2021/2022 Canadian Ladies: News and Updates

[honey]

Cotop is the one that got away of this quad of Canadian women for me. I think she could have been developed into something special and it’s too bad that injuries really took a toll on her. Wishing her well in her future

 

[Habs]

Cotop will always be my "what if?" skater. She has such natural talent and was really improving with Ravi.

 

[fsfann]

Darn... . She and Ruiter were our future (along wish Schizas).

Sad to see this, but from the sounds of it, the injuries have really taken a toll.

 

[Colonel Green]

I disagree. In 2018 she won Nationals and skated brilliantly in the team event. Being honest, I think seeing Osmond win an individual medal at the Olympics and then winning Worlds a month later took all the energy right out of Gabby.

Daleman’s problem was the two major injuries in the 2018/19 season, particularly the WTT trophy one — she seemed on track to recovery by 2019 Worlds, but she has never returned to that form after the collision with Lecavelier.

 

[puglover]

For the first time since the 2018 Olympics I saw Gabby skate without fear in her eyes recently. She seemed pleased when she left the ice. I don't know if she can regain her earlier glory - the big jumps are still there - I hope she can leave skating with some sense of joy so I hope she gives it another year at least.

 

[ana]

So sad news. I wish Aurora all the best. I miss her skating.

 

[clairecloutier]

I thought that Gabby's performance level at 4CCs was pretty good. The jumps weren't totally there, but she showed some spirit in her free skate right up through the end. That was nice to see.

 

[Sylvia]

Maddie Schizas was surprised with a community send-off in Milton today : https://www.instagram.com/p/CZNjk3xr0nL/

All I can say is WOW! I am so overwhelmed by the amount of support from my community today. Thank you SO much to my club (specifically @tracy_1313 , @_lia.pereira , and Laurie) for putting together a COVID safe sendoff, and to everyone for coming out. It means so, so much to me

Also, props to everyone for keeping this a total secret. Not sure how you all managed it but I literally had no idea

4-time Summer Olympian Adam van Koeverden (now a Liberal MP for Milton) also attended and gave her an Olympic pin: https://twitter.com/vankayak/status/1486456752665251844

 

[shutterbug]

New National Post article about Maddie Schizas: Meet the Olympic rookie holding the key to Canada's shot at a figure skating team event medal

“I don’t find competitions that different. I do get nervous but I think I’m pretty good at managing those nerves and managing the excitement of being at an event. I find by the end of the year, after competing every three weeks since August you don’t even feel it anymore. What’s one more competition?”

Such a good head on her shoulders.

 

[danafan]

Amanda Tobin shared a video on her Instagram story of her doing triple flip triple toe and triple lutz triple toe. They better not overlook her for international assignments next season!

Watch this story by amanda on Instagram before it disappears.

1,352 Followers, 1,042 Following, 106 Posts

instagram.com

 

[Colonel Green]

Well...no pressure Maddie.

 

[screech]

I don't think Maddie ever expected that all the hopes of even making it to the free programs would like on her shoulders.
How is the Italian lady? I don't think I've ever seen her skate. Is it likely that Maddie will place 3 spots ahead of her (we're currently ranked 6th; 2 points behind 5th ranked Italy the standings). And we'll also have to stay ahead of Georgia (who's only 1 point behind us)

 

[Karen-W]

I don't think Maddie ever expected that all the hopes of even making it to the free programs would like on her shoulders.
How is the Italian lady? I don't think I've ever seen her skate. Is it likely that Maddie will place 3 spots ahead of her (we're currently ranked 6th; 2 points behind 5th ranked Italy the standings). And we'll also have to stay ahead of Georgia (who's only 1 point behind us)

The Italian lady is not a strong SP skater, but Gubanova is and I would be surprised if Schizas beats her in the SP.

 

[Seerek]

On paper, Lara's Gutmann's technical content is actually comparable to Maddie or Nastya, but she's been rather poor in the SP all season.

 

[coppertop1]

Good thing Maddie is cool under pressure. Italy and China are both vulnerable in the Women's

 

[hoptoad]

Go Maddie!

 

[screech]

For Italy Maddie only has to beat her by 3 places (or 2 but with Canada able to win the tie breaker). I think China is pretty safe, as they're 5 points ahead of us in the standings. But not only do we have to defeat Italy, we also have to stay ahead of Georgia.

It might be close between Maddie and Anastasiia Gubanova - Maddie's season's best in the SP is 67.82 from Rostelecom, and Anastasiia's is 69.50 from Finlandia (and Challengers are often not scored as hard as GP events). We might have a chance defeating Italy overall, as Lara Naki Gutmann's SB in the SP is 57.16 (from Nebelhorn), so in theory should place a few spots ahead of her in the SP.

 

[Wyliefan]

Maddie's a good skater and I hope she can shake off the pressure and rise to the occasion. I'd love to see her do well here.

 

[kalamalka]

I hope Schizas just skates well for her own sake, and so that she has a good feeling about Olympic ice going into her individual. She shouldn't feel it's on her to get Canada into the top 5. All three of the other disciplines underperformed yesterday.

 

[Panja]

I hope Schizas just skates well for her own sake, and so that she has a good feeling about Olympic ice going into her individual. She shouldn't feel it's on her to get Canada into the top 5. All three of the other disciplines underperformed yesterday.

I totally agree. It would really be unfair to put this kind of pressure on her. I hope she has a good skate, whatever the ranking, and that she's pleased with her performance. Team Canada in 5 or 6th. I realise of course it's a big deal whether you get to skate the Free or not, just not to blame it on Maddie when they don't succeed.

