Madeline Schizas

Biography

Madeline Schizas made quite the impression in her debut at the ISU World Championships in 2021. She finished ninth in the short program to be placed in the second last flight for the free skate. She went on to finish 13^th overall, securing Canada an Olympic spot for Beijing 2022. She thrived after being thrown in the proverbial deep end as the world championships were just her second ever senior international competition, giving her the fun challenge of learning how to compete and win at the highest levels on the fly.  

Schizas had finished sixth in the novice women’s event at the 2018 Canadian Championships. The next year, she moved up to junior and won silver at the 2019 nationals. That fall, she made her international debut in the junior event at the Volvo Open Cup in Riga, Latvia. She then qualified for the 2020 Canadian Championships by winning the senior women’s event at the Skate Canada Challenge in December 2019. 

In her very first senior nationals, Schizas won the bronze medal. She was then sent to the Bavarian Open, a junior international event where she won gold, and the International Challenge Cup, her first senior international competition where she won the bronze medal. But she was not named to the Canadian team for either the world championships or the world junior championships in 2020. 

Schizas had hoped to make her Grand Prix debut in the fall of 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic preempted that. She won gold at the Skate Canada Challenge, which was held as a virtual competition. After the 2021 Canadian Championships were cancelled, Schizas was selected as one of Canada’s two women’s entries for the 2021 World Championships.

In the fall of 2021, Schizas competed in her first ISU Challenger Series event at Finlandia Trophy, where she placed ninth. She followed up with an eighth-place finish when she finally made her Grand Prix debut at Skate Canada International, ranking her as the top Canadian woman. At her second Grand Prix, Rostelecom Cup, Schizas skated a clean short program to finish fourth in that portion of the competition before placing sixth overall in a very tough field. She won her first national title in 2022.  

In her Olympic debut at Beijing 2022, Schizas was a key contributor to Canada’s fourth-place finish in the team event, finishing third in both the women’s short program and free skate portions of the competition. She then placed 19th in the women’s singles event. Schizas ended a very long season at the 2022 World Championships where she finished 12th, less than a point outside of the top 10.

A Little More About Madeline

Getting into the Sport: Started skating at age 3 and began competing at age 6… Her first time on ice was while on vacation in San Francisco… Did a lot of sports when young (soccer, gymnastics, ju-jitsu) but chose skating because she loved having the ice to herself while competing and skating her best under pressure… Attended Vancouver 2010 as a fan and watched the women’s short program in person which ignited her passion for sport; was inspired by the resilience of Joannie Rochette who won bronze just days after the sudden death of her mother… Outside Interests: Studying Urban Planning at the University of Waterloo… Plays piano and does music instruction for young students… Odds and Ends: Collects pins from her international travels… Was a skating double on the Netflix drama series Spinning Out…