Sara-Maude Dupuis was beaming from the moment she completed her short program after turning in the top Canadian performance in the women’s short program at Skate Canada International in Kelowna, B.C. (All photos by Danielle Earl/Skate Canada).

KELOWNA, B.C. — There is a growing sentiment among Canada’s top women that there’s a national title for the taking this season, that the battle for the gold medal in Mississauga is a wide open affair — maybe as open as it’s been in recent memory.

We’re still more than two months away from seeing whether that’s true but the women’s short program at Skate Canada International certainly offered some fodder for that argument. One thing is absolutely for certain — nobody is going to back into a Canadian title. It’s going to take a great skate, and probably two, to get it done.

Perennial contender Sara-Maude Dupuis lit up Prospera Place with a joyous, relatively clean skate and she’s the top Canadian here at the moment, posting a 64.58 score that is her highest ever in a short program at a Grand Prix event (it’s a few points shy of a personal best).

The other two Canadian women in the field, four-time Canadian champion Maddie Schizas (57.95) and Grand Prix newcomer Fee Ann Landry (57.27), made significant errors and sit ninth and 10th, respectively. It was Landry, the 21-year-old from Gatineau, Que., who repeated a sentiment that she shared with us during the off-season — that she’s targeting a podium finish at 2027 nationals. And her rationale for that thought hasn’t changed.

“The field is open right now,” she said. “I think we’re a good mix of women in the field, the Canadian field anyway, and I think that’s something that I can work for and that’s achievable.”

We presented that thought to the ever-cheerful Dupuis, and the 21-year-old Montrealer didn’t hesitate to agree with that sentiment. Then again, this was probably exactly the right day to ask for her opinion on that — she delivered the kind of short program that will put you right in the hunt at nationals, even if she likely deserved a little more credit for it on the program components area of the scoresheet.

“Absolutely, I agree with Fee Ann that it’s wide open. I also think we’ve never had, since I’ve been around, (a situation) where there’s so much talent, and it’s really exciting,” she said. “But also, I think I have experience and I have the technical arsenal as well as really good programs this year to make a good case for myself. And yes, I want to be national champion this year. I want to go to Worlds and World Team Trophy. That’s the goal.”

Dupuis will reveal more of that arsenal on Sunday, when she opens her free program with a triple Axel — she’s the first and only Canadian women to ever land it in competition — and has a triple-triple combination to follow it up, and more strong technical content beyond that.

“Hopefully, you get to see much more than (a triple Axel),” Dupuis said of the program, which will be skated to “The Thrill is Gone,” by Raye. “Of course, there’s a personal goal of mine to land a triple Axel with positive GOE tomorrow because I’ve been doing it for a whole season now, but never in the positives.

“That’s one goal, but it’s also just one jump. And whatever happens on this jump, my goal is to perform the rest of the program, get at least four out of the six jumps really good. I have a triple-triple planned after the triple Axel, so I want to do that.”

She’d no doubt like to channel some more of her inner Madonna, which is one way she described how she felt during the short program (Dupuis is a huge Madonna fan and the music for it is the mega-star’s “Ray of Light”). But it was the audience that went along for the ride with her that truly made the day for Dupuis.

“These programs are really what I live for as an athlete, from the first crosscuts taking speed for my first jump, people were clapping to the music, and then it just got louder and louder and louder,” she said. “And this is literally what I do this for. There’s no better feeling on earth, in my opinion. And so yeah, you can’t help but smile and enjoy it. It was a good performance, but the reaction from the crowd made it even more special.”

A flubbed combination kept Canada’s Maddie Schizas from landing among the top echelon of skaters in the women’s short program at Prospera Place.

The X-factor in all of this, of course, is Schizas, the four-time national champion, who had a good program of her own going until she completely flubbed her planned triple Lutz-triple toe combination. It’s now situated in the back half of her program, as in bonus points territory, and when it’s done very well, Schizas says it’s an element potentially worth 15 points to her. On this day, it counted just 1.16.

The 23-year-old from Oakville, Ont., did some quick mathematics for us afterward and said it was the difference between what she scored and a 70-plus point program. The top five here were all above that number, with rising Japanese star Mao Shimada, the four-time Junior World champion, pushing it even higher to 82.11.

That’s the neighbourhood where Schizas wants to reside, and she has upped the ante technically this season to get there. It is a motivation to keep going in this sport.

“That’s a score above 70 (with a clean skate). That’s the gamble you take,” she said. “You’re walking away with a 65, or you’re playing for the 70. And today I just had to play for the 70, and it didn’t work out.

“I don’t see any point in skating and going for a 65. I’ve done that for four years. If I’m going to bother doing this, it’s going to be because I want to be one of the best in the world, and I want to be pushing a 75.”

Her “Sing, Sing, Sing” program has the potential to be a high-quality one and, jumps aside, it scored very well for Schizas here on Saturday. That was a positive point to lean on, given her “disappointment” in what happened with the combo.

“This was the first time I got Level 4s across the board on the non-jumping elements in international competition,” she said. “I don’t think I’ve ever had that happen, and truly I have worked very hard on that. However, I’ve also worked hard on the jumps, and I think that showed in the practice, that showed in the warm-up, that showed in the one minute before I skated, and it did not show in the competition.”

Canada’s Fee Ann Landry placed 10th in the women’s short program in her Grand Prix debut, but has bigger ambitions later this season.

