Zachary Lagha (born April 15, 1999) is a Canadian ice dancer, who currently competes with Hannah Lim.
With his former skating partner Marjorie Lajoie, he is a two-time Four Continents bronze medallist (2023, 2025), a seven-time Grand Prix medallist, 2022 CS Nepela Memorial champion, 2022 CS Budapest Trophy champion, and a five-time Canadian national medallist. Lajoie and Lagha represented Canada at the 2022 and 2026 Winter Olympics.
Lajoie and Lagha began their careers with a string of domestic titles in the youth ranks, including gold medals at the 2015 Canadian Novice Championships and 2015 Canada Winter Games, before making their international junior debut. They won four medals on the ISU Junior Grand Prix, three national junior titles, and became the second Canadian dance team to win the World Junior Championships in 2019. They represented Canada at the 2016 Winter Youth Olympics, finishing fourth in the dance event and winning a bronze medal in the team event.
Personal life Lagha was born on April 15, 1999, in Greenfield Park, Quebec, Canada. His family is of Algerian Canadian heritage. His mother, Fella Hammoutene, is an accomplished pianist and encouraged her son to study piano as well. Lagha enters musical competitions in the skating off-season. In June 2018, he won a scholarship after winning the first round and getting to the final at the prestigious Canadian Music Competition.
Currently a student in contemporary dance at Concordia University, he identified coaching as his planned vocation following the end of his competitive career.
He is fluent in English and French.
Skating career Partnership with Marjorie Lajoie Early years Lagha began learning to skate in 2004. He formed an ice dance partnership with Marjorie Lajoie in 2011, coached by Julien Lalonde, Mylène Girard, and Valérie Allard in Saint-Hubert, Quebec.
After winning the national pre-novice title in the 2013–14 season, they moved up to the novice level for 2014–15. They won the silver medal at the Skate Canada Challenge, and then took the gold medal at the 2015 Canadian Championships. Lagha said of the achievement: "We worked very hard for this. It came with work. No work. No results." The following month they competed at the 2015 Canada Winter Games, winning the gold medal.
2015–2016 season: Junior debut
Following their novice title win, the two ended their partnership, later stating that they had different ideas at the time. Subsequently Lagha transferred to train with Marie-France Dubreuil, who encouraged them to reunite in the summer of 2015. They then moved to train with Dubreuil, Patrice Lauzon, Romain Haguenauer, and Pascal Denis in Montreal, Quebec.
Making their junior international debut on the Junior Grand Prix, Lajoie and Lagha finished seventh at the JGP Spain in early October. Lajoie said that it "went super well, and I didn’t expect us to do this well."
In January 2016, Lajoie and Lagha were awarded the junior silver medal at the Canadian Championships after placing fourth in the short dance and second in the free dance. The following month, they placed fourth at the 2016 Winter Youth Olympics in Norway. Lajoie called it "a super fun competition," while Lagha thought "we didn't get the scores we wanted but what's most important is the public and ourselves were satisfied with the performance." Competing as members of Team Discovery, they also won bronze medals in the team event. In March, they ranked eleventh in the short dance, thirteenth in the free dance, and thirteenth overall at the 2016 World Junior Championships in Hungary.
2016–17 season: First junior national title
Lajoie and Lagha were given two assignments on the 2016–17 Junior Grand Prix series, first finishing fourth at the JGP Japan in Yokohama. They set a new personal best and Lajoie said that they felt they were "on the right track." At the JGP Germany in Dresden, they finished third in the short dance segment, but dropped off the podium following the free dance, missing the bronze medal by less than a point. Lajoie admitted that it was "unfortunate we couldn’t have placed higher," while vowing "there’s still a lot of work to do in order to increase our scores even more."
At the 2017 Skate Canada Challenge, Lajoie and Lagha broke the Canadian record in junior ice dance, held since 2005 by Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir. They went on to win the junior national title at the 2017 Canadian Championships.
In advance of the 2017 World Junior Championships, Lajoie and Lagha were sent to compete at the Bavarian Open in February. They won the silver medal, finishing only 0.02 points behind the gold medalists. In March, they placed fifth in the short dance, seventh in the free dance, and sixth overall at the World Junior Championships in Taipei.
2017–18 season: Second junior national title Lajoie and Lagha opened the 2017–18 Junior Grand Prix series with a silver medal win at the JGP Australia event in Brisbane. This was their first career medal on the circuit, but Lagha insisted that "when you start focusing on results, it never works. We just wanted to do well and build from here because we know we can do better." They went on to win gold at JGP Croatia in Zagreb, setting new personal bests in the short dance and combined total score. These results qualified them for the Junior Grand Prix Final in Nagoya, Japan. Lajoie sustained a concussion and a hip injury due to a fall in practice. After a month of recuperating, she returned to training two weeks before the Junior Grand Prix Final, where the duo placed sixth.
Lajoie and Lagha defended their junior national title at the 2018 Canadian Championships, breaking their own Canadian record. They closed out the season at the 2018 World Junior Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria. They placed second in the short dance, earning a silver small medal, but placed fifth in the free dance, placing them narrowly off the podium in fourth place. Lajoie commented: "The free dance went super well for us. We were in the moment and managed the stress. We achieved our goal by being in the mix for a spot on the podium."
