Fred's, (Used to be Barb's), Board

Eight NextGen Skaters Set to Compete at First Junior ISU Grand Prix of the 2024-2025 Season in Latvia
August 26, 2024/by Skate Canada

OTTAWA, ON (August 26, 2024) – Eight NextGen athletes will kick off their international competition season at the first ISU Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating, which is scheduled to take place in Riga, Latvia from August 28-31, 2024. Canada will count one entry in men, women and pairs, as well as two ice dance teams.  

The team will be led by ice dance veterans and 2023 junior national silver medalists Sandrine Gauthier and Quentin Thieren who are returning to the junior ranks after competing as seniors last season. 2023 Grand Prix Final bronze medalists Jazmine Desrochers and Kieran Thrasher will also have their sights set on the podium after the team finished third at both of their Grand Prix assignments last year.

In singles, Anthony Paradis will be looking to showcase a new short program which earned him a gold medal at the 2024 NextGen Competition hosted by Skate Canada. Paradis had a breakthrough season last year, placing third at his first senior national championships despite struggling with equipment issues during his program. Junior national champion Lulu Lin will be competing in the women’s event.

Rounding out the team will be ice dancers Auréa Cinçon-Debout and Earl Jesse Celestino who recently placed fourth at the 2024 NextGen Competition. For the full competition schedule, entries and results, please visit www.isu.org. 

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

Women 
Lulu Lin | 14 | Oakville, Ont. | Paul Parkinson | Toronto, Ont. 

Men 
Anthony Paradis | 17 | Boisbriand, Que. | Yvan Desjardins | Rosemère, Que. 

Pairs
Jazmine Desrochers | 18 | Mississauga, Ont. & Kieran Thrasher | 20 | Amherstburg, Ont. | Jeff Langdon | Oakville, Ont. 

 Ice Dance 
Auréa Cinçon-Debout | 17 | Quebec City, Que. & Earl Jesse Celestino | 18 | Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Que. | Benjamin Brisebois | Montreal, Que. 
Sandrine Gauthier | 20 | Saint-Constant, Que. & Quentin Thieren | 20 | Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Que. | Benjamin Brisebois | Montreal, Que. 

 Team Leaders – Andre Bourgeois & Danielle Williams
Officials – Genevieve Rosa & Erica Topolski
Medical Team – Lydia Schultz & Meaghan Shewchuk

Silver for Junior Pair Skaters at First Junior Grand Prix of the 2024/2025 Season
August 31, 2024/by Skate Canada

Riga, LAT (August 31, 2024) – Canadian pair skaters Jazmine Desrochers and Kieran Thrasher started their 2024/2025 international season off with a silver-medal finish at the first ISU Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating event of the season this weekend in Riga, Latvia.

Desrochers of Mississauga, Ont., and Thrasher of Amherstburg, Ont., had the top score after their short program on Thursday (55.41), but fell to second following their free skate (96.82) and finished with a total score of 152.23 to take the second step on the podium.

“This was a good first step for the season and felt really together which was nice,” said Desrochers, who together with Thrasher was a bronze medallist at the 2023 ISU Grand Prix final last season.

Trasher added: “Our expectations (for this competition) were more for ourselves and showing a good skate, and less about the placement. Getting second place is nice, but our main expectation was to skate for ourselves and do as well as we can.”

Jiaxuan Zhang and Yihang Huang of China won gold (159.76), while 2024 World Junior Championships silver medallists Olivia Flores and Luke Wang of the USA took bronze (139.51).

The women’s competition saw Lulu Lin of Mississauga, Ont., make her Junior Grand Prix debut and finish a very respectable fourth overall with a total score of 167.82. Lin set a new personal best score of 59.05 in her short program and scored a 108.77 for her free skate despite a little music mishap at the beginning of her performance.

“I feel really happy and really proud of myself because I skated a relatively good skate with one small mistake,” said Lin. “I’ve been working on my performance this year and I want to continue to work on that – as well as all of my jumps and having more speed coming out of them.”

Mao Shimada, the two-time reigning junior world champion, dominated the competition to win gold with a total score of 204.86. Elina Goidina of Estonia bounced back from a fourth-place finish in the short program to take silver with a total score of 182.23, while Nayeon Ko of Korea took bronze with a total score of 176.86.

In his first season on the Junior Grand Prix circuit, Sena Takahashi of Japan won gold in the men’s competition with a total score of 229.66. Jaekeun Lee of Korea took silver (220.26), while Shunsuke Nakamura of Japan came back from fifth after the short program to take bronze (212.73).

Anthony Paradis of Boisbriand, Que., who was named to the senior national team for this season after finishing third as a senior at the 2024 Canadian Championships, finished eighth overall with a total score of 184.28.

“I’m a bit disappointed with both my performances, I trained hard to get here. I think my efforts didn’t show so much, so I’m a bit disappointed, but I’m leaving with plenty of experience, and the will to come back stronger.”

The ice dance competition closed out the weekend and saw Sandrine Gauthier of Saint-Constant, Que., and Quentin Thieren of Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Que., finishing fifth overall with a total score of 147.88. Auréa Cinçon-Debout of Montreal, Que., and Earl Jesse Celestino of Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Que., finished just behind in sixth with a total score of 133.70.

Noemi Maria Tali and Noah Lafornara of Italy won gold (161.26) while Caroline and Brendan Mullen of the USA captured silver (156.42). 2024 World Junior Championships bronze medallists Darya Grimm and Michail Savitskiy of Germany took bronze (156.33).

The second Junior Grand Prix of the season takes place next weekend in Ostrava, Czechia from September 4-7, 2024 and will feature Canadian men’s, pair, and ice dance teams.=