Pelkonen was born on March 13, 2005, in Tampere, Finland. In addition to figure skating, she also enjoys baking.[3]
Competitive career
Early career
Pelkonen started training figure skating in 2010 at the age of five when she entered the Koovee figure skating school in Tampere. The head coach of the Koovee FSC, Minna Järvinen, was impressed by Pelkonen's attitude and enthusiasm right from the beginning, and Pelkonen was quickly moved to higher level groups.[4] From there, Pelkonen was coached by Järvinen and Christina Wendelin.[5]
Pelkonen debuted as an advanced novice skater at the 2019 Coupe du Printemps, where she won the bronze medal.[6]
At the Youth Olympics, Pelkonen finished sixteenth in the ladies' singles event and fourth in the mixed team competition as a part of the Team Determination.[8]
Following the season, Pelkonen was made a member of the senior national team.[9] Although, she did not compete for the duration of the 2020–21 figure skating season.[6]
2021–22 season
Returning to competition, Pelkonen competed on the junior level of the 2021 Santa Claus Cup, finishing fourteenth. She did not compete for the remainder of the season.[10]
Making her senior international debut at the 2022 CS Finlandia Trophy, Pelkonen placed fourteenth. She subsequently competed at the 2022 Cup of Nice but withdrew after performing her short program.[6]
In the summer of 2023 Pelkonen decided to leave Koovee FSC and transfer to Tappara FSC, where Susanna Haarala became her new coach.[11]
Pelkonen started the season by competing at the 2023 CS Finlandia Trophy, where she placed seventh in the short program but won the free skate, moving up to fourth place overall.[10] Selected as a host pick to compete at the 2023 Grand Prix of Espoo, Pelkonen finished sixth of the twelve competitors at the event.[12][10][6]
Competing at the 2023–24 Finnish Championships in December, Pelkonen won the national title and was selected to compete at the European and World Championships.[6]
Shortly before the 2024 World Championships, Pelkonen began feeling pain in both her feet. In spite of this, Pelkonen pushed herself to compete anyways, finishing twenty-fourth.[10][13] Following the World Championships, Pelkonen would spend four weeks off the ice to recover.[13]
2024–25 season
Although originally assigned to only compete at the 2024 Finlandia Trophy on the 2024–25 Grand Prix series, Pelkonen was later selected to compete at the 2024 Skate Canada International to replace Ava Marie Ziegler, who withdrew from the event due to injury. However, Pelkonen also withdrew from the latter event two weeks before it was set to take place due to illness and stress fracture precursors in both her legs.[13][14][15] At the 2024 Finlandia Trophy in late November, Pelkonen finished the event in eleventh place.[10] She said that while it had been a good performance given the circumstances, she was also disappointed: "I'm not yet at the level I want to be or was last season. It's been hard to accept."[16]
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