Being a student athlete can be pretty difficult. Between juggling the responsibilities required to be the best version of yourself in your given sport and ensuring you excel in the classroom, it can be difficult to keep up.
As Canadian figure skater Madeline Schizas showed, if you happen to be an Olympic student athlete, it’s likely that you’ll be running into some special circumstances.
On her Instagram Story, Schizas posted a screenshot of an email she was sent to her sociology professor requesting an extension on an assignment because she was competing in the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.
“LOLLLL I ❤️ being a student athlete,” she added as a caption to her post. As for the email itself, it included a link confirming her participation.
Canadian figure skater Madeline Schizas posted a screengrab of an email she sent to her prof requesting an extension on an assignment because she was competing in the Olympics.
(Steven Loung)
Unfortunately — or maybe fortunately? — Schizas said her prof never responded.
“I haven’t heard back yet, but it’s a Saturday so I wasn’t expecting one,” Schizas told the CBC’s Devin Heroux. “I wasn’t expecting anyone to really care. I just thought it was funny.”
And when asked how she thinks her prof will respond, Schizas seemed a little unsure.
“I’m shooting my shot on this one,” she said. “You have a lot of free time at the Olympics. People don’t realize, but I didn’t do anything today until 5:00 p.m. So I could’ve sat down and done that, but it was, like, a lot. So, we’ll see.”
Schizas, 22, is a native of Oakville, Ont. She currently attends McMaster University, who put together a nice little video package about how she balances school and training.
“I’ve had a great time at Mac,” Schizas said in the video. “A lot of my profs have been really supportive. A lot have been really interested in my skating and that’s made it a lot easier, for sure.”
The 2026 Olympics are Schizas’ second Games. She made her Olympic debut in the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, finishing 18th in the women’s singles event.
During her short program skate of the team competition, a musical miscue nearly derailed Schizas’ skate, but she appealed to the referee, got it corrected and was able to skate well enough to keep Canada in it, despite her viral reaction to her score.
Schizas placed sixth during her short program skate for the figure skating team event, earning Canada three points. She’ll skate next on Sunday at 2:45 p.m. EST/11:45 a.m. PST, performing her free skate for the the team event.
Canada currently sits in fifth place in the team figure skating event.