Madeline Schizas reclaims Canadian title
2025 Canadian National Skating Championships Women’s Podium (From L-R): Sara-Maude Dupuis (silver), Madeline Schizas (gold), and Katherine Medland Spence (bronze). © Golden Skate | Yuan Tian
2025 Canadian National Skating Championships: Women
Madeline Schizas (ON) reclaimed the Women’s title at Canadian Nationals on Sunday in Laval, QC, for a third gold medal in this event. Sara-Maude Dupuis (QC) moved up one spot after the free skate to edge out Katherine Medland Spence (ON) for the silver.
Madeline Schizas
Schizas was jubilant with her “Lion King” short program performance which earned a score of 70 thanks to a triple Lutz-triple toe (landed on the quarter), triple loop, double Axel, and level four layback and combination spins.
“I skated a few clean programs and I think today I did have quite a lot of energy,” said the 21-year-old. “I heard the crowd getting into it behind me and that was exciting. It was great here in Montreal. The crowds are always amazing here, so it was great to be here. I have a lot of family and friends here and parents are from Montreal, so I knew they were here supporting me along with the rest of the crowd.”
The program has generated a great deal of support from the fans.
“I just love the program!” said Schizas. “It was kind of, as I’ve discussed before, like a spur of the moment decision to use it. I’m really glad that people like it so much. I’ve had so much great feedback on it. And I think it’s just because I show how much I like skating when I skate this program. So, to just skate it cleanly at Canadians in front of family and friends was super, super fun.”
The skater said that she and her coaching team are considering keeping the short program music for next year’s Olympic season, but music rights may make that impossible
The 2022 Olympian nailed seven triples in her new Butterfly Lovers free skate to reclaim her title after last year’s disastrous loss. Resplendent in pink, she scored 133.87 in the free skate to finish with a score of 203.87.
“I feel so good!” said Schizas. “I’m happy that not only was I able to win, but I was able to put out skates I was proud of.”
The skater feels her new free skate is a good fit compared to Danse macabre.
“That was evidenced by the way I skated,” she said. “It is just a little bit slower to think about everything that happens. I have key points to think about and the old program was too fast to think about them. So, it’s a really good fit in terms of programs.”
Her goals moving forward are to come in at the top 10 at Worlds.
“I’m just gonna keep training the way I have been,” said Schizas. “You know, I’m happy I didn’t skate the two perfect programs because it means I still have room to grow.”
Sara-Maude Dupuis
Hometown girl Dupuis finished third in the short program with a score of 59.81. She opened her program to “Never Go Back” by Evanescence with a pared down triple toe-double toe combination but went on to land the double Axel and triple Lutz. Her flying camel and combinations spins earned level fours.
“I was a little surprised when the mistake on the first jump happened,” said Dupuis. “Usually, I train really good programs at home and usually when there’s a mistake, it’s the Lutz and not the toe. So, when that happened, it kind of woke me up. And then after that, it was kind of, just getting back in. I’m like, ‘I can’t lose any points after that.’ And I think that I achieved that really well. I still got a great score for what I did which I’m very happy about. I haven’t looked at my protocols yet, but I think I maximized everything else after the mistake which is really the best you can do when some ‘oops’ like this happens. So overall, I’m disappointed in the mistake but happy with how I got back into it after.”
The 2024 CS Tallinn Trophy bronze medalist electrified the Laval audience with her free skate set to the soundtrack from Human. She landed six triple jumps and scored 122.80 to finish the weekend with 182.61 points and the silver medal. Her only major mistake was singling the second Lutz which was her first time attempting the difficult triple jump repeat.
“I just feel so relieved that I controlled myself and did what I did nicely today,” said the 19-year-old. “And yes, it’s a ‘finally’ moment because I’ve done many great things in my career and the one thing that was always missing was a medal at nationals. You know, Challenge (Series), which is the qualifying event for nationals, I medaled there four times and could never put it together at nationals. And I have to admit, yesterday, when I was third after the short like I was last year, and last year didn’t go so well (sixth), which was one of the worst days of my life, I was like, ‘I can’t, this cannot happen again.’ So, I was a little nervous, but I knew I had done the training, and I could do every single thing in my program.”
Dupuis would like to go to the Four Continents again, but the official announcement is still pending.
“I love that competition,” she said. “It’s always been great for me. I’ve been dreaming of going to Korea, actually, for a while, and there’s other competitions after, maybe World Team Trophy. But we’ll see where this goes and then, if it doesn’t, it’s fine. We’re gonna move on to Olympic season, get a new short program and really work on consistency. I really want to work on my speed for the next season, so that’s going to be a big work in progress in the off season. So, we’ll see tomorrow. Goal is Four Continents. Dream is World Team Trophy.”
Katherine Medland Spence
Medland Spence channeled the momentum from her 2024 Warsaw Cup win to skate a clean short program. She landed a triple toe-triple toe, triple loop and double Axel. All three spins were graded a level 4.
“I am happy with that,” she said. “That was the plan. I definitely felt a lot of adrenaline but stuck with the plan, trusted the training. Even though I felt a little bit shaky at times, I was able to kind of push in and kind of just get into my knees. So, I am happy with that.”
The veteran says she is not distracted by medal aspirations.
“I want to come here and have good skates because that’s what I can control,” said the 24-year-old. “I cannot control how the other people skate and don’t control what the judges score. So, all I can do is go out there and do my best and be happy when I finish because then it doesn’t matter, good or bad, what happens, points-wise. I’m happy no matter what.”
Medland Spence was overjoyed with her free skate to Claire de Lune, opening with a rock-solid triple Lutz followed by four more. She took a fall on a triple loop but earned a level four on the flying sit spin and footwork. She scored 119.56 to win the bronze medal.
“There are not many words, I don’t know. Speechless, yeah, shock, yeah,” she said. “I didn’t realize it when it came up. I saw three because I was third in one program, and I thought that’s what it was. And then, it took me a moment or two to realize that it was second.”
Medland Spence said there is still more to do, more improvements to make and room to grow.
“I mean, competitions are always like a snapshot of a moment of time,” she explained. “So, it’s more just taking lessons from here and moving forward with what I learned, what worked and what we might need to change.”
Kaiya Ruiter (AB/NT/NU) finished fourth overall (179.41) followed by Breken Brezden (MB) (172.66) and Kara Yun (ON) (169.28).
Related Info:
The post Madeline Schizas reclaims Canadian title appeared first on Golden Skate.