2024–25 Canadian Women: News and Updates

Happy to see that Reese Rose and Aleksa Volkova are listed for the Tallinn Trophy on Skate Canada's website, after the junior free skate in Nice was cancelled.

Fee-Ann Landry had a good senior debut in Nice, she's 6th after the short program. Breken Brezden had a rough skate, popping her lutz to a double and falling on a downgraded triple toe-triple toe. She usually exudes such joy when skating, it was sad to see her struggle :(
 
danafan said:
Happy to see that Reese Rose and Aleksa Volkova are listed for the Tallinn Trophy on Skate Canada's website, after the junior free skate in Nice was cancelled.

Fee-Ann Landry had a good senior debut in Nice, she's 6th after the short program. Breken Brezden had a rough skate, popping her lutz to a double and falling on a downgraded triple toe-triple toe. She usually exudes such joy when skating, it was sad to see her struggle :(
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Oh thats a shame for Breken, hopefully she will have a good free. Great job for Fee-Ann and good job Skate Canada recognizing our women need more exposure and experience.
 
In other news Katherine Medland-Spence had a good skate at the Skate Ontario October event. She met the Skate Canada domestic score for an international assignment. She did a good triple toe triple toe combo in the short but fell on her triple loop. I didn't see her free skate (hopefully they will post the replay soon) but she did attempt 7 triples, got credit for rotating all of them. I really hope she gets an international assignment. Her jumps are beautiful and she's improving the other aspects of her skating.
 
danafan said:
So Reese Rose picked up a silver at Nice, but based on the short program as the free was cancelled due to extreme weather.

She skated well and improved her CTES but will be just shy of the jr worlds minimum if I did my math right.
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Reese Rose's Junior SP video from the FFSG's livestream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Zfnbk3HhqM

Good for Skate Canada!
danafan said:
Happy to see that Reese Rose and Aleksa Volkova are listed for the Tallinn Trophy on Skate Canada's website, after the junior free skate in Nice was cancelled.
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Mike Slipchuk is quoted extensively in Robert Brodie's Oct. 24th Substack article before the start of Skate Canada International in Halifax - scroll down to the "On Skate Canada’s summer strategy …" and "Building women’s depth" sections.
Two-time Canadian champion Maddie Schizas is someone who would surely agree. Schizas, who’s among the women’s field here at SCI, did Cranberry Cup in Boston in August and followed that up with two Challenger Series events, and plans to do Ontario Sectionals next month.
“We knew that we had to do a summer event — that was made clear to all of us on national team well ahead of the summer — and I was offered a second Challenger event in the fall and I decided to take it,” she said. “It’s about trying to build experience as we head into an important season.
“It’s just about getting out there early enough to be ready for the fall. Sometimes the summer just flies by and you’re not ready. So it was a conscious choice to get out there and compete early. Although all these didn’t go as I hoped they would, it’s kind of helped me build for the event this week … I’m really prepared because of it. I was prepared last year, but this year I just feel a little more calm.”
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i confess to being Canadian and a fan but I am unapologetic about being thrilled for these three women. Maddie has clearly had her challenges balancing a demanding university program and skating at an elite level the last few years but this was the most comfortable she has looked on the ice in a long time. i really like both programs for her but especially think her joy comes through in the Lion King short. It is super nice to see her smiling and I had the sense it was not dependent on placement.

Kaiya is still adorable and I love seeing her with Tracy Wilson. I am always amazed when families with several children split the family and relocate part of it essentially for one child's pursuit. As far as I understand, this is what her family has done with mother and children moving and father still working in Calgary. She seems like the type of person who would appreciate any sacrifices made and do her very best to take full advantage of it.

I still struggle with some of the very unkind comments made by so called skating fans about these young athletes. I hope they never read them.
 
