Four-time Canadian champion Maddie Schizas showed some mental strength in pushing through her free program at Skate Canada International in Kelowna, B.C. (All photos by Danielle Earl/Skate Canada).
KELOWNA, B.C. — It wasn’t exactly your ideal two weeks of preparation for Maddie Schizas heading into Skate Canada International.
First, there was the neck injury that she detailed for us a couple of days ago, a painful ailment that dogged her at Budapest Trophy a few weeks’ back — and something she said would have forced her out of this Grand Prix event at Prospera Place had it reared its ugly head again (more on that situation in a bit).
Then, there was the frantic revamping of her long program, set to a medley of Edith Piaf tunes (“Hymne a l’amour” and “La Foule”), because Schizas says “I didn’t do a good job with it in Budapest.” While it’s not exactly a new program, the structure of it changed dramatically in the days leading up to Skate Canada International.
Given all of that, what she delivered in Sunday’s free skate final — a definite step up from her short program — was about what could be expected under the circumstances. After a clumsy tumble to the ice coming out of the landing of an opening triple flip, the 23-year-old from Oakville, Ont., more or less kept it together the rest of the way, outside of a triple loop (yes, that jump again) that was doubled at the beginning of a three-jump sequence in the back end of the program.
That produced a segment score of 119.43 and 177.38 overall, enough to push her up one spot to eighth in the final standings. Needless to say, those numbers need to improve in a big way by season’s end but, as we said at the outset of this, not exactly the kind of preparation you’d want heading into your first Grand Prix of the year.
“I got up and I finished the program, I would say pretty effectively and with quite a lot of strength, given how it started and given how yesterday went,” she said afterward. “I came back, and I showed mental strength today, and character.
“I came off, I don’t want to say a substantial injury, but a big hit to my training three weeks ago. I didn’t have all of the hours of training I would have liked. I wasn’t training at full force until I would say halfway through last week. I knew if I threw my neck out again, I wouldn’t have been able to compete here. So I was being cautious. And there’s a lot of stuff that we had to do the last few weeks.”
About that …
“We had to gut the heck out of that (long) program. We gutted it in its entirety,” said Schizas. “It just needed … not a complete restart, but a lot of stuff had to get changed and had to go.”
You know that line that goes “it takes a village?” That’s kind of what went on here, with a veritable team enlisted to make the major surgery happen on the free program. But they got it done just in time to present the new work this weekend.
“It was a real group effort to get that program up and running and off the ground. And so I do want to recognize Asher Hill for that. I want to recognize Alison Purkiss, and I want to recognize we had staff in from Skate Ontario,” she said. “I did some of the arms and hands myself, to get that program organized and off the ground, and they did really work hard with me on that.
“It’s not a brand-new program, just the structure of it (changed).”
Hill, who did the choreography for Schizas’ short program, “really stepped up to help me with the step sequence,” she said. “He deserves a lot of praise for that because he didn’t have to do it. He didn’t have to step in, and he did a very good job.”
(the program was originally built by Juris Razgulajevs with help from six-time SCI gold medallist Piper Gilles. Some of that work still remains intact, Schizas said).
You may have also noticed the program lacked a triple Lutz-triple toe combination. There is a triple toe-triple toe combo in there for now, but that could still change. Discussions will be had between now and Schizas’ second Grand Prix assignment.
“We’re going to talk about it. I think there’d be something to be said for trying the combo on the second Lutz, but I think we have to kind of sit with that,” she said. “That’s really quite the program (adding that). But I do get antsy at the beginning, which is why in the short I like starting with easier jumps.”
Schizas heads next to NHK Trophy, the final stop of the Grand Prix series at the end of November in Tokyo, which will provide her with plenty of time to further refine the revised program. She also is closely monitoring the neck issue that made for a rough time at Budapest Trophy.
“I’m doing strength work. We’ve talked with different physios about different options longer term, like looking for different options and different opinions,” she said. “I’m doing a lot of strength and mobility work. I’m just going to stay on top of it; lots of people have stuff like that, that’s a little bit nagging. I hope that this doesn’t continue to be a problem.”
After a strong short program performance, Canada’s Sara-Maude Dupuis couldn’t match that in the free program, which left her disappointed and upset.
Meanwhile, Canada’s Sara-Maude Dupuis entered the day coming off the best Canadian performance in the short program, and full of enthusiasm about possibly delivering another quality program in the free. But that evaporated quickly — first, she couldn’t hold the landing of her big opening weapon, the triple Axel, but it was a subsequent fall on a triple Lutz that really rattled her.
“I’m really disappointed because I really thought I trained well so that I could put out two good performances,” said the 21-year-old Montrealer, who was clearly upset when the program ended. “The actual fall on the triple Axel, that happens, but the way I fell on the Lutz was really all over the place. And I tried to get back into it, but couldn’t really do it. So I guess there’s going to be some reflecting for the next two weeks because I already go back out (to Skate America).”
What happened here in Kelowna might also lead to some content changes in her free program, which opens with the triple Axel and then the triple Lutz-triple toe combination — something Dupuis suggests now might be too ambitious.
