Boston, USA (March 27, 2025) – Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps fought for their place in the top five pairs at the 2025 ISU World Figure Skating Championships on Thursday at TD Garden in Boston, USA.
The two Canadian athletes, world champions in 2024, rounded out the disicpline’s top five the day after a difficult-to-accept seventh place in the short program. But Stellato-Dudek (Chicago, USA) and Deschamps (Vaudreuil-Dorion, Quebec) did not give up. Instead, their free program score of 132.44 saw them climb two places in the rankings, for a total of 199.76. Japan’s Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara won gold with 219.79 points, followed closely by Germany’s Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin (219.08). Italians Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii (210.47) completed the podium.
“Wednesday was very disappointing, especially since our mistakes occurred in elements where we are excellent,” said Stellato-Dudek. “We wanted to come back strong and rebound. We had nothing to lose and had to fight until the very end. […] We were so far behind after the short program, all we could do was give it our all and that’s what we did.
Canada has now earned spots for two pair teams at the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympic Winter Games. In addition to Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps’ performance, Lia Pereira (Milton, Ontario) and Trennt Michaud (Trenton, Ontario) confirmed a second entry for the Canadian team in Italy by placing 11th on Thursday.
Pereira and Michaud finished the world championships with a total score of 179.50. Canada’s third team in the pair event, Kelly Ann Laurin (Saint-Jérôme, Quebec) and Loucas Éthier (Saint-Alphonse, Quebec), earned a total of 169.55 points to finish 16th overall.
Earlier on Thursday, Roman Sadovsky (Vaughan, Ontario), the only Canadian skater in the men’s event, took 15th place in the short program with a score of 80.25.
“I’m happy with the opening, but I would have liked to landed my triple jump,” said Sadovsky, who will skate in the free program scheduled for Saturday. “Overall, it’s still a positive experience, with the atmosphere of the crowd and all the Canadian flags that we could see.”
The 2025 ISU World Figure Skating Championships will resume on Friday with the rhythm dance, where Piper Gilles (Toronto, Ontario) and Paul Poirier (Unionville, Ontario), silver medalists at the last world championships, will be in action. Marjorie Lajoie (Boucherville, Quebec) and Zachary Lagha (Saint-Hubert, Quebec) as well as Alicia Fabbri (Terrebonne, Quebec) and Paul Ayer (Brossard, Quebec) are also to be watched.
Ranked 6th in the women’s short program, Madeline Schizas (Oakville, Ontario) will be back on the ice at TD Garden for the women’s free program.
Full competition results are available here.