Parkite Chase Rohner and his junior figure skater partner, Jasmine Robertson, will compete in their first International Skating Union Junior World Championships starting March 4.
The pair has competed together for just over a year and already found success in the sport. Rohner and Robertson took home a first and third place finish in the 2025 Junior Grand Prix — their international debut — and earned silver in the 2026 U.S. Junior Championships.
To prepare for the Junior World Championships in Estonia, 17-year-old Robertson said they are practicing daily at the Novi Ice Arena in Michigan.
“We're probably like, three to four hours on the ice itself,” she said in a rink-side phone interview with KPCW. “However, we do off-ice, we have all the recovery stuff that we need to do and just being mindful of how we take care of our bodies.”
Rohner, 18, said repetition is important for their skating discipline: ice dance. The competition mirrors ballroom dancing and is focused on skating in unison. There’s also more emphasis on turns rather than jumps.
“Doing the same thing a bunch, trying to do it better every time, just helps to build up the strength and confidence going into the competition,” he said.
The pair is also drawing inspiration from the 2026 Olympics, which wrapped up Feb. 22.
Robertson said Olympic figure skating is her Super Bowl; she’s glued to the TV watching ice dancers. Rohner said U.S. 2026 Olympic ice dance team Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik were especially inspirational. They train at the same rink as Rohner and Robertson.
Robertson, who grew up in Tennessee, agreed and said it’s motivating to regularly see Olympic-level skaters in action.
“They're, like, whipping around the rink really fast and that kind of promotes you to be like, ‘Oh, I gotta get going, like, I gotta skate to their level,’” she said. “They're super kind people and they reach out to you and say, ‘Oh, good job, guys.’ So I think that also helps us feel that, yeah, we can do this.”
Robertson, who’s aiming to be an Olympian one day, said that makes her dream feel more attainable.
Rohner told KPCW last year that he wasn’t sure he wanted to work toward becoming an Olympian. But given the pair’s success so far, he said that’s starting to change.
“I do feel more motivated to go towards that, I think, than at the start of the season, partly just from competing more, progressing through this season on our own and watching other people,” he said.
The Junior World Championships are March 4-7. Rohner and Robertson will compete March 6 in rhythm dance and March 7 in free dance.