Sylvia said:
Mike Slipchuk is quoted extensively in Robert Brodie's Oct. 24th Substack article before the start of Skate Canada International in Halifax - scroll down to the "On Skate Canada’s summer strategy …" and "Building women’s depth" sections.
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That was a great article. It highlighted the number of women who have achieved CTES minimums. Shiryaeva (4CC/Worlds), Landry and Brezden (4CC) are three skaters who debuted as seniors this year who got their minimums on the first try. Dupuis has the worlds minimums now too. Ruiter still hasn't achieved it and I'm not sure she will this year...Hopefully her new coaching situation will work out for her.

With so many women eligible for 4CC now (Schizas, Ruiter, Dupuis, Miclette, Landry, Brezden, Shiryaeva) it should be a good battle for those spots at nationals. Fingers crossed Medland-Spence will get the CTES in Poland in a few weeks. Her CTES from Cranberry last season was 74.93 so she only has to improve by 0.07 to get it!

I do wonder why Miclette hasn't had an assignment yet as she met the criteria and was at the HP Camp. I know she didn't skate well at her summer events but still.

Schizas made some interesting comments about her performance at SCI.

x.com

x.com x.com

Skate Canada has often been a struggle for me, you know, to the point where I've asked, you know, a couple times, to be somewhere, at a different event, different Grand Prix, which is obviously not really, you don't get a choice in it. I think, I kind of mentally struggled, just with the week it is and everything. Like, you know, sometimes turn around and whatever. So, I think I overcame, you know, all those doubts. I had to put out some demons. This is the highest score I've put up in two seasons, which is a big deal for me. Especially given that, like, just across the board, if you look at the women's scores, from two years ago. Now we're putting up lower scores, like they were kind of artificially high when I started senior, at least, that's my take on it. They were, like, a little bit artificially inflated.It also makes me feel good going into Canadians and good going into, you know, selection for the second half of the season knowing that I now have a score that puts me the top ten in the world pretty easily.
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It's interesting that she's asked not to be assigned to Skate Canada but it's probably the only way to get two assignments. I think she's not the only skater who feels that way though. Interesting comments about scores from two years ago compared to now. While her 190 score is good and on the right track for a top 10, it's only 26th on the season best list and even keeping in mind age and country limits I think it would put her just outside the top 10. Still a step in the right direction.
 
danafan said:
While her 190 score is good and on the right track for a top 10, it's only 26th on the season best list and even keeping in mind age and country limits I think it would put her just outside the top 10. Still a step in the right direction.
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Removing the skaters who are age-ineligible and the ones who exceed the country limit, her score is 12th best. I'd say 13th is more likely since of the women who have consistently out-scored Maddie the past few seasons, Loena still hasn't competed at a Challenger or GP yet. My expectation is that the 3 Japanese women, the 3 US women, Chaeyeon & Loena are likely to be ahead of the rest of the pack in Boston and I bunch Maddie in with about 8 other women who are capable of hitting 185-195 if they have a good competition, maybe higher if they skate lights out - Gubanova, Pinzarrone, Kaiser, Repond, Schizas, Samodelkina, Gutmann, Petrokina, and Yun. A great day for Maddie, she'd slip into the top 10; on a rough day, she could be as low as 15 or 16.
 
Rob Brodie’s article with a Schizas focus in the first half (includes the mixed zone comments @danafan quoted above):
rwbrodiewrites.substack.com

#SCI24: 'I came in with a fiery attitude this week'

Maddie Schizas has been waiting so long to produce the kind of skating she showed in Halifax this week. It's the kind of performance she'll need to be in the world's top 10.
rwbrodiewrites.substack.com rwbrodiewrites.substack.com
“I wasn’t really crying, I’m not normally a crier,” the 21-year-old Canadian said sheepishly when asked about the emotional aftermath of her intense “Danse Macabre” free program. “I was just happy. I’ve put out some good skates in practice but I’ve had such a hard time translating it into competition. I came in with a fiery attitude this week and it helped me perform my best.
“Skate Canada has been a struggle for me, to the point that a couple of times I’ve asked if I could be at a different event, a different Grand Prix. But I don’t really have any choice about it. I think I overcame all those doubts I’ve had to put out some skates I was pretty proud of.”
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For Ruiter, the reigning Canadian champion, it wasn’t as smooth a day as with her short program. But the every-optimistic skater found the positives.
“There were some good moments that, taking away from this competition, I’m going to be happy about,” she said. “But there’s definitely a lot to improve.”
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Katherine Medland Spence showing off her team Canada jacket ahead of her Warsaw Cup assignment.

