2025–26 Canadian Ice Dance: News and Updates

[Dobre]

I think Z&K are just particularly interesting to PRlady. (Mind you, I think Z&K noticeably improved this season & kudos to them for that, regardless of international placing).

I don't think there can be a comparison with The Shibs. The Shibs medaled during a season after the Olympics. There's little to no turnover between a season like that & the next. Also, Davis & White were USA's number one and didn't retire.

ETA: Also, GOE wasn't worth 300 million more points than base value in those days.

 

[pointbleu]

I think we’re also only seeing Romains side of the story. If I remember correctly, Marjorie and Zak at one point mentioned how alone they felt last off season.

The truth is somewhere in the middle and I think it’s likely it wasn’t working out for any of the parties.

While I don’t think it’s necessarily the responsibility of the coaching staff, I do think if you’re going to pay them that much money they should at least help salvage the relationship, or maybe push for them to go elsewhere to see if it’s the relationship or just stagnation.

I just personally can’t get over Romain refusing to acknowledge any responsibility when this team has been with them for 15 years— since they were children!! I don’t want to even know how much money they’ve paid to IAM in that time period.

Nahhhh… Julien Lalonde was their first coach.

People tend to forget that they had already split before their first junior year.

Here is what Wikipedia says : «
She formed an ice dance partnership with Zachary Lagha in 2011, coached by Julien Lalonde, Mylène Girard, and Valérie Allard in Saint-Hubert, Quebec.

After winning the national pre-novice title in the 2013–14 season, they moved up to the novice level for 2014–15. They won the silver medal at the Skate Canada Challenge, and then won the gold medal at the 2015 Canadian Championships. Lagha said of the achievement: "We worked very hard for this. It came with work. No work. No results. » The following month, they competed at the 2015 Canada Winter Games, winning the gold medal.
Lajoie and Lagha at the 2016 World Junior Championships
Following their novice title win, the two ended their partnership, later stating that they had different ideas at the time. Lajoie briefly formed a new partnership with Anton Spiridonov, but the two never progressed beyond training.Subsequently, Lagha transferred to train with Marie-France Dubreuil, who encouraged them to reunite in the summer of 2015. They then moved to train with Dubreuil, Patrice Lauzon, Romain Haguenauer, and Pascal Denis in Montreal.

 

[Katha]

Sad, but perhaps not that surprising. It is a shame because they are both so talented. And yeah, it is probably a mix of frustration with not being first priority for their coaches, all-around politiking and differences in personalities/goals.

The personality mismatch was bleeding through in performances, program selection and also in their demeanor towards each other in the last years IMO. That's not something that the coaches can solve for them. At IAM in particular it seems to me that teams fare well who know who they are as ice dancers. If there's no clear vision from the skaters themselves how to present themselves, IAM can't do that for them. FB/C, C/B, F/G, Smart/Dieck, whatever you may think of their styles....they have clear aesthetic approaches and ideas about themselves as performers.

That seemed a bit muddled to me in the last years with La/La.

 

[withwings]

I never have been interested into ID discipline, so it is not a good idea to engage in any conversation here from my part. Nerveless, I have heard that it is almost official that Marjorie is with Jean- Luc and Zachary with Hannah.

 

[Alilou]

OMG Marjorie and Jean-Luc

ETA: He's been living in Montreal since 2018 so must at least have Canadian permanent residence. Getting citizenship should be relatively easy.

 

[chantilly]

Jean Luc and Marjorie is very interesting

 

[chantilly]

Zach and Hannah seems like a step down for him and a step up for her.
I'm not sure this will blend and match as she seems outwardly performative and him inwardly so.

 

[Marta24]

I think Zach and Hannah are probably a team that the judges are going to love. Very Chock/Bates-esque. I'm personally more intrigued by Marjorie and Jean-Luc. Incredible skating skills, but with a lot of unrealized talent.

 

[kwanfan1818]

Virtue and Moir weren't always on the same page, either. He said that she was sold on Funny Face watching Fred Astaire movies while she was recovering from Compartment Syndrome, and that it wasn't his thing. But she really wanted it, and he decided to give it to her.

Once he decided, he was all in. Teams can decide to trade off from one partner's preference to another's in successive years and be successful, if that's where their heads are.

ETA: Baker hasn't competed for the US since 22-23. USFS had better release him, assuming this is/becomes official.