 

[Karen-W]

I hope Schizas just skates well for her own sake, and so that she has a good feeling about Olympic ice going into her individual. She shouldn't feel it's on her to get Canada into the top 5. All three of the other disciplines underperformed yesterday.

I totally agree. It would really be unfair to put this kind of pressure on her. I hope she has a good skate, whatever the ranking, and that she's pleased with her performance. Team Canada in 5 or 6th. I realise of course it's a big deal whether you get to skate the Free or not, just not to blame it on Maddie when they don't succeed.

Canada was going to be hard-put to make the Final once it became apparent that Keegan wouldn't be able to compete in the SP. And, really, as much as I thought it was a mistake to put M-T/M in the SP instead of J/R, I don't think J/R would have skated well enough to place any higher than M-T/M, so whatever. What really hurts Canada is their RD placement. That wasn't something anyone foresaw. All Maddie can do is skate her best, for herself, and let the chips fall where they may with regard to her placement relative to the rest of the field. If Canada doesn't make the Final, it says far more about the fed than it does about her (or any of the other skaters, really). Hopefully this will be the wakeup call that Skate Canada's general membership needs to initiate some drastically needed changes to the organization.

 

[Colonel Green]

If Canada doesn't make the Final, it says far more about the fed than it does about her (or any of the other skaters, really).

Not really, since the main problem was Keegan being unable to attend. That wasn't anybody's fault.

 

[Karen-W]

Not really, since the main problem was Keegan being unable to attend. That wasn't anybody's fault.

Yes, it really does. It is inexcusable that the Canadian men's field is as soft as it is. Same goes for the Pairs finishing 5th. At the rate those two disciplines are deteriorating, Canada will be lucky to even qualify for the TE in 4 years. That's on the fed. Not the individual skaters.

 

[skatingguy]

Yes, it really does. It is inexcusable that the Canadian men's field is as soft as it is. Same goes for the Pairs finishing 5th. At the rate those two disciplines are deteriorating, Canada will be lucky to even qualify for the TE in 4 years. That's on the fed. Not the individual skaters.

The sport is not what it once was. It might be that we're in a slump that we come out of, or we could be doing a Great Britain, and about to move in to the figure skating wilderness. There's so many more options for sports in Canada at this point that figure skating doesn't get the quality or depth of athlete that it used to.

 

[Colonel Green]

Yes, it really does. It is inexcusable that the Canadian men's field is as soft as it is. Same goes for the Pairs finishing 5th. At the rate those two disciplines are deteriorating, Canada will be lucky to even qualify for the TE in 4 years. That's on the fed. Not the individual skaters.

It's not the federation's fault that every promising male skater in recent years has grown so tall that they can't jump consistently (Roman included). Or that Michael has been plagued with back problems, etc.

The federation doesn't actually have much of a role in who chooses to enter the sport. Figure skating is primarily paid for by the athletes' families, and they make most of the decisions regarding participation, development, etc. The fed has tried to goose participation in pairs of late, we'll see if that yields any results, because ultimately it's not up to them.

 

[overedge]

Re @Seerek's post above about Canadian ladies champions coaching at the Olympics: Larkyn Austman's mom was Canadian novice ladies champion and coached Larkyn for quite a while, although she didn't coach her daughter at the Olympics.

 

[marbri]

When we live in Canada for a few years my daughters school had at least 1300 students. There was maybe 10 students who did figure skating and all female. These were the junior to high school years.


If I were Maddie's coach I would be telling her to just use it as a practice run through for her individual event because the other three entries underperformed and there are no medals on the line. So just go out and have fun and call it a day.

 

[overedge]

If Canada doesn't make the Final, it says far more about the fed than it does about her (or any of the other skaters, really). Hopefully this will be the wakeup call that Skate Canada's general membership needs to initiate some drastically needed changes to the organization.

I agree that SC needs a wakeup call for a lot of reasons, but TBH the team event at the Olympics is not as high profile as the singles event. And as we saw, the results can be affected by all sorts of things, like Keegan not being able to travel to Beijing in time to participate. The Canadian team not making the final is not going to be seen as a disaster.

As was said above, there are good years and there are not so good years. Most of the Cdn Olympic skating team is there for the first time. Several long-time competitors with strong international records retired over the past four years. This is a not-so-good year in terms of winning Olympic medals, probably, but it's giving a new group of skaters an important experience.

 

[puglover]

Probably a number of reasons Canada is struggling in figure skating. I have been a fan since the early 90's and we have never had much depth. Our success has been reliant on the very top tier. Of late, we seem to have not had the breaks. Last Olympics we thought Julianne and Charlie would be carrying the banner now in pairs with maybe Justine B. and some partner challenging them. Stephen had landed all the quads and was training with RA in California. Nam came 5th in the world at one point. Gabbi 3rd. AC was training with Kaetlyn's coach, Ravi, and had something really special. Roman, Joseph, Veronique, and more have all had their problems. Most of them have quit over injuries or issues. I don't hear much talk of figure skating among young parents. They all want their kids in hockey. My youngest daughter has two boys who are tiny and very athletic and energetic - 5 and 7. They both play hockey. I don't see the future for them.

 

[Seerek]

Maddie is about as level headed of a competitor as they get - I think having parents that are totally outside of the skating world (in the past you might have seen her dad on Business News Network, her mom CBC News Network) has really helped in her overall development.