#SCI24: 'I came in with a fiery attitude this week'
Maddie Schizas has been waiting so long to produce the kind of skating she showed in Halifax this week. It's the kind of performance she'll need to be in the world's top 10.
HALIFAX — This was the Maddie Schizas who can be among the top 10 women in the world. And she was so exhilarated about showing it over two days at Scotiabank Centre that it drove her to tears. Oh, so happy tears.
Not that she’d ever admit to such a thing.
“I wasn’t really crying, I’m not normally a crier,” the 21-year-old Canadian said sheepishly when asked about the emotional aftermath of her intense “Danse Macabre” free program. “I was just happy. I’ve put out some good skates in practice but I’ve had such a hard time translating it into competition. I came in with a fiery attitude this week and it helped me perform my best.
“Skate Canada has been a struggle for me, to the point that a couple of times I’ve asked if I could be at a different event, a different Grand Prix. But I don’t really have any choice about it. I think I overcame all those doubts I’ve had to put out some skates I was pretty proud of.”
Now, an outside observer (such as moi) might be quick to point out the brilliant free skate she turned in at SCI a year ago in Vancouver (it’s still her personal best score of 132.47). But she just as quickly will tell you this: “Yeah, I did do great in the long, but I came off a nightmare of a short program. Like, a literal disaster short. So there’s a completely different mentality. I’m not going to medal here, but I’m in a fight for a medal and that’s better than going out with literally nothing to lose at all.”
So, yeah, she’s going home a much happy camper this time, even though fifth is one place lower than she finished a year ago.
“A hundred per cent. This is the highest score (190.04) I’ve put up in two seasons, which is a big deal for me. Getting to 190 has been a struggle, so this was big for me to put that out.”
A couple of “math things” we should point out here. The total score Schizas achieved here in Halifax would have placed her ninth at 2024 Worlds in Montreal (she placed 18th there with 171.78). And she was just 1.33 points off the podium at SCI, that close to winning her first-ever medal at a Grand Prix event. Those are also things to celebrate.
Now, Schizas went into those Worlds with a bit of belief she could produce a number good enough for top 10 at the Bell Centre. But that required her to pull her best short and long programs from separate events and pairing them up. This, however, is truly different. This happened in one weekend, exactly how it needs to happen. And it’s still early in the season.
“The top 10 score at Worlds wasn’t super high (186.53), so knowing that, and knowing I can be top 10 at Worlds with the skates like this is important. And it’s only October. I have so many more months and so much more to give.”
And as we’ve pointed out here on several occasions, all of this matters in a huge way going into 2025 Worlds in Boston, the event that determines the allocation of spots for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics. If Schizas pulls off that top 10 that, quite frankly, she’s always been capable of doing, then it means two women for Canada in Italy.
That aside, though, this was mostly about getting it done and done well. Schizas was relatively flawless in her short program, and she was guilty of just a few minor errors in her free skate. Both she and coach Nancy Lemaire credit, in great part, the fact that this was her fourth full competition of the season (she did Cranberry Cup in Boston during the summer, then two Challenger Series events in the fall leading up to this one).
“We just started the season earlier and competed more often, and she’s more comfortable,” explained Lemaire. “And every time you go, it’s not perfect but you come back and then the next one’s better than the last one. It just helps build confidence. We’ve competed four or five times already. That helps, especially if you’re a nervous competitor at all.”
Schizas traces all of this back to those 2024 Worlds, where she loved the way she practised but in competition, not so much. She channelled that frustration into the right mindset for a new season.
“I was pretty frustrated after Worlds, but I came back with the right attitude for this season and I was ready to compete early,” she said.
She also believes she’s got the right vehicles to build on through this season (Schizas is giving consideration to keeping her “Lion King” short program for the Olympic year). It dovetails nicely with the work she’s been doing on improving the performance side of her skating, which is also quite noticeable.
“It’s not always evident the number of hours I’ve put into skating skills, but in the past 18 months I’ve put a lot of time into that. My material is just better and the amount of performance I’m putting into it has just vastly improved,” she said. “I just really enjoy these programs and I think they suit me really well. I’ve branched out in style in the past year and I’m closing in on what I’m best at.”
