By: Dylan Nazareth

It’s the most wonderful (and stressful) time of year for Canada’s top figure skaters, as nationals kicks off in Gatineau this week.

Ontario pairs skaters Jazmine Desrochers and Kieran Thrasher enter the competition fresh off a personal best score of 162.90 at the Junior Grand Prix Final in December. It was a big confidence boost for the young duo, who are now looking to build off that success this week.

“We were pretty happy coming back from the Final,” Desrochers said, speaking in a recent interview. “It was the first free program that we got to put out something similar to what we do in training, which I think at the end of the day was something we were very proud of. The short program obviously wasn’t what we could do, so we’re happy that we get to have a second go at that at nationals.”

Desrochers and Thrasher will be competing in the Senior discipline this year for the second time. And while that can carry some additional weight, they aren’t feeling too much pressure heading into this one.

“We don’t really have that many expectations towards this competition,” Desrochers said. “We really just want to set out new personal bests and put out solid programs, just build for the following competitions and for the rest of the season.”

Part of that calm demeanour comes with their eyes set on a bigger target down the road, with nationals as a stepping stone towards their ultimate goal.

“Our focus is definitely on Junior Worlds this year,” Thrasher said.

“We want to do really well at Junior Worlds to be able to put us in the best place possible for next season,” Desrochers added.

Last year in their Junior Worlds debut as a pair, the duo skated to an eighth-place finish, earning a total score they’ve now bested by over 15 points. Skating more consistently this season, they’re looking to put out a big showing on the world stage in Estonia in March.

But first they want to put out two clean programs this week. Their short is skated to a Black Eyed Peas medley, a hip hop inspired performance that they’ve continued to find their footing in throughout the year.

“There’s always things that we want to work on with our short, but I’d say we’re definitely a lot more comfortable with it,” Thrasher said. “Even with our performance at Final, we still managed to get all of our levels in the program. And our PCS, obviously it was affected a little bit, but it was still overall pretty decent for what we did. It shows that obviously we’re comfortable with the program, but there are still things that we want to work on.”

Meanwhile, their free program this year is carried over from last season, skated to “Since I’ve Been Loving You” by Led Zeppelin. The routine has improved steadily all season, culminating in a personal best score of 108.45 at JGP Final. It was once a daunting program for the duo, but with all their hard work it’s now shining in competition.

“We’ve really grown into the free program this past year,” Desrochers said. “I think having it be a second year program as well gives us some mileage to it.”

“The mentality towards it has shifted from last year,” Thrasher added. “We don’t really look at our free program like some scary thing anymore. It’s more like another program that we get to do.”

“It’s definitely not as overwhelming anymore,” Desrochers agreed. “The elements have gotten so much more solid outside of it that it’s really not so scary anymore.”

Feeling calm, composed, and comfortable in their skating, Desrochers and Thrasher are ready to take on nationals this week. Pairs skating gets underway on Friday night, with Desrochers and Thrasher set to skate third.