www.instagram.com

Richmond Training Centre on Instagram: "Somebody got her Team Canada jacket!! 🇨🇦 We are so incredibly proud of Katherine who has been chosen to represent Canada at the Warsaw Cup in Poland in just a few weeks! Good luck and we will be cheering for y

58 likes, 4 comments - richmond_training_centre on October 30, 2024: "Somebody got her Team Canada jacket!! 🇨🇦 We are so incredibly proud of Katherine who has been chosen to represent Canada at the Warsaw Cup in Poland in just a few weeks! Good luck and we will be cheering for you! #teamrtc...
www.instagram.com www.instagram.com
 
Martin Cleary wrote 2 HIGH ACHIEVERS columns about Katherine back in 2022 - one before her Nationals debut at the age of 21:
ottawasportspages.ca

HIGH ACHIEVERS: Athlete-coach Katherine Medland-Spence ready for Canadian figure skating championship debut

Katherine Medland-Spence. Photo: Danielle Earl By Martin Cleary Katherine Medland-Spence has a unique perspective on competitive figure skating. As an elite athlete, she is less than a day away fro…
ottawasportspages.ca
And one after she placed 6th (her highest finish in her 3 Nationals so far):
ottawasportspages.ca

HIGH ACHIEVERS: Katherine Medland Spence makes bold statement in Canadian figure skating championship debut

By Martin Cleary Katherine Medland Spence returns to her part-time bio-chemistry studies at Carleton University on Monday, having learned a valuable lesson during her Christmas holiday break. This …
ottawasportspages.ca
 
SENIOR WOMEN top scores from BC, Alberta, Ontario Sectionals, Quebec to be added once completed
Madeline Schizas 173
Uliana Shiryaeva 173
Katherine Medland Spence 172
Amy Shao Ning Yang 160
Lulu Lin 146
Elise Dawson 146
Megan Woodley 146
Grace Johnson 146
 
SENIOR WOMEN top scores from BC, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec Sectionals

Madeline Schizas 173
Uliana Shiryaeva 173
Katherine Medland Spence 172
Justine Miclette 163
Amy Shao Ning Yang 160
Marie-Maude Pomerleau 155
Julianne Lussier 152
Marie-France D'Amour 151
Marie-Raphaele Savoie 150
Jade Bouchard 146
Lulu Lin 146
Elise Dawson 146
Megan Woodley 146
Grace Johnson 146
Mia Clarke 141
 