But still, it’s all about getting the job done when it counts. For Schizas, it’s the No. 1 takeaway by far that she’ll bring home to Oakville.
“It was important for me to show today that I can put out two skates back to back that are pretty decent if not perfect. Not the first time ever, but the first time in a while,” she said. “But I was happy. Obviously, this free skate wasn’t perfect … but just getting enough of the tech out to put me above 190 points. I haven’t done that in two seasons. That was important.”
Japan swept the women’s podium at SCI, with three-time World champion Kaori Sakamoto being the golden girl on Saturday. She was followed by Rino Matsuike, who rocketed up from 10th after the short program to claim the silver, and Hana Yoshida. Canada’s other two entries, Kaiya Ruiter and Sara-Maude Dupuis, placed eighth and 10th, respectively.
For Ruiter, the reigning Canadian champion, it wasn’t as smooth a day as with her short program. But the every-optimistic skater found the positives.
“There were some good moments that, taking away from this competition, I’m going to be happy about,” she said. “But there’s definitely a lot to improve.”
Golden but not great
Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps are Skate Canada International champions for a second straight year. But the feeling they’re taking home this time … very, very different. To say the least.
A year ago, the Canadian duo unleashed a roaring free skate that produced a world-best score that stood all the way to the World Championships in Montreal. It’s long been this observer’s viewpoint that it was also the moment that made them the frontrunners for gold at the event.
Tonight, however, was a whole other story. Their aquatic-themed program, which brings together four pieces of music into an intricately constructed final product, had its rough patches, starting with Deschamps’ fall on the side-by-side triple toe loop that begins a three-jump sequence. There were some uneven landings on throws. There’s a lot to clean up and they know it.
“It was certainly not easy tonight,” said Deschamps. “It was going well at home, but it’s going to happen sometime and we just have to learn from it, move forward and forget about it. Just reassess what happened and move forward.”
Added a clearly frustrated Stellato-Dudek: “I’m not really sure what happened. I’ve done so many clean runs of this program at home, so I really have no idea how that happened tonight.”
The clean runs in practice have become so routine that seeing Deschamps down on the ice threw his partner for an early loop.
“His fall shocked me a little bit because it’s not normal. Usually at home, it’s easy to continue it going well,” she said. “It’s when things are going wrong that you want to stop them from going wrong. That’s a different mentality. So I think maybe that shocked me a little bit.”
Maybe all of this is part of the pressure that goes along with being World champions. But they’ve been taking a lot from the experience of Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford, another Canadian duo who won their first World title in 2015 in Shanghai, had a rough start to the following season, but were standing on top of the World podium again in 2016 in Boston (and where are 2025 Worlds going to be? Just sayin’ …).
Radford spoke with the duo during the summer months, and Deschamps said the message was this: “Eric was saying during the summer, this (world title) is ours. It will last forever. But now it’s a new season, go into attack mode. You’re not defending anything, just attack.”
“He said you’ve already proved yourselves, you know that you can do it and to take that with you into each event,” said Stellato-Dudek. “Worlds (in Montreal) was a lot of pressure, especially it being at home. And I wasn’t feeling well earlier in the day. He said if you can do it that way, you should be able to do anything. It’s a very good logical thing to take with you into an event. It doesn’t change those nerves when you’re out there.”
The Canadians’ free program score of 124.10 wasn’t even the best of the night. That honour went to Uzbekistan’s Ekaterina Geynish and Dmitrii Chigerev (126.12), who rose from fourth after the short program to the silver medal position. Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps’ overall total of 197.33 was also well below their personal best (they’ve cracked 200 points on several occasions in the last year).
Next up for the duo is the Grand Prix of Finlandia Trophy in November.
“The positive thing is we’re going to learn from this,” said Deschamps. “It’s when it goes bad that you learn.”
Canada’s other entry in the event, Kelly Ann Laurin and Loucas Ethier, finished eighth.
One last dance
The final day of competition at Scotiabank Centre includes the men’s free skate and free dance, beginning at noon local time. Here’s the start orders and times for those those events:
I think the skate of the night was little Rino who, as you say, rocketed to second overall. Her free skate was a joy to behold.