 

[teraytan]

I find it hard to believe JLB is pairing up with Marjo? She has 2 Olympic quads ahead of her and he's turning 33 this year and hasn't competed in 3 years. He's also been recently in Europe doing a workshop and is now accompanying Olivia to her events. Certainly feels like the action of someone retired rather than someone coming back to competition with a new partner.

 

[marbri]

I find it hard to believe JLB is pairing up with Marjo? She has 2 Olympic quads ahead of her and he's turning 33 this year and hasn't competed in 3 years. He's also been recently in Europe doing a workshop and is now accompanying Olivia to her events. Certainly feels like the action of someone retired rather than someone coming back to competition with a new partner.

Agree. Taking that rumour with a grain of salt.

But fwiw I think there is some rewriting of history going on by some people about the skaters plans and I think this decision by LaLa was only made post Milan after some really tough conversations. So JLB would continue with plans he had already made and Marjorie was touring with SOI until the last few days.

I am more inclined to believe the Hannah and Zach rumour which could explain the recent rumours about LaLa at SOI because she could be hurt he found a replacement so quickly. But regardless of what some people want to put out there Margorie and Zach were talking about their 2030 goals with the past season so this is a result of their results this season (well from 4CC's 2025 and onward)

 

[manhn]

But we as fans and Skate Canada have precedent of successful Canadian ice dance teams having to overcome periods of poor results (then doing so). Their coaches are examples of that. So, if this is all because of a couple of disappointing seasons, then that’s a poor reflection on them. I’d rather they just don’t enjoy skating with each other.

 

[miffy]

The bit I’m struggling to believe is Romain saying they are close friends. Why would they practice separately at SOI if they were still that friendly?

 

[Aceon6]

The whole LaLa thing has me thinking of couples who stay together for the kids. It’s hard to hold up pretenses for that long, but I could see the gradual decline after Montreal Worlds. FWIW, I was on the concourse with Team Marjorie and there was no sign of Zac or his crew. At the time, it struck me as odd that she was there for over an hour with people waiting to congratulate THEM, yet he was conspicuously absent.

 

[litenkyckling]

I think part of the issue with LaLa and IAM is that IAM aren't great at the juniors into seniors transition. Yes, Marjo and Zak are adults, but for them to "find their voice" and feel confident to express that, that takes encouragement and a change of dynamic from the coaches. Moving from coaches and clear adults and voice of experience in the room to mentors and collaborators seems to be a sticky point for IAM. They can do both of these things but seemingly not with the same team.

 

[kirkbiggestfan]

Loicia Demougeot in her last Instagram post: "P.S.: We have no plans to break up, so please, let’s stop the speculation on this topic."
We get to the point where partnerships have to "confirm" that they are not breaking up.

 

[Belsornia]

The bit I’m struggling to believe is Romain saying they are close friends. Why would they practice separately at SOI if they were still that friendly?

Yeah, I thought they were never particularly close and didn’t hang out off ice. (Which is fine; at this level it’s a professional relationship and no-one has to be besties with their skating partner.)

 

[aprilediv]

The bit I’m struggling to believe is Romain saying they are close friends. Why would they practice separately at SOI if they were still that friendly?

Romain speaks in PR language. It's pretty evident in how he speaks about FB/C too. Take everything with a grain of salt.

 

[angi]

They are (validly, IMO) being brought up because their sudden rise this season was discouraging to many second-tier teams (i.e., anyone below C/B, G/P, and FB/C) that had been competing at Worlds for many years and were not only "waiting in line", but were also, quite frankly, better skaters than Z/K. (Okay, perhaps not better than Vadym alone, but better skaters as teams than Z/K are together at this point in their careers.) With FB/C seemingly continuing and Z/K as the new anointed ones, they saw where the wind was blowing and didn't like what they saw. Is it possible that Z/K will experience the same issues that the Shibs faced when they won a bronze medal at Worlds and then didn't medal again for several seasons? Yes, especially given the Golden Waltz being part of next year's RD. Is it also possible that Igor and the USFS will politik them into becoming the new favourites after FB/C? Also yes.

I strongly agree with this one. In all aspects, L/L are a stronger team than Z/K are, yet we are supposed to believe Z/K should be scoring 10 points above L/L at worlds when L/L had the slight edge in Base value overall, and neither team made a prominent error? Or that Smart/Dieck, Fear/Gibson, and Reed/Ambrulevicius (to name a few) should be outscoring L/L consistently as they did these past two seasons? It's ice dance at its absolute worst (even if I agree that L/L's RD this season wasn't good).

