Jazz Evangelou
A lot of athletes get scouted at big games for their club or school teams.
Jazz Evangelou was spotted at her friend’s 5th birthday party at an ice rink.
Her first figure skating coach saw she was a natural on the ice, pulled her aside and asked her to give the sport a go.
She was hooked straight away.
"It was just a challenging sport for me and I liked the challenge."
Jazz has been competing at international events since she was 12 years old.
She is immensely proud of representing New Zealand at competitions around the world, including in Australia, China and the United States.
She has had to make more mature decisions at a young age then most of her peers.
She has gained a lot of emotional maturity going on trips alone and dealing with tough losses early on.
"Now if I skate bad, it’s not as bad as it was when I was younger."
The sport has given her amazing opportunities to travel overseas and meet new people from around the world, she says.
That’s why it has been extra tough this year taking time off to get tendon surgery on her ankle, she says.
During the time off, she keeps her head in the game by watching competitions and helping out at skating events where she can.
She is looking forward to being back on the ice at the end of this year.
"I do miss it a lot."
During her time dealing with injury, she has developed an immense respect for physiotherapists and plans to study physiotherapy next year at the University of Otago.
Achievements
New Zealand representative figure skating Oceania championships (2024, 2025); New Zealand representative figure skating Thailand Open — did not attend due to injury (2025); New Zealand representative at figure skating Oceania Championships (2023, 2024); New Zealand representative at figure staking Swan Trophy, Perth, Australia (2024); New Zealand figure skating development squad member (2022, 2023, 2024); New Zealand figure skating international A team (2022, 2023, 2024); 1st Place at figure skating South Island championships (2022, 2024); New Zealand representative at a figure skating international training camp and competition Colardo Springs (2023); New Zealand representative at a figure skating South East Asian Trophy in Singapore (2022); 1st place at figure skating Dunedin Club championships (2022); 1st place at figure skating Otago Southland Club championships (2022).
Role model
Russian figure skater Alexandra Trusova
Hopes for the future
To become a physiotherapist and travel the world
Yui Ishikawa
Yui Ishikawa, 17, loves to be active.
She is the type of person who gets tired from sitting around.
She prefers to stay on her feet, so she plays football for school and the Southern United Football Club.
That means she trains three times a week, plays two games and goes to the gym for strength and conditioning on top of all her school work.
The only way she is able to manage her time is by finishing all her study work at school.
She says she learnt to juggle all her commitments when she was younger doing gymnastics.
Yui has made the New Zealand Secondary Schools football squad for her age group for the past two years.
Her mindset playing football is to do her best every moment she is on the pitch and to never give up.
She has learned how to work with her team on and off the pitch and how to move on from tough situations.
"In football, you’re obviously going to make mistakes because there is a whole 90 minutes, so I had to learn how to shake things off and not take things to deeply."
Knowing that she is improving and her team is going well, keeps her motivated to play hard.
She knew she had to work harder to get recognised in the South Island for football and make bigger teams.
So she has put in more time to make national teams.
She is deciding whether to go to the United States or Japan for football next year.
Achievements
Sports prefect (2025); New Zealand Secondary Schools U19 team non- travelling reserve (2025); Southern United women’s futsal team (2023, 2024, 2025); Member of the Roslyn Wakari South Island league squad (2024, 2025); New Zealand Secondary Schools U17 team non-travelling reserve (2024); NZ ID football training group (2023, 2024); Southern United Football U18 team (2023, 2024); NCEA level 1 and level 2 endorsed with merit (2023, 2024); Young Scholar Award level 1 and level 2 (2023, 2024); Kelly Futsal Trophy best all-round player (2022, 2024); Football player of the year (2023, 2024); McClymont Trophy for most improved long-distance runner (2022); Otago champion U14 team member for cross country (2022); 3rd in girls U14 Otago crosscountry (2022).
Role model
Her parents.
Hopes for the future
To be a professional athlete or a job in economics.
