Winnipeg pair skaters among world’s rising stars

When the International Skating Union announced its 2026 Grand Prix of Figure Skating entry lists last week, it described the global series as “world-class competition featuring many of the sport’s biggest names alongside a new generation of rising stars.”

Winnipeggers Ava Kemp and Yohnatan Elizarov, who graduated from the junior ranks as the 2026 world pair champions, are among those rising stars. Their senior-level Grand Prix debut will mark the official start to their four-year build towards the 2030 Olympic Winter Games.

Kemp, who turns 18 on Wednesday, and Elizarov, 22, will open at Skate Canada International in Kelowna, B.C., at the end of October, the second of six events on the circuit. Their teammates, world bronze medallists and Canadian champions Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud, are the top seeds in that event.

Two weeks later, the Winnipeg duo is slated to compete at Skate America in Washington state alongside Germany’s world champions and Olympic bronze medallists Minerva Hase and Nikita Volodin.

“That’ll be cool,” Kemp said. “I don’t think we have huge result goals. We want to push ourselves to be the best we can stepping onto the senior circuit, but I don’t think we’re expecting to beat these top teams this year.

“I think it’s a little different than junior when we were kind of expecting to be at the top and push forward to, like, be the best in junior versus in senior, we’re going to be looking up to other teams more and pushing to catch up to them. Using them as inspiration and them pushing us, it’s a little bit of a different perspective,” she said on Monday ahead of morning training at Toronto’s Granite Club, their home base for the past three years.

The world’s elite singles, pairs and ice dance competitors each compete in two events in the series held in France, Canada, China, the U.S., Finland and Japan. Competitors earn points based on their placements and the top six finishers in each discipline qualify for the Grand Prix Final in Chongqing, China, in December.

“I think Ava and I are going to be pretty comfortable at the Grands Prix,” Elizarov said, noting they competed in senior company last season at the Canadian and Four Continents championships.

“We’re happy we did that last year because it’s given us an introduction to senior and we’ll be doing two or three senior (tune-up) competitions before the Grand Prix, so we’ll be ready.”

The later start for senior Grand Prix competition combined with their North American assignments will be quite a change for the couple accustomed to travelling to Europe and Asia for the junior events which begin in August.

“We’re pretty excited about (our assignments) and kind of glad that we’re not going out of continent and then coming back. Staying in Canada and then going to the Grand Prix in the U.S., we don’t have to do a big time change like if we did Finland and then China or something,” Elizarov noted.

Canada’s 2024 world champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps are not slated to compete together in the fall series, if again. Deschamps had signalled that the 2026 Olympic season would be his last and Stellato-Dudek is thought to be searching for a new partner among a very small pool of suitable candidates.

Their parting of the ways and the split of Canada’s third-ranked team elevates Kemp and Elizarov to number-two status nationally — at least on paper.

After enjoying their respective spring vacations — she with her family in Greece, he on a guys’ road trip to the mega amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio — the two athletes have been back training now for several weeks and adjusting to new ISU rules regarding pair skating’s technical elements.

A choreographic pair spin and one choreographic lift in addition to two other traditional lifts have been mandated for the long program. The change is intended to spur innovation and enhance performance quality.

“We’re changing both of our lifts (from last season) so we’re learning three new lifts and the choreo spin, so we’re really focusing on that and on our programs, too,” Elizarov said, noting they won’t show “any kind of crazy position” in the choreo lift.

“We’re just trying to match something to the music which I think is a big requirement. It’s more of a crowd-pleaser, something the judges would like to see.”

Choreographers Jeff Buttle, Sandra Bezic and David Wilson created their new programs last month, and the pair is now focusing on refining the transitions and running sections of the routines to build cardio strength.

“Training’s going well. We’re very happy with our progress so far. Our lifts are coming along. We’re healthy, doing well,” Elizarov concluded.

The duo’s ultimate goal for the 2026-27 season is to be selected to compete at their first senior world championship in Finland next March.

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