How figure skaters Desrochers and Thrasher became one of Canada’s top young pairs

Canadian figure skaters Kieran Thrasher and Jazmine Desrochers are shown in a Dec., 2024 handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Danielle Earl/Skate Canada

Kieran Thrasher and Jazmine Desrochers didn’t grow up dreaming of figure skating glory at the Olympics.

Yet today, it’s something they can suddenly aim for.

Thrasher remembers being a hockey-crazed 10-year-old and begrudgingly lacing up his figure skates because his mom forced him to join his sisters in lessons.

“Growing up, I hated figure skating,” said Thrasher. “Wanted absolutely nothing to do with it.”

Thrasher, 20, couldn’t have imagined that he and Desrochers would become one of Canada’s most promising young pairs a decade later.

The Canadian duo claimed bronze at the Junior Grand Prix Final for the second consecutive year in December.

They’ll compete in the senior event at this weekend’s Canadian National Skating Championships in Laval, Que., taking on another challenge after shattering expectations for the past two years.

In his hometown rink in Amherstburg, Ont., outside Windsor, Thrasher stickhandled his way up the ranks as a hockey player. Despite his reluctance, figure skating also grew on him.

He was juggling both sports at 15, playing defence for the Sun County Panthers U16 AAA hockey team in southern Ontario while skating pairs part-time in Oakville, Ont., with prominent coach Bruno Marcotte.

“He would come sometimes on Monday morning and sometimes Friday morning, and then he would take the train back just in time to make it for his hockey practice or game,” Marcotte said. “Skating was kind of like an afterthought.”

It was a hectic routine he couldn’t continue. At some point, Thrasher knew he would have to commit to one sport and he let the 2020 Ontario Hockey League draft decide his path.

“I was like, if I get drafted, I’ll do hockey. If I don’t, I’ll do skating,” he said. “I didn’t get drafted, as you can see. So here I am.”

Success quickly followed when Thrasher moved to Oakville a week later. He teamed up with experienced skater Chloe Panetta and the pair won the Canadian junior championship in 2023.

But when Panetta was 19 and set to lose her junior eligibility, Marcotte thought Thrasher needed more time to develop at the junior level.

That’s where Desrochers — also on an unlikely sports path — came in.

Three years ago, the 18-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., was a recreational skater hitting the ice two to three times a week in Oakville. As Marcotte put it, “Skating was like a pastime.”

“I had already decided when I was younger that I didn’t really want to go to the Olympics,” said Desrochers, who started her bachelor of commerce with a major in sports and events management at the University of Guelph last fall. “I wanted to have a social life outside of the rink.”

Desrochers, however, still became frustrated with her lack of progress and her coaches said she needed to commit more time to improve.

She considered hanging her blades up, before giving the sport “one last shot” and skating five days a week with Oakville’s competitive program in the summer of 2022.

That summer, Desrochers landed her double axel and caught Marcotte’s eye as a potential pairs skater.

“I noticed that Jazmine had this amazing personality on the ice, she had so much charisma,” Marcotte said.

Marcotte paired Desrochers and Thrasher in May 2023, after she skated with a different partner for a few months.

“Jazmine went from a rec skater to within like six months skating with somebody and getting ready for a Junior Grand Prix,” Marcotte said. “Everything went really, really, really fast.”

“I’d never gotten on a plane to skate anywhere,” Desrochers added.

Seven months later they shocked themselves with their first bronze at the Junior Grand Prix Final.

“Everything kind of just glued together and it was like, ‘Okay, this is gonna work,’” Desrochers said.

Marcotte says their mature look despite their young age stands out Technically, he believes they possess one of the best triple twists in the game.

The coach also describes their personalities as a perfect match. While the ever-smiling Desrochers brings a contagious energy to the rink, Thrasher “never gets too high, never gets too low.”

“I’m half joking, but if I could clone the two of them, I would clone many of them,” said Marcotte, who has coached multiple world champions. “They’re amazing role models for any skaters. They’re even role models with their attitude to my top senior teams.”

Desrochers and Thrasher say they have no expectations heading into the biggest senior event of their young careers this weekend, other than gaining experience that could help them transition from junior to senior full-time. The duo remains eligible for the junior circuit again next season.

“The goal isn’t to be the best in junior, it’s to be the best in senior,” Thrasher said. “We thought we might as well get a head start on the senior stuff this year in preparation for next year.”

The thought of going to an Olympics only crept into Thrasher’s mind this season. Desrochers, meanwhile, says it’s now a goal, but that they’re focused on gradually improving.

Marcotte thinks the skaters are still coming to grips with what they’re capable of achieving.

“I really believe they can become Olympians,” Marcotte said. “Are they there? No. But do I think they have the potential? Definitely. But even more important than having the potential, they have to believe it.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 14, 2025.

Daniel Rainbird, The Canadian Press