ICYMI, Rob Brodie's Substack article after Skate Canada International in Halifax (linked here https://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/threads/canadian-figure-skating.111461/page-10#post-6676653) includes a section titled ‘You can see her potential’ re. Ruiter:
We caught up with Tracy Wilson, one of Kaiya Ruiter’s new coaches in Toronto (along with Brian Orser) for a quick chat at SCI about her new student. The 1988 Olympic bronze medallist sees a skater with a sound foundation of skating skills built under the direction of Scott Davis in Calgary.
“First of all, really good training coming up. So her technique she has come to us with is really sound,” Wilson said after watching Ruiter’s short program skate in Halifax. “It’s now about technique under pressure; that’s what we hope to work on. Honing it, the speed, the consistency, the balance going into the elements just to keep up the consistency. She said today was her first time doing Level 4 steps. The performance of it has really come up.
“You can see her potential, you really can.”
Though it won’t happen right away, Wilson says she can see Ruiter working her way up to triple Axels or quads someday.
“She’s got a gorgeous double Axel, so yeah (it could happen),” she said. “It’s one of my favourite jumps of hers, actually … She’s very fluid with her jumps. She gets good spring. It’s just about getting her lined up so she can really access that spring. We’re working on the balance and consistency going in.”
(we hear Orser might know a thing or two about the triple Axel).
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Ruiter is also on the entry list for Warsaw Cup later this month. She edged a tiny bit closer to the technical qualifying score for Worlds with her short program in Halifax. Warsaw might be her last shot at it, unless there’s a Four Continents opportunity in her future. But we’ll need to see what happens at the Canadian Championships in January before we can go there.
“With Tracy and Kaiya, there were probably a lot of learnings (at Skate Canada) that can make things better and they’ll go again in two weeks (in Warsaw),” said Slipchuk. “So those will help just to build that plan and strategy and comfort. Scott Davis did a great job with Kaiya, he got her to this level and Tracy will definitely be helpful for her moving forward.”
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haribobo said:
SENIOR WOMEN top scores from BC, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec Sectionals
Madeline Schizas 173
Uliana Shiryaeva 173
Katherine Medland Spence 172
Justine Miclette 163
Amy Shao Ning Yang 160
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Schizas had a good SP at Ontario Sectionals (66.37; 3Lz+3T, 2A step, 3Lo) which she used as an extra comp. - from the Dailymotion livestream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1gbOOfEJYM
Medland Spence had clean SP (62.02 2nd; 2A, 3T+3T, 3Lo): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0IpwNzTRg8
Kara Yun (56.61 3rd; 3Lz+3T<, 2Aq, 3Fq, all L4 spins) looks better after having switched to Lee Barkell, though I'm not fond of her SP music ;): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htsej-cn_R0
I was also impressed with Elise Dawson (55.98 4th; 3S+2T, 2A, 3T & all L4 spins) who, like Medland Spence -- both are coached by Ken & Danielle Rose -- had no negative GOEs in their respective SP protocols.

Shiryaeva won BC Sectionals and cleanly landed all her SP jumps (63.17; 3F, 2A, 3Lz+3T) - in the recorded intro to her programs (new feature added by BC to their livestreams this season) her English is pretty good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAHlv3BVT3c
She scored 109.83 in her FP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuzYbFraGZY
Amy Shao Ning Wang was 2nd overall and in the FP (104.77), skating to "Windmills of Your Mind" (piano version that segues into Streisand's "The Way We Were," choreo. by Joey Russell - starts at the 52-min. mark in the replay video (after the ads play): https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x98uw8a?start=3122

Miclette's 1st place SP at Quebec Sectionals (60.67; 3T+3T, 2A, 3F< turnout & all L4s): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vyFCUjpZ9I
 
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Not skating related, but Schizas and Dupuis went to a Taylor Swift concert in Toronto together.

www.instagram.com

Madeline Schizas on Instagram: "The best day!"

148 likes, 4 comments - maddieschizas on November 16, 2024: "The best day!".
www.instagram.com www.instagram.com

Recently Schizas had shared on her Insta story that she wanted to trade tickets for a different night because her flight to cup of China got rescheduled. It looks like everything worked out lol
 
danafan said:
Recently Schizas had shared on her Insta story that she wanted to trade tickets for a different night because her flight to cup of China got rescheduled. It looks like everything worked out lol
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I remember when she posted that, I thought it was long odds that that would work.
 
To say Medland-Spence had a great international debut would be an understatement. First in the short program in Warsaw, clean skate, all +GOE except the triple loop which got 0. 32.83 tech. She's easily qualified for 4CC now and is on track to get the worlds CTES. I'm so glad she had this opportunity (which was long overdue IMO, especially after her nationals debut in 2022). Hopefully she can hold her nerve tomorrow skating last in the free skate. I will add the link to her program once it's uploaded (the youtube channel is uploading individual skates now). For now you can rewind the live stream.

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
 
"Funny" story: my power went out for a split second during Medland Spence's free skate in Warsaw (after the third jump pass). I had to reboot my modem. Thankfully you can rewind the stream. Not a funny story - SHE WON THE FREAKING COMPETITION
Her total score is second best of the Canadians this year. We're in the territory of getting a grand prix assignment next season. OMG I'M FREAKING OUT
 
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