Valentina Plazas and Maximiliano Fernandez are on the comeback journey after missing the 2024/2025 season while Max recovered from surgery. Here are 26 questions to get to know this team who are fighting to represent the United States in pairs at the 2026 Olympics!
Apple Music or Spotify?
Val: Spotify
Max: Spotify
Bedtime?
Val: 9:30 or 11pm
Max: 11:30pm
Comfort TV show/movie?
Val: Schitts Creek
Max: Fortnite or Twitch
Any recurring Dreams?
Val: A conjuring type of nightmare
Max: I fall a lot when I’m sleeping, or no dreams, or I just can’t remember them.
An Embarrassing moment?
Val: Getting on the ice with my guards on.
Max: Shaving a bit too much of my eyebrow off.
Favorite Fan encounter?
Val: Seeing the Colombian flag out for us during GP France.
Max: Eating goulash in Hungary.
Goal that you are working on right now?
Val: Trusting the consistency I have built. And getting rid of self-doubt.
Genre of music?
Max: I really enjoy the late 90s or early 2000s.
Holiday memory?
Val: Looking for a potato man in Venice with my family when I was little.
Max: Going to the Keys on the weekends with my family growing up.
Biggest Inspiration?
Val: My family and my coaches.
Can you play an Instrument?
Max: I can play trumpet and French horn.
Jam session song?
Val: Honey by Troye Sivan
Max: 505 by Arctic Monkeys
Favorite Karaoke song?
Val: Breaking Free from High School Musical
Max: Dream On by Aerosmith
Language you’d like to speak?
Val: Japanese or Portuguese.
Max: Russian or Japanese or Mandarin.
Movie-Night Movie?
Val: Set It Up, or anything scary.
Max: Inglorious Bastards or John Wick
Do you have any Nicknames?
Max: Saber, saber pig, Maxi
One book, TV show, or movie you can recommend?
Val: Book, ‘The Devil In Grey’ by Graham Masterton, TV show: Eva Lasting (Netflix), Movie: The Little Prince
One word to describe each other?
Max: Imperfect
Favorite Podcast?
Max: Views
Quote you live by?
Val: “YOU, ME, OR NOBODY IS GONNA HIT AS HARD AS LIFE. BUT IT AIN’T ABOUT HOW HARD YA HIT. IT’S ABOUT HOW HARD YOU CAN GET HIT AND KEEP MOVING FORWARD. HOW MUCH YOU CAN TAKE AND KEEP MOVING FORWARD, THAT’S HOW WINNING IS DONE.” – Rocky
Max: “Go for it, cause missed opportunities hurt more than rejections.”
Reason to smile?
Val: My doggie Axl
Max: My kitty Jinx
Skating performance you wish you could have seen live?
Val: Ashley Wagner, 2016 Boston Worlds
Max: 2002 Olympics
Training day essentials?
Val: Water, phone, aux adapter
Max: Buttpad, firm grip, electrolytes
Who or what do you think is Underrated?
Val: Wired headphones
Max: I think pairs is underrated, but that’s just me.
Dream Vacation destination?
Val: Hawaii or Switzerland
Max: Japan or Ibiza
Your Whereabouts on a day off?
Val: Giving Axl lots and lots of walks/ chilling on our balcony.
Max: Caturdays are for chilling with Jinx.
An eXperience that changed you?
Val: Missing the 24/25 season and working on discovering myself.
Max: Definitely recovering from my tendon repair surgery I had last season.
A Year that you would like to visit if you had a time machine?
Val: Take me back to 2016.
Max: Yeah, 2016 was a great year.
What is your Zodiac sign, and do you believe in the zodiac?
Val: Sun: Aries, Moon: Libra, Ascendant: Gemini
Max: Sun: Libra, Moon: Sagittarius, Ascendant: Virgo
More:
A to Z with Annika Hocke and Robert Kunkel
