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Canadian Skaters to Compete for the Podium at October Challenger Series Events
October 1, 2024/by Skate Canada

OTTAWA, ON (October 1, 2024) – The ISU Challenger Series continues this October with three more events and more opportunities for Canadian figure skaters to perfect their routines while competing for podium positions as they embark on their 2024-2025 season.

The month kicks off with the Denis Ten Memorial taking place in Astana, Kazakhstan from October 2-5 and will feature national team members Aleksa Rakic and Kaiya Ruiter competing in their first event of the season. Ruiter is the reigning Canadian senior women’s champion while Rakic was the runner-up in the men’s competition at the Canadian Championships in 2024. Ruiter will be joined by Uliana Shiryaeva in the women’s discipline, while Lily Hensen and Nathan Lickers and Alicia Fabbri and Paul Ayer will compete in ice dance.

The Budapest Trophy runs from October 11-13 in Budapest, Hungary and will see Madeline Schizas looking to improve on her seventh-place finish at the Nebelhorn Trophy that took place in September.

The month will wrap-up with the Trophy Metropole taking place in Nice, France from October 16-20 where Canada will send both junior and senior skaters. In the senior competition, Breken Brezden and Fée Ann Landry will compete in the women’s event, while Nadiia Bashynska and Peter Beaumont, bronze medallists at the 2023 ISU World Junior Championships, will compete in ice dance.

The junior competition will see Reese Rose and Aleksa Volkova compete in the women’s event and Parker Heiderich compete in the men’s discipline.

The Challenger Series is an International Figure Skating Series designed to give skaters adequate opportunities to compete at the international senior level and to earn precious World Standing Points. For full competition schedules, entries and results for Challenger Series events, please click here.

Team Canada
Name | Age | Hometown | Coach

DENIS TEN MEMORIAL

Men
Aleksa Rakic | 20 | Burnaby, BC | Joanne McLeod

Women
Uliana Shiryaeva | 17 | Coquitlam, BC | Joanne McLeod
Kaiya Ruiter | 18 | Calgary, AB | Paige Aistrop

Ice Dance
Lily Hensen | 23 | London, ON & Nathan Lickers | 23 | Six Nations of the Grand River, ON | Sheri Moir
Alicia Fabbri | 21 | Terrebonne, QC & Paul Ayer | 26 | Brossard, QC | Pascal Denis

Team Leader – Mike Slipchuk
Medical Team – Leigh Davis
Officials – Andrew Bosco & Andre-Marc Allain

BUDAPEST TROPHY

Women
Madeline Schizas | 21 | Oakville, ON | Nancy Lemaire

Team Leader – Shae Zukiwsky
Medical Team – Emma Lis
Officials – Laura Carr & Ron Conacher

TROPHY METROPOLE

Senior Women
Breken Brezden | 18 | Dauphin, MB | Jennifer Jackson
Fée Ann Landry | 19 | Gatineau, QC | Guylaine Blouin

Junior Women
Reese Rose | 15 | Gananoque, ON | Darlene Joseph
Aleksa Volkova | 15 | Lac Brome, QC | Martine Dagenais

Junior Men
Parker Heiderich | 18 | Calgary, AB | Scott Davis

Senior Ice Dance
Nadiia Bashynska | 20 | Ajax, ON & Peter Beaumont | 23 | Ajax, ON | Carol Lane

Team Leaders – André Bourgeois & Cynthia Ullmark
Medical Team – Siobhan Godwin & Sari Kraft
Officials – Limin Jao & Lorna Schroder

The original plan was for Lajoie and Lagha to debut the two new programs last weekend at Nebelhorn Trophy in Oberstdorf, Germany. But the duo chose to withdraw from that event a few weeks back. They are on the entry list for another Challenger Series event, Budapest Trophy in Hungary, slated for Oct. 11-13. That competition happens to fall two weeks before Skate Canada International in Halifax, which is due to be their Grand Prix Series debut (they’re also entered in Cup of China in late November). The plan, of course, is to return to the Grand Prix Final for a second straight season. Scan the entry lists for Canada and China and you can see it’s eminently doable (it’s easy to see them earning a pair of silver medals at the very least).

(UPDATE; Lajoie and Lagha have withdrawn from Budapest Trophy due to an undisclosed injury issue. They are expected to be ready to compete at Skate Canada International).