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<\/a>Many skaters will travel to St. Louis, Mo. for Nationals next week. What sets Kaya Tiernan, who turned 16 on September 10, apart from her junior competitors is that she doesn\u2019t need to look too far for inspiration from a decorated Olympian. Kaya is the daughter of Mojca Kopa\u010d-Tiernan, who skated at the 1992, 1998 and 2002 Olympics for Slovenia.<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s really inspiring,\u201d Kaya said of her mother. \u201cEvery day, when I go to the rink, I get to skate and know that she went really far in skating. I grew up learning about her career and her success, so it\u2019s been a whole thing throughout my skating career.\u201d<\/p>\n
So with a three-time Olympic figure skater as a mom, Kaya was on the ice at a very young age. At four-years-old, Kaya began skating at IceWorks in Aston, Pa., just south of Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was put into Learn to Skate classes,\u201d she said, \u201cbut I didn\u2019t enjoy that. I like skating on my own. I just fell in love with skating by myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though Kopa\u010d-Tiernan served as Kaya\u2019s first coach, the 16-year-old\u2019s main coaches are Alexander Zahradnicek and Pasha Filchenkov at IceWorks.<\/p>\n
Kaya competed in some club competitions, like the Philadelphia Summer Championships and Skate Wilmington as a juvenile skater in 2021. She won the 2022 U.S. Championship Series in Leesburg, Va., which secured her a spot in the 2022 National Development Camp in Nashville, Tenn.<\/p>\n
For the 2022-2023 season, Kaya moved up to the intermediate level and finished 15th at the Eastern Sectional Singles Final. The following season, Kaya skated on the novice level. She finished sixth at the Eastern Sectional Singles Final and earned a second trip to the National Development Camp in Columbus, Ohio.<\/p>\n
Last season, still as novice-level skater, she finished first at the 2025 Eastern Sectional Singles Final and qualified for her first U.S. Championships, competing on the junior level. Kaya finished 13th at the 2025 U.S. Championships in Wichita, Kansas. Following Nationals, she was invited to compete in her first international event \u2014 the Maria Olszewska Memorial in Lodz, Poland. She won the silver medal in the advanced novice women A category, taking home her first international medal.<\/p>\n
This season, Kaya competed in her first full season as a junior-level skater. She participated in the U.S. Junior Cup in July, which U.S. Figure Skating uses to determine who they send to the initial Junior Grand Prix competitions. Kaya finished 12th out of 18 skaters. In August, she won her first international medal, a bronze at Cranberry Cup at the Skating Club of Boston. Two months later, she was sent to the Junior Grand Prix Solidarity Cup in Gdansk, Poland, and debuted in a very solid seventh place.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was definitely surprising that I was selected to go,\u201d Kaya said, \u201cand it was a really good experience to be surrounded with awesome figure skaters from all different countries, So it was really cool to go and support the USA. I enjoyed competing there.\u201d<\/p>\n
In November, Kaya entered the 2026 Eastern Sectionals Singles Final in Charleston, S.C. After being third after the junior short program, she won the free skate to take the silver medal and qualify for her second U.S. Championships.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the short I had a rough skate,\u201d Kaya said, \u201cand it was great to come back in the free skate and have that breakthrough.\u201d<\/p>\n
This season, Kaya is skating to \u201cWhen She Loved Me\u201d performed by Sarah McLachlan from Toy Story 2,<\/i> and for her free skate, she is skating to music from Gladiator<\/i>. \u201cI really enjoy them,\u201d she said of her programs. \u201cThis is a new style I am trying to explore. I like how the short is more emotional, and the free skate is more powerful. I get to explore both sides for both programs. For the short program, I skated it to a show in my home club. It was a good piece for me, so my coaches and choreographer decided it was nice for me to skate to. For the free, U.S. Figure Skating helped me find it. We had tons of options for the program and ended up picking that one.\u201d<\/p>\n Kaya spends a lot of time at the IceWorks Skating Complex. As a tenth grader at 21st Century Cyber Charter School, she trains in the mornings and afternoon, and then she focuses on school until six or seven in the evening. After graduating high school, Kaya says she is looking forward to either college or coaching. When Kaya isn\u2019t at the rink or doing school work, she enjoys shopping and going to the movies with her younger sister, Lena.<\/p>\n But with the 2026 U.S. Championships just days away, Kaya said she has been focusing on her choreography in transition in between her jumps and spins. She said how her performance looks to the audience is also a primary concern.<\/p>\n \u201cMy goals for this competition, is to go out there and put out two strong programs, not really worrying about the results,\u201d Kaya said of Nationals. \u201cI am really excited to go and be in that atmosphere with all of the other great skaters. I just want to focus on my character off the ice and on the ice, remain a humble person.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nA surreal experience<\/h3>\n