By Dylan Nazareth

Ontario’s David Bondar journey to Junior Worlds this year was not a typical one.

Grayson Long was originally selected for Canada’s sole men’s singles spot, but had to withdraw the week before the competition due to injury. Listed as an alternate, Bondar was all of a sudden just days away from getting on a flight to Tallinn to represent his country.

“I wasn’t really training programs after Nationals until the day I found out (I was going to Junior Worlds), which was the Tuesday before,” Bondar shared, speaking with Skate Ontario. “I feel like the jumps were in really good shape, I was training them, but I wasn’t doing programs. So the stamina wasn’t as good as it was before Nationals. Once I started training the programs, they were actually a lot better than I had expected.
I did a couple clean short runthroughs and the free programs were actually pretty good as well.”

It was an unexpected turn of events so close to the competition, but the last minute call was also somewhat of a blessing in disguise for the young skater.

“I feel like from the mental side of it, I was a lot more relaxed,” Bondar said. “I viewed this as an opportunity, rather than putting a lot of pressure on myself. I feel like that was part of the reason why I did pretty well there.”

Bondar skated to a 14th place finish in Tallinn, setting a new personal best score of 202.06. It’s a 10-point improvement from the number that landed him in 17th at the competition a year prior. Now with eyes on his first full senior season, he’s focused on building on that strong result.

“I feel like it gave me a lot of confidence that I could still go out and skate relatively clean, even though I had only roughly four days of training programs,” he said. “That gives me a lot of confidence for next year. Of course, I want to really work on the quads and I want to include them in my programs. And if the triple axel and all the other triples are so easy for me, then I think next year, it should be pretty easy to just put in a quad.”

At Junior Worlds, Bondar landed his triple axel three times–including as part of a combo with a triple toe in his free–all with positive GOE. The confidence in his jumps is showing, and he’s ready to add a rotation. Beyond that, Bondar is determined to improve his artistry and technical presentation as well heading into next year.

“I feel like in terms of skating skills, (my goal is) to do one warm up session of just edge exercises every day,” he said. “From the presentation point of view, I would say just skating with more of a presence, with my back straight and my eyes looking up. As well as working on little choreographic tricks.”

While Bondar plans to make the full move to seniors next season, he has already crossed off his debut at one major competition: Senior Nationals. After winning the junior men’s title at Skate Canada Nationals in 2024, Bondar competed in front of a packed house amongst Canada’s best men’s skaters this season. Despite nerves, he held it together for a seventh-place finish, with a total score of 211.83.

“Since it was my first Senior Nationals and it was an Olympic year with an almost sold-out stadium, I felt like I had a lot of pressure on myself,” he shared. “I’m really proud of what I did in the short program, because I was very nervous. I knew what was at stake and I knew everyone was watching, so I was happy to put out such a great short. In general, I feel like it was a learning experience, where it was my first time performing in a really filled out stadium. I’m happy that I managed to sort of manage that pressure really well.”

Skating out of the Granite Club, Bondar trains alongside Team Canada’s Stephen Gogolev. The 2026 National Champion just had a breakout season, finishing fifth at the Olympic Games, then fourth at the World Championships, powered by a strong repertoire of quad jumps. As Bondar looks to chart his own course among the best in the world, he shared what he’s learned from Gogolev. 

“I feel like Stephen is a really big inspiration,” Bondar said. “I see him every day, I talk with him. He’s one of my best friends. I feel like watching him train, I’ve learned that sometimes less is more.
Like, you don’t have to do three sessions every single day. If you go out and you do two programs very well, then you can just sort of lay off and save your energy for the next day. He’s shown me that it’s better to train efficiently and less, than more and having more mistakes and being tired.”

Bondar graduated high school this year and is now planning to take a gap year to focus on skating. The 19-year-old shared that he already took some time off after Nationals, and since Junior Worlds was “an extra thing that wasn’t really part of the plan,” he’s already hard at work back in training. He has eyes on some competitions this summer, but is still working out those details.