{"id":463518,"date":"2026-02-09T09:57:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T09:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/463518\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T09:57:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T09:57:09","slug":"winter-olympics-2026-figure-skater-madeline-schizas-gets-a-long-distance-pass-on-university-assignment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/463518\/","title":{"rendered":"Winter Olympics 2026: Figure skater Madeline Schizas gets a long-distance pass on university assignment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Canadian figure skater and McMaster University student Madeline Schizas tried to squeeze in some online coursework while competing at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics. After missing a deadline while competing on Friday, her professor afforded her an extension.DARRYL DYCK\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

On Saturday morning, Canadian figure skater Madeline Schizas sat down at her laptop in the Olympic village to do some homework. The night before, the McMaster University student had performed her short program in the Team Event, earning Canada five points.<\/p>\n

With the team final not scheduled until Sunday, she figured she would take some time to tackle one of her online assignments \u2013 except when she clicked the link, she realized the deadline had already passed.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old knew what she had to do.<\/p>\n

The Winter Olympics medal count and current country standings<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHi Prof. [redacted],\u201d her e-mail began. \u201cI am a student in your Sociology 2FF3 course and am wondering if I could get a short extension on this week\u2019s reflection. I was competing in the Olympic Games<\/a> yesterday and thought the reflection was due on Sunday, not Friday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schizas \u2013 a four-time national champion \u2013 provided a link to an Olympic press release to prove her participation. Then she took a screenshot of the exchange and posted it on her social media with the caption: \u201cLOLLLL I [heart] being a student athlete.\u201d<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Instagram story from Madeline Schizas.Supplied<\/p>\n

The story went viral and the world waited with bated breath for a reply. On Sunday, she got the good news.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe prof responded and said, \u2018no problem,\u2019\u201d she told reporters Sunday night after competing in the figure skating Team final. (Canada placed fifth in an event in which the United States edged out Japan for gold. Italy was bronze.)<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was really nice. He said, \u2018Send it to me whenever you want. I played in a peewee hockey game once and that was enough for me, so good luck at the Olympics. Have so much fun.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Schizas is in her final year of a Bachelor of Arts and Environmental Societies program. She said balancing high-performance sport and school has been challenging, but ultimately good for her mental health.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving a university experience that\u2019s been really important to me \u2026 I live with a bunch of girls and we just, you know, have a good time together. And it\u2019s kind of a reprieve from skating,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Schizas says pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree at McMaster was challenging, but also grounding and good for her mental health.Natacha Pisarenko\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

But the balancing act comes with challenges. Schizas said that some days she would spend an entire day at the rink training and then have to work on data science assignments. For the most part, her professors have been supportive. She\u2019s had to play the figure skating card more than once to get accommodations.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery once in a while there\u2019s one who doesn\u2019t get the magnitude of it. They think it\u2019s, like, a hobby,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Schizas will compete in the women\u2019s short program on Feb. 17. But first, she has to write a midterm on Feb. 12 for the same class. She suspects she could probably get out of it if she wanted: \u201cbut I don\u2019t think I\u2019m going to want to write it when I go home either,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Canadian figure skater and McMaster University student Madeline Schizas tried to squeeze in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":463519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,82,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":{"0":"post-463518","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-ca","15":"tag-canada","16":"tag-canada-news","17":"tag-canada-sports","18":"tag-canada-sports-news","19":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","20":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","21":"tag-canadian-news","22":"tag-economy","23":"tag-education","24":"tag-environment","25":"tag-federal-government","26":"tag-foreign-news","27":"tag-globe-and-mail","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","29":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","30":"tag-government","31":"tag-life-news","32":"tag-lifestyle","33":"tag-local-news","34":"tag-manitoba","35":"tag-national-news","36":"tag-new-brunswick","37":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","38":"tag-northwest-territories","39":"tag-nova-scotia","40":"tag-nunavut","41":"tag-ontario","42":"tag-pei","43":"tag-photos","44":"tag-political-news","45":"tag-political-opinion","46":"tag-politics","47":"tag-politics-news","48":"tag-quebec","49":"tag-sports","50":"tag-sports-news","51":"tag-technology","52":"tag-travel","53":"tag-trudeau","54":"tag-us-news","55":"tag-world-news","56":"tag-yukon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}