LAVAL, Que. — Madeline Schizas was in a familiar spot, anxiously waiting her turn in the warm-up room while her competitors hit the ice one after another.
“I was quite nervous,” she said. “I was just like, ‘Man, I want this to be over.’
“Every Canadian senior nationals I've skated at, I've skated last in the free skate … every year it rolls around, and it never gets easier.”
A year ago, Schizas crumbled under that pressure and dropped from first to second after a devastating free program, falling short of a three-peat at nationals.
The 21-year-old from Oakville, Ont., shoved those jitters aside on Sunday and took back the Canadian women’s figure skating crown.
Debuting a slower-paced “Butterfly Lovers Concerto” program, the five-foot Schizas landed seven triples and never fell to score 133.87 points in the free skate, bringing her total to 203.87 and setting a Canadian record.
“I feel so good,” she said. “I'm happy that not only was I able to win, but I was able to put out skates I was proud of.
“I stepped up to the pressure today.”
Then she celebrated by shooting T-shirts into the stands — without much success — at a raucous Place Bell.
“I didn't get either of them into the crowd, one got in the rafters and one landed on the ice,” she said. “At least I'm good at skating.”
Montreal’s Sara-Maude Dupuis wowed the hometown crowd and finished with 182.61 to claim silver. Ottawa’s Katherine Medland Spence took bronze with 181.55.
Later Sunday, Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier won their fourth ice dance title. They totalled 229.55 points after scoring 137.71 in their moving free dance to "A Whiter Shade Of Pale" by Annie Lennox.
Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha took silver (218.52) and Alicia Fabbri and Paul Ayer earned bronze (195.88).
Schizas also won the event in 2022 and 2023 before Calgary’s Kaiya Ruiter, who finished fourth Sunday, won it last year in her hometown.
After her disappointing showing 12 months ago, Schizas says this title feels like the best of the bunch.
“The first two times it was just like a whirlwind,” she said. “This time I was coming in not Canadian champion, so it was definitely a different situation and I think it means a little bit more regaining the title.”
Though they won their fourth championship, Gilles and Poirier claimed a title in consecutive years for the first time because of the COVID-19 pandemic and Gilles’s cancer scare in 2023.
“That's not something we take for granted, so we're really grateful and happy that we were able to be here and continue the progress of our season,” Poirier said. “We're really proud of what we've accomplished today. It was such a joyful competition, from beginning to end we really enjoyed every moment.”
The world silver medallists also bounced back from a disappointing performance after Poirier uncharacteristically caught his foot along the boards and tripped at the Grand Prix Final in December.
“It was hard to accept the unpredictable because that's just not how we train or what we do,” Gilles said. "Even our coaches, it's a complete shock, and even our teammates are like, ‘how, why, what?’
“Being able to put two solid performances down like we do at home, it felt really nice and I think it's definitely what we needed just to kind of know we're going in the right direction.”
World champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps won their third consecutive Canadian pairs title Saturday despite posting the second-best free skate. Roman Sadovsky became a two-time champion with a gold in the men’s event.
Skate Canada factors results into its selection for the Four Continents championship Feb. 19 to 23 in Seoul and the world championship set for March 24 to 30 in Boston.
Canada has three entries in each discipline for Four Continents, with the roster set to be announced Monday. Three ice dance teams, three pairs teams, one men’s skater and one women’s skater will go to Boston.
Schizas’s goal for the rest of the season is clear: “To come top 10 at worlds.”
That result would land Canada a second women’s spot at the 2026 Olympics. The way she skated at nationals after a solid first half of the season only boosted her confidence to make that happen.
“I'm just going to keep training the way I have been,” she said. “I still feel like I have push to give and things to work on, so I'm looking forward to taking a couple of days off and then getting right back at it.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 19, 2025.
Daniel Rainbird, The Canadian Press