Madeline Schizas

Schizas began learning to skate in 2006.[1] She placed sixth skating in the novice ranks at the 2018 Canadian Championships and won silver as a junior at the 2019 Canadian Championships.

In 2019, she served as a skating double during filming of the Netflix drama Spinning Out.[3][4]

Making her junior international debut, Schizas placed fifth at the Volvo Open Cup in November 2019 in Riga, Latvia. She then won gold in the senior women's category at the Skate Canada Challenge, qualifying her to compete as a senior at the 2020 Canadian Championships.[5] At the Championships in January, she placed second in the short program despite performing only a double toe loop as the second part of her planned jump combination.[6] She was third in the three skate after making a number of jump errors, including four singled attempts at a double Axel, and as a result won the bronze medal, finishing 7.47 points behind the champion, Emily Bausback, and 0.87 behind silver medalist Alison Schumacher. Schizas remarked afterward about "the four single Axels, I don't even know what I was thinking and the fourth one was an invalid combo, so there were some mental mistakes, but I think it comes along with experience which you cannot buy."[7]

In February, Schizas won gold in Group II junior ladies at the Bavarian Open.[8] Her senior international debut came later that month, at the International Challenge Cup in The Hague, Netherlands. Ranked sixth in the short and third in the free, she finished third overall behind Japan's Rika Kihira and Yuhana Yokoi and was awarded the bronze medal. Her score, 175.56, was the highest score by any Canadian lady that season, though it did not count to the official ISU Season Best Scores.[9] She was also the only Canadian lady to medal at any senior event that season. Despite this fact, she was passed up for the 2020 World Championships and the 2020 Junior Worlds, in favour of more experienced competitors.[10]

Schizas was named to the Canadian national team by virtue of being the reigning national bronze medalist.[11] She was assigned to make her Grand Prix debut at the 2020 Skate Canada International, but the event was cancelled as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.[12] Schizas planned to introduce the triple Lutz jump into her programs for the new season, having worked on it for a few years previously without sufficient results. Repeating her short program from the previous season, she selected the music from The Umbrellas of Cherbourg for a new free skate, in tribute to ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, who had performed to it in the 2007–08 season.[13]

With the pandemic continuing to affect competitions, Schizas first won the Ontario Sectional Championships, held virtually. The 2021 Skate Canada Challenge was also organized virtually, filmed in November and December and then judged in January. She placed fourth in the short program, executing only a double toe loop as part of her combination and making a serious error on her triple loop. She won the free skate decisively, landing six of seven planned triple jumps, including a triple Lutz-triple toe loop combination for the first time. She won her second consecutive gold medal at Challenge.[14] This would have qualified her to the 2021 Canadian Championships, but they were cancelled as a result of the pandemic making it impossible to hold an in-person contest. Skating journalist Beverley Smith remarked "we can't technically call Madeline Schizas a Canadian champion", "but effectively, she is."[13]

On February 25th, Schizas was announced as one of the two ladies entries' to the 2021 World Championships in Stockholm, along with Emily Bausback, her debut at an ISU championship.[15] She placed thirteenth, including setting a personal best with a ninth-place finish in the short program.[16] Schizas' placement qualified a berth for Canada at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.[17]

In addition to longtime choreographer Asher Hill, Schizas collaborated on her Madama Butterfly free program with Lance Vipond, the regular choreographer of retired Canadian women's skating star Kaetlyn Osmond.[18] She began the season at the Skating Club of Boston's Cranberry Cup, where she finished in fifth.[19] She was next assigned to make her Challenger debut at the 2021 CS Finlandia Trophy, where she placed ninth, including setting a new personal best in the free skate. Schizas said she was pleased with the free skate, an opportunity to introduce new technical content.[20]

Schizas made her Grand Prix debut at the 2021 Skate Canada International, where she placed ninth in both segments for eighth place overall, with a new personal best in total score. She was the highest-ranked Canadian woman in the event, finishing 26.68 points ahead of next-ranked Emily Bausback in eleventh. She identified adding speed to her skating as her primary focus for improvement.[21] In the interval between events she competed domestically, winning the Ontario Sectionals for the third consecutive year.[19] At her second Grand Prix, the 2021 Rostelecom Cup, she placed fourth in the short program with a clean skate. She made two errors in the free skate, stepping out of her triple flip and then doubling a planned triple Salchow, but still finished sixth overall, the highest Grand Prix placement for a Canadian woman in four years. Schizas noted that Rostelecom was "the biggest audience I've ever skated to. I think it was a great experience for hopefully the Olympics and World Championships."[22]