for this particular Substacker. So stay tuned in that area. Off-season? Not in this space.
Can we read anything into a poster?
This thought came out of something that Lia Pereira mentioned during an interview we did (along with her partner Trennt Michaud) just before the Stars On Ice tour.
(and yes, quite likely, I’m far from the first to suggest this).
The subject was some of the new things that have come the Canadian duo’s way since their breakthrough bronze medal at the 2026 World Championships in Prague. And Pereira said this:
“It’s even nice just to be on the (2026) Skate Canada poster for the advertising and stuff. It’s nice to feel the recognition for our accomplishments.”
All of which led moi to take a second look at the poster in question, just to see who else is there (or isn’t). And these are the others being used to promote the Grand Prix Series event at the end of October in Kelowna, B.C.: Canadian men’s champion (and major breakout star) Stephen Gogolev, ice dancers Marjorie Lajoie and four-time Canadian women’s champion Maddie Schizas.
The idea of Gogolev being in Kelowna checks out in a huge way. So does Lajoie and Lagha, who have been to SCI in four of the last five seasons and carted home medals the last two times (silver in Halifax in 2024, bronze in Saskatoon in 2025).
(UPDATE: We spoke entirely too soon about the poster, as it turns out. Lajoie announced on her Instagram on Sunday night that her partnership with Lagha is over after 15 years. Just a sad moment for Canadian ice dance. We’ll have more to say about this in the next few days. Clearly, the poster is in for a major revamp. Over to you, Skate Canada).
Now, we get to the more interesting part. Does the fact that Schizas is on the poster mean she’s back for more next season? And does the absence of Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier mean they’re dancing off into the sunset? Either of those things is eminently possible.
Maybe Skate Canada is telling us something without telling us something. As we mentioned above, we’re going to learn soon enough. And those Grand Prix assignments are just around the corner.
The back story on a rising Canadian
We probably weren’t alone in thinking there was something a little off about Anthony Paradis at the 2026 national championships in Gatineau, Que., where he slid all the way down to eighth place in the final standings in the senior men’s event.
(the triple Axel is mountain he is still working to conquer).
This after skating to medals at the previous two nationals — bronze in his senior debut in the deep freeze in Calgary in 2024 (the year he had to stop in the middle of his free skate to repair a broken lace), and silver a year ago in Laval, Que.
Now the 19-year-old Paradis is dealing with an injury that has delayed his early work toward a new season. In an Instagram post earlier this week, he shared details about the rather serious back issues that came out of a training session about a month ago.
“I wanted to share a quick update. I’ve been dealing with an injury sustained during training and have been diagnosed with bilateral spondylolysis, meaning I have stress fractures on both sides of one of my lower vertebrae,” the former Canadian junior champion wrote.
“I’ve been off the ice focusing on recovery, and our goal is to return to full training around mid-July. I’m grateful to be supported by an incredible team helping me through this process, and I’m fully committed to coming back stronger.”
Paradis, who is based in Rosemere, Que., and coached by Yvan Desjardins, Violaine Emard and Annie Barabe, also posted a YouTube video that goes into further detail on his situation. He says he felt pain in his back — exacerbated by jumps and falls — for about three weeks before finally shutting things down, and now uses swimming as a way to keep in shape (“it’s the only exercise I can do right now”).
“Even though I went to get (medical) help, I should have stopped myself. I knew I was not getting anywhere. I knew I was in so much pain,” said Paradis, adding the current plan is for him to get back on the ice on May 25. “From there, I’ll be able to do some stroking and some basic spins so that I don’t hurt my back further.
“I’ll do this for three weeks and then I’ll be able to jump again three weeks after that … hopefully, by mid-July, everything is going to be perfect and my injury is going to be gone and I’ll be able to go full-time skating (and training).”
First dance in a new home
You may have seen this little “farewell” video here on Instagram a few days back, but in it you’ll find coaches Carol and Jon Lane — the founders of Ice Dance Elite — bidding farewell to the Scarboro Figure Skating Club in east Toronto (along with some of their skaters), and in particular the boardless Ice Galaxy rink that IDE called home for decades (it launched in 1990).
As of this week, IDE now calls the York Region Skating Centre home. It’s the facility in Richmond Hill, a suburb just north of Toronto, that has been the longtime training base for two-time Canadian men’s champion Roman Sadovsky (his coach Tracey Wainman, twice a national women’s champion, is the skating director there).
You’re no doubt familiar with IDE’s most famous and highly decorated students — Olympic bronze medallists Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, who also own five medals from the World Championships (three silver, two bronze) and are five-time Canadian champions.
It’s worth your time to click on the Instagram link above to read some of the heartfelt thoughts from folks at Scarboro FSC (they’re in the comments), who are clearly going to miss their ice dance friends.