Entries/Byes to 2025-26 Skate Canada Challenge/Canadian Nationals

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2025-26 Byes to Skate Canada Challenge/Canadian Nationals Tracker

I update the Google Doc frequently with the byes, and add in any CTES that the skaters have obtained.

Entries to Skate Canada Challenge

Qualifying Minimum Score

For a skater to qualify to Skate Canada Challenge, they will need to obtain the Qualifying Minimum Score (QMS). It is the TES in the free skate/free dance. For Juniors/Seniors, it will need to be obtained between July 1 of the preceding season and Challenge.

The exception is if a section has no entries that have met the QMS in a category. The QMS will be waived in that category and they will be allowed one entry. If the entry is a Senior, they will need to meet the QMS before or at Challenge to be eligible for Nationals.

For 2025-26, the QMS is:

	Men	Women	Pairs	Ice Dance
Junior	35.5	35.5	28	24
Senior	44.5	40	38	40

Quota of Entries

Each section has their quota of entries to Challenge and it is reviewed on a regular basis. For 2025-26, the normal quota of entries is:

Men/Women:

Section	BC/YK	AB/NT/NU	SK	MB	ON	QC	NB	NS	PE	NL/LAB
Junior	5	4	2	2	14	8	2	2	2	2
Senior	5	3	2	2	14	8	2	2	2	2

Pairs and Ice Dance:

Section	BC/YK	AB/NT/NU	SK	MB	ON	QC	NB	NS	PE	NL/LAB
Junior/Senior	5	3	2	2	14	8	2	2	2	2

Guests competing at Sectional Championships

In some cases, skaters may choose to compete at a sectionals that is not their own section. This can be due to training location (for example, they represent Manitoba but train outside of it.) The other section must be in agreement and the section the guest is representing must be listed.

Guests from other ISU members are ineligible to compete at Sectional Championships.

Byes

For skaters/teams that are assigned to a Senior or Junior international competition by Skate Canada (not including Senior Grand Prix), they will have a bye to Challenge. They will not count against their sections quota of entries, although they still can compete at sectionals.

For skaters assigned to a Junior international competition (Junior Grand Prix/Junior B), their bye is conditional upon competing at sectionals. Their placement at sectionals will have no bearing on their bye, they only need to compete to confirm their bye. The exception is if they are assigned to a Junior international that is within 14 days of sectionals (Icechallenge will fulfill that this season.)

If a skater with a bye to Nationals chooses to compete at Challenge, their placement will have no bearing on their entry to Nationals or their start order.

New 2025-26 - Additional Entries to Challenge

New for the 2025-26 season is a change to qualification to Challenge for Junior Women only. A select number of skaters will qualify based on National Ranking. This will be after the skaters who qualify through sectionals or through byes are taken into consideration. Up to 6 skaters can qualify through this and it will start from the highest National Ranking after the skaters who qualified through sectionals or byes. The skaters will need to have achieved the QMS for Junior Women (35.5 TES in the free skate.)

This will be done with the size of the warm-up groups taken into consideration, with no more than 42 entries allowed (7 warm-up groups.)

 

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Entries to Canadian Nationals

Entries to Nationals are chosen from Challenge based on placement after taking into consideration the number of skaters/teams with byes to Nationals. The number of entries for each category is:

Men	18
Women	18
Ice Dance	15
Pairs	12

The number of entries is the same for both Juniors and Seniors. If there is a skater who receives a medical bye to Nationals, they will be in addition to the total number of entries. For example, Ksenia Krouzkevitch had a bye to Junior Women for 2024-25 Nationals which made the number of entries for the category 19 instead of 18.

A category at Challenge will be mandatory if there are more entries to Challenge than there are available entries to Nationals. This will usually be the Junior and Senior Women.

Entries for Synchronized Skating are based on Regional Synchronized Skating Championships. Each region has their quota of entries to Nationals:

REGION	Mountain	Prairie	Ontario	Quebec	Atlantic
Senior Elite 12, Junior, and Senior	2	1	5	4	1

Start Orders
For the short program/rhythm dance, start orders are determined first by reverse order of World Standings of entries with byes to Nationals (not including medical.) The highest ranked skater will skate last.

Then for skaters who competed at Challenge, it will be reverse order of Challenge placement. The highest ranked skater at Challenge who doesn't have a bye to Nationals will be the last to skate before the skaters with byes. Then it will be random draw for skaters who did not compete at Challenge and do not have a non-medical bye to Nationals.

