Ice Skating International Online has uploaded video of the post-FS press conference on their YT channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKY-U6D-vVk
Copying out the ISU's Press Conference highlights document:
Ava Kemp/Yohnatan Elizarov (CAN) ISU Junior World Champions 2026
Kemp (on today's performance): I think going into today we weren't really that nervous. I felt pretty good in practice
this morning, overnight, last night, everything like that, and then getting into the long program was a bit different. I
haven't really felt like that before. And then [I was] slightly disappointed in our skate. It was okay, it wasn't bad, but
yeah, definitely not what we planned for. I wasn't sure what other skaters had done and whatnot, so I honestly had no
clue what was gonna happen. (on being the first Canadian pair to win Junior Worlds since Barbara Underhill/Paul
Martini in 1978) I think that means everything to us. Barb and Paul - we met them this year. They used to skate where
we train, like the same club and everything, so they came to our ice show and watched us and we talked to them a bit
and our choreographer Sandra [Bezic] worked with them too and we have like a move in our long program that's from
them so it means a lot. (on how the experience and success this season will motivate for the future) I think this season,
especially going into the JGPs and stuff, we had a goal of working more on our bottom score, components, skating skills,
all of that, and our interpretation of the music. That's something that we want to continue to push because we know
that that's something we have to work on to be seniors. I think our big goal for this season was to kind of figure out the
mindsets that we need going into competitions, how we can focus on ourselves, and how we can improve every time.
I think we are somewhat successful in all of that, so we're excited to keep moving forward with that.
Elizarov (on having 2 Canadian pairs on the podium here) And I just want to say we've been competing against each
other, or with each other, for like three, four years. So I think the fact that we ended on such a high is really something
we should be really proud of ourselves for that! (On plans for next season, improve on in the off season) I think we're
going to move up to seniors just because we've been in junior for four years. We have one more year in junior, so we'll
see what happens next year because you can also do like the Georgians [Metelkina/Berulava] that did senior Grand
Prixs and Junior Worlds. But we're happy to move on to senior. We did three senior competitions this year - [2025 Ice
Challenge in Graz] Austria, Nationals, and Four Continents and we're pretty happy with how that went and we want to
be up there with those other senior teams. (on which senior pair teams they're most excited to compete with and
which ones do they look up to) Well, after Olympic year, so many teams retire, so we don't really know who will compete
against next year. But I would say at Four Continents this year, we were with Sui/Han, and they're so good.
We really look up to the Germans [Hase/Volodin] and Max and Deanna [Stellato-Dudek/Deschamps].
Jazmine Desrochers / Kieran Thrasher (CAN), ISU Junior World silver medalists 2026
Desrochers: (on whether they felt pressure skating last today) I think at the end of the day we're just happy to have
been able to be here and putting up that short program was really a big step for us this season so I think we definitely
have stuff to be proud of. I don't think it's ever a [gold] medal lost. I think that we did what we could when we in the
moment; we fought for what we could with what we had. Obviously, I wish that today's skate would have gone better -
that it would have been more similar to what we train at home - but, again, I'm so proud of what we were able to
do. (on having 2 Canadian pairs on the podium) I think it's super cool that we're able to be here and also it's so cool to
be able to be here with them. To be able to share this podium today was really a big win for both of us. (on plans for
next season) We haven't really sat down and talked about it yet. I think this [Junior Worlds] was really the big goal for
this season and tomorrow, and over the next few weeks after a bit of time off, I think we will definitely get to talking
about that. We did a few senior competitions just to kind of dip our toes in the water. We are still eligible for another
[ISU] junior year. This is our third season - he's [Thrasher] had even more experience! I think we are definitely feeling
like we're more ready to move to senior, but we haven't finalized that. (on how the experience and success this
season will motivate for the future) I think we've learned a ton this season. With every competition comes more
experience and more things learned.
Thrasher: (on how the experience and success this season will motivate you for the future) We used this season more
as a learning experience for senior. All of our competitions, we had the same goal - improving GOEs and bottom
[components] score, because we know ultimately in seniors, that's what makes a difference between all the teams
because everyone kind of does the same elements. So just this year we've been trying to improve on that. I think
we've done a pretty good job but we can still definitely work on it. (on which senior pair teams they're most excited
to compete with of the current seniors and which ones they look up to) Like Yoni [Elizarov] said, we don't know the
future of a lot of teams so we'll have to see what happens, but definitely some teams that we look up to are the
Japanese we train with [Riku Miura/Ryuichi Kihara] Olympic champions - I mean who else can you look up to?
Max and Deanna obviously, Lia and Trennt [Pereira/Michaud], but other than those, we don't know what's gonna
happen next year.
Hannah Herrera / Ivan Khobta (UKR), ISU Junior World bronze medalists 2026
Khobta: (on winning a medal here as a new team did you expect to be on the podium on first major event) So my
thoughts are that the pair team who started at their first worlds, not even having a year [in] the partnership just couldn't
expect to succeed that well in competition. However, I think we both can be proud of ourselves due to the path that we
went through and also I want to say thank you to everyone who supported us, Thank you to our coaches and also for
everyone who just was with us and made it happen. (On how their success this season will motivate and set them up
for their first senior season) I think this will definitely help with just introducing ourselves to the judges who were at the
junior worlds and are also going to be [judging] on the senior level. They see that, oh, this team has some potential.
And so I think this will give us a little head start in the seniors as well. The judges can compare it to what we will
deliver in the future. (on which senior pair teams they are most excited to compete with of the current seniors and
which ones they look up to) For me personally, I would like to compete against the Georgian team
[Metelkina/Berulava] again. I competed with them since 2021. I know for this moment, they're really, really on the high
level, like they got the [Olympic] silver medal. My personal goal is to try to improve every single day more and more,
so I can compete with them on the same level. (on why Ukraine has had much success in pairs over the years) Well,
my thoughts are that we have a lot of really, really great skaters. Unfortunately, due to the war, not all of them can stay
till that point where they can go to the international level. So we don't see as many skaters as I would like to see from
Ukraine - not only in pair skating, also in single skating and ice dance. I think we have really amazing specialists who
are able to create from those skaters something good, something great, like good pair teams.
Herrera (on being brand new to pairs this season): I'm just kind of taking it all in, I guess. I just started [training in
pairs] like a year ago, so I didn't know if we were going to make it to this point or anything. So I've just been taking it all
in as I go and trying to gain experience. I'm really thankful to my coaches - Drew [Meekins] and Natalia [Mishkutenok],
my partner Vanya [Ivan Khobta]. He's been really helpful in making sure I'm learning everything. I've just been
enjoying it.
. I don’t know how easy it will be for her to get citizenship but hope she can. I try not to uber pairs but not sure I can fight this one.
But I suppose his citizenship would have taken too long in the U.S. USFS needs to get some more promising developmental pairs in the pipeline. Three spots next year. In any event, I like these two very much!