2018–19 season: Junior World title
Lajoie and Lagha began the 2018 JGP series at the JGP Austria event in Linz, winning the silver medal. The team's choreographic character step sequence was ruled invalid, costing them points. Lajoie expressed dissatisfaction with the performance, stating, "the presentation was good, but there’s a lot of work to do at the technical level." They won the gold at the JGP Canada, scoring personal bests in both segments, again breaking the junior Canadian record, and qualifying for their second Junior Grand Prix Final. At the Final, Lajoie and Lagha placed fourth, 0.03 points behind bronze medalists Elizaveta Khudaiberdieva and Nikita Nazarov, following a one-point deduction for an extended lift.
At the 2019 Canadian Championships, Lajoie and Lagha won their third consecutive junior title: a national record. Their margin over silver medalists Alicia Fabbri and Paul Ayer was 21.14 points. As a "test run" for the World Junior Championships, Lajoie and Lagha then competed at the 2019 Bavarian Open, an event where they had won silver two seasons prior, this time winning gold, 24.7 points ahead of silver medalists Fabbri and Ayer.
Concluding the season at the 2019 World Junior Championships, Lajoie and Lagha placed first in the rhythm dance, setting a new junior world record of 70.14. They were awarded a gold small medal for the result. They then won the free dance as well, setting new world records for that segment and for the total score, winning the World Junior title.
2019–20 season: Senior debut
Lajoie/Lagha began their senior career with two Challenger events. They placed seventh at the 2019 CS Lombardia Trophy, which Lajoie described as a disappointment following twizzle errors by her in the free dance. They next came fourth at the 2019 CS Finlandia Trophy, missing the podium by less than two points due to an invalidated choreographic character step. Despite that, Lajoie called the result "a big step up for us." Making their senior Grand Prix debut at the 2019 Skate Canada International, they placed seventh in the rhythm dance and then moved up to sixth following the free dance. Competing at the 2019 Rostelecom Cup, they placed seventh after struggles in the rhythm dance.
With training mates and presumptive silver medallists Fournier Beaudry/Sørensen sitting out the 2020 Canadian Championships, Lajoie/Lagha competed with Soucisse/Firus for the silver medal. Both teams made errors in the rhythm dance, with Lagha bobbling on his twizzle sequence, but they nevertheless placed second in the rhythm dance. Clean in the free dance, but for Lagha stumbling in a choreographic sequence, they were second in that segment as well and won the silver medal, earning assignments to both the Four Continents Championships and the World Championships in their home town of Montreal.
Competing at Four Continents in Seoul, Lajoie/Lagha placed fifth in the rhythm dance with a new personal best score of 76.43, an increase of over five points internationally. They unexpectedly placed ahead of American national bronze medallists Hawayek/Baker, who fell out of their lift. They placed behind Hawayek/Baker in the free dance but remained in fifth place overall, again recording significant improvements in their free dance and total scores. Lagha said afterwards, "there was not one time this season yet when we skated without any major mistakes. Even at nationals, there were some stumbles, but now we finally did two good performances."
Though scheduled to make their World Championship debut, this was prevented by the cancellation of the Montreal World Championships due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Both reported being disappointed, but Lajoie added, "our season before this was very good, so it’s not the end of the world."
2020–21 season: Worlds debut Lajoie/Lagha were assigned to the 2020 Skate Canada International, but this event was also cancelled due to the pandemic.
With the pandemic continuing to make holding in-person competitions difficult domestically, Lajoie/Lagha made their competitive debut at a virtually-held 2021 Skate Canada Challenge, where they placed third in both segments to take the bronze medal. The 2021 Canadian Championships were subsequently cancelled.
On February 25 Lajoie/Lagha were announced as part of the Canadian team for the 2021 World Championships, their senior World Championship debut following the earlier cancellation of the 2020 World Championships. They placed fourteenth in Stockholm.
2021–22 season: Beijing Olympics Lajoie and Lagha made their season debut at the 2021 CS Autumn Classic International, where they placed fourth. At their second Challenger event, the 2021 CS Finlandia Trophy, they came seventh in a very competitive field. On the result, Lajoie said, "in the end, we were quite happy about it."
On the Grand Prix at the 2021 Skate Canada International, the first Canadian competition with an audience in over a year and a half, Lajoie/Lagha placed sixth. Lagha said afterwards, "we didn't get the score and placement we wanted, but the standing ovation was great!" At their second Grand Prix, the 2021 NHK Trophy in Tokyo, they placed fifth, including a fourth-place finish in the free dance.
Competing at their second senior Canadian championships, held in Ottawa without an audience due to restrictions prompted by the Omicron variant, Lajoie/Lagha placed third in the rhythm dance. They were third in the free dance as well, despite Lajoie flubbing a twizzle set and won the bronze medal. She said afterwards, "every element we did, there was a little something; we were struggling, and we are not used to that." They nevertheless were pleased with the result. The following day they were named to the Canadian Olympic team.