In Junior Pairs for example, Quattrocchi/Lacasse will be the last to skate in the short program as they have a bye to Nationals. Before them will be the winner of Skate Canada Challenge.

For Synchro, it will be reverse order of World Standings and then random draw for teams without standings.

Byes
For non-medical byes, they can be earned in the following ways:

• Top three placement at the 2024-25 Nationals
• Assignment to a Senior Grand Prix
• Top three at any of the previous three World Figure Skating Championships and/or immediately prior Olympic Games in the same discipline
• Qualification to Junior Grand Prix Final
• Assignment to an international competition within 7 days of Skate Canada Challenge (Warsaw Cup/Golden Spin of Zagreb this season.)

Byes for Pairs and Ice Dance teams are earned by the team and do not carry over to a new team.

The language for medical byes has been updated for the 2025-26 season:

Extraordinary circumstance Byes to Skate Canada Challenge or the Canadian Figure Skating Championships at any level may be granted by Skate Canada. Such Byes will only be granted in extraordinary circumstances and are typically related to medical conditions. In all cases, the skater must have demonstrated through technical scores earned domestically and/or internationally that they are deserving of a Bye in terms of their level of performance.

Byed competitor(s) will be in addition to the designated maximum number of competitors in the relevant Event. Requests for consideration for a Bye must be made in writing to the Skate Canada CEO and must contain a description of the grounds upon which such Bye is being requested, with satisfactory evidence provided to support the request, including a satisfactory Return to Play Plan. All requests and documentation must be submitted no later than one week following withdrawal from the Event.

 

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Domestic Age Requirements

I decided to add this in since there will likely be some discussion over ages of skaters in some categories and their eligibility. Canada has its own age requirements for domestic competitions, some of which were instituted for this season. They can be found in Competition Program Requirements - Podium Pathway (which also includes the required elements for programs.)

Category	Junior Domestic Age Requirement	Senior Domestic Age Requirement
Singles	Competitors must not have reached the age of 19 before July 1 preceding the competition	Competitors must have reached the age of 13 before July 1 preceding the competition.
Pairs	No age requirements for competitions in Canada	Competitors must have reached the age of 13 before July 1 preceding the competition.
Ice Dance	Competitors must not have reached the age of 21 before July 1 preceding the competition.	Competitors must have reached the age of 13 before July 1 preceding the competition.
Synchro	Must meet ISU Junior age criteria (skaters must have reached the age of 13 but must not have reached the age of 19 before July 1 preceding the competition).	Skaters must have reached at least the age of 17 as of July 1 preceding the competition

Skaters are not required to move up to Senior if they win Nationals as a Junior. For example, Anthony Paradis and Edward Vasii both competed at Nationals as Juniors after winning Junior Men. It may be the expectation that they move up, but it is not required that they do so.

There is one level that does require moving up after national competitions, Novice at Skate Canada Trophy:

No one may compete in the same discipline (singles, pairs, ice dance) in the same Novice Event at the Skate Canada Trophy if they have placed in the top six twice in previous seasons.

For moving down (Senior -> Junior), this is what is in the rules and applies to Ice Dance/Pairs:

One of a pair or ice dance team placing first, second or third in a Senior Canadian Event discipline may not enter the same Event discipline in the Junior Category at the Canadian Figure Skating Championships with a different partner in a subsequent year.

Examples of moving down include Marty Haubrich (competing Junior Pairs this season after competing Senior with Cristina Lyons in 2024-25), Charlie Anderson (competed Senior Ice Dance in 2023-24 before teaming up with Cayden Dawson in 2024-25) and Gauthier/Thieren (competed Senior in 2023-24, moved to Junior in 2024-25 with the age change in Junior Ice Dance, now are Senior after aging out.)

 

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New update for 2025-26 Challenge qualification announced today!

In addition to the Junior Women who qualify through sectionals or through a bye, a select number of additional entries can qualify through National Ranking. This can be up to 6 skaters (subject to determining the appropriate warm-up groups) added, with a maximum of 42 total entries at Challenge. That makes for a maximum of 7 warm-up groups. They will have needed to earn the TES minimum (35.5 in the free skate), and will be in order of highest ranked.

Sections will be informed of those additional entries on November 14th. I'm not sure how the National Ranking will work. I'll edit this into the main post, I felt it deserved its own post.