Madeline Schizas, a first-year undergrad student at the University of Waterloo, is currently participating in the 2022 winter Beijing Olympics in figure skating.
Schizas, native of Oakville, Ontario, started ice skating at age three and has attained significant achievements in the sport ever since. On the national level, Schizas managed to secure third place at the Skate Canada Challenge in 2019 as a junior contestant, followed by first place in 2020 and 2021 as a senior contestant.
The past year has been Madeline Schizas best and most critical year so far. In March 2021, Schizas secured thirteenth place at the 2021 World Figure Skating competing in Sweden. She also won first place at the Canadian Figure Skating Champions in 2022 where she was crowned the national champion of Canada in the ladies’ singles category. This made her the presumed nominee for the Canadian Olympic team, and on Jan. 9 of last year Schizas was announced as part of the 2022 Olympics team.
As one of the 13 figure skaters on the Canadian Olympic team this year, Schizas is the sole competitor for the ladies singles event. At the time of writing this article, the ladies’ singles event has not taken place and will be held on Feb. 15. She did however, compete in the teams event last week and managed to set the season-best short program for 69.60 points – bumping Canada up from sixth to fourth place.
As the youngest on the team at only 18 years old and an Olympic rookie, Schizas wants to make a name for herself and put on a good skate. “I’m aiming for the top 10 there and this was really what that was about for me. I am able to keep a cool head under pressure and that’s what I did today. I felt the pressure just knowing that I was the last one to go and knowing that it was going to be up to me whether we qualified for the team, but I think that kind of fed my competitiveness a little bit and allowed me to give my most in the performance” Schizas said in a CBC interview.
Madline Schizas skated on February 15th for the ladies singles event and you can catch her on on February 17th for the teams event. If you would like to learn more about Madeline, you can watch her full CBC interview online.
Good luck Madeline!