“I might change the second jump from a Lutz-toe to a (triple) toe-(triple) toe, which is the more sure combination. It was good going for risk, but I’m kind of realizing the riskiness isn’t worth it if you’re not landing stuff,” she said, adding there is no thought about dropping the triple Axel from the program.
“I think (the triple Axel) makes me stand out, and it’s an extraordinary jump to get to perform in competition. It’s a big chance, but it’s not a chance because I have worked on it. It’s a gift to myself to be performing a triple Axel in competition. But I guess the rest of the program, I could take a bit of an easier route.”
Fee Ann Landry’s first Grand Prix experience ended on a high note with a strong free program performance at Prospera Place.
She tumbled from seventh after the short program to 11th in the final standings with a 158.63 total. Fee Ann Landry, Canada’s third entry in Kelowna, had an impressive free skate on Sunday and moved up one spot to place ninth overall. Her 171.18 total score was only 6.20 points in arrears of Schizas.
It was enough to send Landry home filled with satisfaction about her Grand Prix debut, with the Skate Canada Challenge at the end of November in Winnipeg up next in her competition plans.
“That’s a pretty good way to end my time here,” said the 21-year-old from Gatineau, Que. “That was my best skate this year. Very happy with what I put out. It’s still early in the season. This season is pretty long, so I think for this stage in the season, it’s good that I put out a good long program.”
While she admitted to a heavy dose of nerves before her short program, that all changed on Sunday. As Landry put it, “I was more so on a mission.”
“I knew what I was capable of. I didn’t really have anything to lose in this long,” she said. “Yesterday, I kind of wanted to put out a really good performance, (but the nerves) got to me. Today, I wanted to put out a better performance than yesterday.
“But overall, I just thought that I wanted to end up my experience here happy, and that’s how I made it.”
One day after bringing out the laughs with their Mr. Bean-themed rhythm dance, Canada’s Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain Le Gac left the audience spellbound at Prospera Place with a much different free dance.
The huge smile on Marie-Jade Lauriault’s face as she and her partner, Romain Le Gac, concluded their free dance pretty much said it all about how the married couple felt about the way they closed out their on-ice time in Kelowna.
“It’s really hard not to feel deeply connected to this program because the music (a trio of Daft Punk tunes) fills the ice rink when we skate in it, and that’s why we chose it,” the 29-year-old said in explaining that big smile in the couple’s final pose. “So it feels really special, and we’re really grateful we can skate to such beautiful music and have costumes that suit the team.
“Everything fell into place. The choreography with Madi (Hubbell), Adi (Diaz), and Scott (Moir) by the boards, Cara (Moir), everyone there today. It really felt special, so I think that’s why the smile. That’s what we’re going to take forward. It’s this feeling of achievement at the end of the free dance, and that’s it.”
Lauriault and Le Gac entered the day in fifth place after the rhythm dance and that’s where they stayed in the final standings, finishing with a 179.80 total. While the rhythm dance was all about playing for laughs with their Mr. Bean themed program, the atmosphere was decidedly different on Sunday.
“That’s really what we wanted to do with this free dance, to have a different feeling. It’s completely a different atmosphere,” said the 31-year-old Le Gac. “People in the stands were silent, but it was not an empty silence. It was a full silence. We felt like people really felt (connected to the program).”
Regardless of whether they were laughing or completely entranced, it was obvious that the audience at Prospera Place appreciated what Lauriault and Le Gac brought to the home Grand Prix event. It is one of the things they’ll take home from Kelowna to their training base in the London, Ont., area.
“Yesterday was truly special to hear people laugh, and (hearing) two standing ovations. We rarely get that, so we’re truly grateful for such an amazing audience,” said Lauriault. And we’re going to take the work we have to do, too. Seeing the score, it’s lower than what we need and what we expect, so we want to work on that and make sure it goes up each time.”
While their overall score at SCI was 3.60 points lower than they scored back in September at Nebelhorn Trophy, where they claimed the silver medal, they noted there were also positive steps forward this weekend.
“This is already a step up from what we did at Obertsdorf,” said Lauriault. “Maybe in terms of scores, it’s not really a step we wanted, but in terms of performance and showing the the work we’ve done since Oberstdforf, both us and all the team, we felt we really achieved it.”
Added Le Gac: “We’re going to continue to trust the feeling of the work we put in and the feeling of growth we have had since Oberstdorf. So that’s what we’re going to use and the feedback we’re going to get. We will align the work with this view.”
They’ll next hit the Grand Prix trail in Finland on Nov. 20-21.
Canada’s other two entries at SCI, both in their Grand Prix debuts, traded places in the final standings. Layla Veillon and Alexander Brandys moved up one spot to place ninth, just 0.57 points in front of Alyssa Robinson and Jacob Portz. Both teams also train at the Ice Academy of Montreal’s Ontario campus in London.
This piece wraps up our coverage from Skate Canada International in Kelowna. The plane heads home to Ontario on Monday morning and, after a few days of reflection, we’ll have some final thoughts about what we saw here during our lovely time in the Okanagan Valley (tourism tip: if you’ve never been to this part of Canada, make time to do so. The sights are beautiful and the people here are wonderful).
To those of you who joined us here on this ride, thanks so much. As always, you’re the reason we do this and it’s forever heartening to know that what we write here finds its way into being a part of your day. Until the next time …