What Romain said, while heavy on PR messages, did make me wonder about their creative process. The 2022/23 and 2023/24 seasons were very successful in terms of their creative process, yet quite similar. I then wondered why they kept the same creative line (fast pacing and borderline campy RD, introvert and semi-lyrical FD) in 2024/25 and 2025/26 but with (much) less successful ideas, and I think Romain is basically telling us that it's the only creative path they could agree on and there's only so much you can do with it before it gets stale.

I guess it ended up being too hard for both to make a difficult partnership work when the reward did not come. And I can't blame them, considering that if anyone told me after the 2022 Olympics that they would go from finishing 13th in 2022 to finishing only 10th in 2026, I would have thought they were crazy.

 

[jmtfti]

Zachary has posted his statement (I guess that "I'll say more on Tuesday" thing from Russian skating fandom was also accurate): https://www.instagram.com/lagha_zak/p/DYPZaHJR9vr/

 

[jlai]

I am not a big LL fan and I still feel so sad.
I want all talented teams to have one shot at medals and they are screwed of a championship medal in general

 

[dramagrrl]

If the rumours about Marjo and Jean-Luc are true, I think this would be a poor decision on her part. She is only 25, while he is almost 33. He has had injuries in the past and hasn't competed since 2022. I know he is an excellent skater, but unless she is hoping for instant success (which would not be guaranteed at all given the factors I mentioned above), I think she would be better off pairing with a partner similar to her age who may not be at her level yet, but might get there with time.

 

[pointbleu]

The whole LaLa thing has me thinking of couples who stay together for the kids. It’s hard to hold up pretenses for that long, but I could see the gradual decline after Montreal Worlds. FWIW, I was on the concourse with Team Marjorie and there was no sign of Zac or his crew. At the time, it struck me as odd that she was there for over an hour with people waiting to congratulate THEM, yet he was conspicuously absent.

This. It has been this way for too long. Enjoying the process is as much important than the results…

 

[haribobo]

So for now...

Gilles/Poirier (maybe?)
Lim/Lagha (perhaps?)
Lajoie/Baker (possibly?)
Lauriault/LeGac
Robinson /Portz
Fournier /Zhu
Nguyen /Giang
Korneva/McDonald
Bashynska /Perron
Urban /Beaumont
Veillon/Brandys

But yea please send any corrections, its a mess

 

[deegee]

Loicia Demougeot in her last Instagram post: "P.S.: We have no plans to break up, so please, let’s stop the speculation on this topic."
We get to the point where partnerships have to "confirm" that they are not breaking up.

thank GODDDDDD

 

[cholla]

Loicia Demougeot in her last Instagram post: "P.S.: We have no plans to break up, so please, let’s stop the speculation on this topic."
We get to the point where partnerships have to "confirm" that they are not breaking up.

I know a certain coach who is literally fuming and who'd very much like to know where the rumor came from...

 

[Karen-W]

I know a certain coach who is literally fuming and who'd very much like to know where the rumor came from...

It came from FSTW - just a ton of stupid, idle speculation based on incomplete information about what is going on in skaters' lives based upon their social media activity.

 

[DE93]

I never have been interested into ID discipline, so it is not a good idea to engage in any conversation here from my part. Nerveless, I have heard that it is almost official that Marjorie is with Jean- Luc and Zachary with Hannah.

Haven't read past this post, but I would be very careful spreading the rumours you hear on twitter and reddit. I wouldn't put any stock in either of these as partnerships unless and until the skaters themselves say so.

 

[overedge]

Didn't Skate Canada run into some legal trouble when they tried to stop Soucisse and Firus from switching to Ireland? It's possible that SC doesn't want a repeat of that and have decided to not block any future releases.

Yes. Soucisse and Firus went on the Skate Canada website and, not unreasonably, followed the release application process that was described there. But SC had updated the process and not bothered to post the new on the website, and denied the release application because it didn't follow the current procedure. The Skate Canada policy also basically left the length of the waiting period up to the Skate Canada CEO, while the ISU policy at the time stated a waiting period of 12 months.

Soucisse and Firus took their case to arbitration, and the arbitrator ruled that they should be released.
Arbitrator's decision https://crdsc-sdrcc.ca/resource_centre/pdf/English/1053_SDRCC 23-0633.pdf

 

[cholla]

It came from FSTW - just a ton of stupid, idle speculation based on incomplete information about what is going on in skaters' lives based upon their social media activity.

I bet FSTW stands for FS Twitter I'm not on Twitter and that's one more reason to think Iwaw right to delete my (personal) account!