And now she’ll turn to Edith Piaf, and “Hymne a l’amour” and “La Foule,” to bring her sixth Skate Canada International home on a much higher note, and show some of the work she’s done to push her technical game to a higher level.

“It’s a fresh day. I have nothing to lose. I’m just going to give it my best shot,” she said of Sunday’s free skate. “I expect to be better than (this short program), but at the same time, I pushed myself to do more this year. I pushed the technical in both programs. I was going to continue pushing the technical because, as I said, there’s no reason to do this if I’m not going to do that … If I’m going to do this, it’s because I feel I have more to give and to do that I need to push my technical.”

Landry, for her part, felt the bigness of a Grand Prix for the first time. Even though she’s been here for a few days now, the realization truly hit her when she the ice for the short program.

“I don’t think I realized I was competing in a Grand Prix until I got on the ice for the short program,” she said. “Practices were good. I think I was expecting a bit better, but it’s the first Grand Prix (for me), and I didn’t expect the nerves to be this like this. So I think that’s something. It’s experience, and I don’t have it yet.”

Canada’s Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain Le Gac brought the laughs and a quality performance to the rhythm dance at Skate Canada International in Kelowna.

Sometime during their off-the-wall rhythm dance performance, Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain Le Gac heard some hearty guffaws from the audience at Prospera Place. And yes, this was a very good thing.

But hey, when you’re watching Mr. Bean, isn’t that the way it’s supposed to be?

“I think the best privilege is having people laughing while we skate,” said the 29-year-old Lauriault, grinning as she shared this thought. “It’s something really special that we don’t get every time. So it’s truly a privilege to hear that and witness that when we came (here).”

Now, if you were among those laughing along and just thought it was a super fun thing to watch … well, imagine being the ones getting to do it. Mr. Bean has been a joy for Lauriault and Le Gac since they began to develop the concept, and it continues to be that way for them.

“It was really fun to create it, to skate it every day at home, and that’s why we created this program. We wanted to have fun,” said Le Gac, 31. “We wanted to bring something lighter. Sometimes, we don’t see much comedy on the ice, and we like this feeling. We like to play those characters, but we still want to keep the class in it. It was really fun today to perform in front in front of the crowd here in Kelowna.”

The class part of it, of course, comes from the Golden Waltz, the pattern dance that was mandated for the rhythm dance this season. Marrying their comedic aims with the waltz took some work but then again, that was the theme of this all … the bumbling Mr. Bean trying to learn how to dance.

“It came, I feel, later in the process because we knew the swing was going to be the dance of Mr. Bean,” said Lauriault. “It’s weird in its own way, and it’s different movement. That’s why we put it at the end because it felt like he knew how to dance this, and he’s getting better as the program goes on. Cha cha, he’s really not good at it. Like he’s learning, falling.

“So the waltz was in the middle, and it was in the composition. That’s why we brought the fly in because we felt like we wanted more character within the waltz. So the fly is part of the clumsiness of Mr. Bean, and you think he’s great at doing the waltz, but then he gets distracted by everything that runs, like the fly. So it was really fun to grow this process as the choreography went on.”

As we noted yesterday, Lauriault and Le Gac aren’t just here for some laughs, although that was surely part of the plan. The Canadian duo hasn’t brought home a Grand Prix medal since 2022 Skate America, and they’d like to take a run at that this weekend. They’re currently in fifth place, but their 72.10 score leaves Lauriault and Le Gac just 2.14 points shy of the bronze medal position currently held by Americans Caroline Green and Michael Parsons.

The medals will be decided in Sunday’s free dance, which closes out the competition here at Prospera Place, after the women’s free skate.

For the other two Canadian entries here in Kelowna — both of whom, like Lauriault and Le Gac, train at the Ice Academy of Montreal’s Ontario campus in the London area — this has been a learning weekend. It’s a new Grand Prix experience for both Alyssa Robinson and Jacob Portz, who currently stand ninth, and Layla Veillon and Alexander Brandys, who sit 10th.

Canada’s Alyssa Robinson and Jacob Portz say they’re soaking up every bit of the experience during their Grand Prix debut in Kelowna.

Robinson and Portz, who placed 10th at the Trialeti Trophy, a Challenger Series event in Batumi, Georgia, at the beginning of October, were the late additions to the Canadian entry list here. They’re soaking up the opportunity to rub shoulders with the likes of Britain’s Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson, the favourites coming in, who seized the lead at SCI after the rhythm dance.

“We’re really excited about being here. It’s our first Grand Prix, so the energy is amazing,” said Robinson, 23. “And being among some of the best teams is a really cool experience that we’ll take forward. Really proud of what we put out there. Definitely some mistakes and things to improve, so we’ll go back to work after this.”

Veillon and Brandys experienced their share of big events last season in the junior ranks, placing fifth at the Junior Grand Prix Final in Nagoya, Japan, and fourth at the season-ending Junior World Championships in Tallinn, Estonia. They’ve stepped up to senior internationally this season, and it’s a whole new world.

“We aren’t too score driven or result driven here,” said Veillon, 20, after their rhythm dance. “We’re just here for the experience to learn and grow. It’s our first year (as seniors), so as everyone says, just take every bit of knowledge you can. So I feel like we’re really happy with how we did (the rhythm dance). It was a fun skate.”

Canada’s Layla Veillon and Alexander Brandys see Skate Canada International as an opportunity for learning in their first season as seniors internationally.

We’re back to a two-event day to close out the proceedings in Kelowna. Here’s the schedule for Sunday at Prospera Place (all times Pacific):