As the calendar flips to 2025, the countdown to the 2026 Olympics begins for Canada’s top figure skaters.
The Canadians hope to build on a strong 2024 in ice dancing and pairs heading into a "massive" year.
“We’re one year from the Olympics — I look at it that way,” said Skate Canada high-performance director Mike Slipchuk. “A year from now all we have left is nationals, and then we’re in Italy.”
The 2024-25 figure skating season, culminating with the world championships this March in Boston, will give Slipchuk and the Canadian team "a sense of where we’re at."
After that comes an intense and shortened off-season as athletes prepare for the Milan-Cortina Games, beginning Feb. 6, 2026.
“The clock is ticking,” Slipchuk said. “It’ll be about ensuring they have the right plan in place to be at their best when they get to Milan.”
Here are five Canadian storylines to watch over the next 12 months.
GOING FOR GOLD, AGAIN
Will Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps repeat as world champions? They’ll aim to become the first Canadian pair to achieve the feat since Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford went back-to-back in 2015 and 2016.
Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps struck gold in both Grand Prix assignments after their triumph in Montreal last year, but four teams posted higher scores during the GP season.
They also withdrew from the Grand Prix Final — the top competition of the first half of the season — while Deschamps recovered from an illness.
Slipchuk is confident they’ll return to their best with the Canadian championship in Laval, Que., approaching on Jan. 14-19.
The pair can finally focus on throws, lifts and jumps instead of immigration after American-born Stellato-Dudek gained Canadian citizenship in December. The 41-year-old is now eligible to represent Canada at the Olympics.
"Every year they become a bit stronger, they refine certain elements,” Slipchuk said. “They need to use the next two months ... to build up that trajectory so that when they get to Boston, they feel they're at the peak of their game.”
'A ONE-OFF'
Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier posted the best free dance score in a silver-medal finish at worlds last March, signalling the 2025 edition could be theirs for the taking.
The decorated ice dancers, however, stumbled at the end of 2024.
After dominating at Skate Canada International, they fell from first to second at the Finlandia Trophy when Poirier slipped during their twizzles in the free dance.
A few weeks later at the GP Final, Poirier dropped to the ice from catching his foot on the boards in the rhythm dance.
Gilles and Poirier bounced back with the second-best score of the free, giving Slipchuk confidence they’re leaving those mistakes in 2024 and contending through the Olympics.
"It's a one-off,” he said. “They came back the next day, they put up by far the second-highest free dance score, so it shows that they're going to be pushing for the top.”
UP NEXT?
Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha should pressure Gilles and Poirier at nationals after taking another significant step forward last year.
Lajoie and Lagha finished fifth at worlds and earned two silver medals on the GP circuit before placing fourth in the final, one spot ahead of Gilles and Poirier.
The 2019 world junior champions are proving they could eventually take the reins as Canada’s top ice dancers. Can they evolve into Olympic podium contenders over the next 12 months?
“They’ve definitely moved themselves into the top echelon of dance,” Slipchuk said.
WHO STEPS UP?
In singles, the Canadian men and women each have just one entry at this year’s worlds. They'll need a top-10 finish in Boston to secure a second Olympic quota spot, and seeing that in the men’s event is unlikely.
"To get into the top 10 is going to be a tough climb," Slipchuk said.
Top 10 or not, something to watch for in 2025 is who steps up as the leading Canadian man, because the national title feels wide open.
The first half of the season featured three Grand Prix withdrawals due to injury: 2022 Olympian Roman Sadovsky at Skate Canada, reigning national champion Wesley Chiu at Cup of China and Stephen Gogolev at NHK Trophy.
Aleksa Rakic showed promise at Skate Canada with a seventh-place result, finishing a hair outside the top five.
“We're optimistic that someone's going to step forward and grab the horns here and move forward with it,” Slipchuk said. “But definitely at this point there's no one really leading the pack.”
STEADY SCHIZAS
There is some hope for a top-10 finish in the women’s event with two-time Canadian champion Madeline Schizas having “one of her stronger seasons since 2022,” according to Slipchuk.
Schizas has placed 13th (2021, 2023) and 12th (2022) at worlds. Last year, however, the 21-year-old from Oakville, Ont., finished a disappointing 18th on home soil and lost the national title.
This season, she finished just over one point off the podium at Skate Canada with a near personal best, which bodes well for 2025 with the Olympics on the horizon.
"With the women, we feel a lot better of where they've been tracking,” Slipchuk said. “With the scores that Maddie has put up this year, she's in the game with those in the top 10.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 4, 2025.
Daniel Rainbird, The Canadian Press