2025–26 Canadian Women: News and Updates

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Rob Brodie's most recent interview with Katherine Medland Spence: 'Always remember why I do this'

One other touch of familiarity will come with her long program. She is keeping the one she used last season, which is skated to Cody Fry’s “Photograph/Clair de Lune.” It’s a program that Medland Spence believes still has a lot of room for further growth, and that’s something she aims to explore in the new season, primarily on the components side of things.

Yet to be finalized are any kind of technical leaps Medland Spence and her camp might want to add. Last year’s rendition of the program included seven triple jumps, but the question is whether that collection will be upgraded.

“We’re looking at that right now. We’re just trying to sort that out and figure out what is the best option for me to get stuff done. We haven’t fully decided yet,” said Medland Spence. “I think we could have a Plan A and a Plan B right now, but we just want to kind of get things up and running to start with, and then see how it goes from there.”

After spending the past two seasons skating a short program that truly resonated with the country music fan inside her — it prominently featured a Louie Ashley version of the John Denver classic “Take Me Home, Country Roads” — it’s now time for Medland Spence to break out something different in that area. The new short is very early in its building stages, so she prefers to keep all of it under wraps for now (which, let’s face it, most skaters do at this time of the year. But it never hurts to ask about it, right?).

 

[danafan]

Gabrielle Daleman 🇨🇦 on Instagram: "5 months post surgery to the day! and we’re back jumping!! For the first time in over 2 years I’m jumping without pain! Couldn’t be prouder of myself, Feels so good to be back! 1% stronger everyday 💪🏻 #recovery

370 likes, 11 comments - gabby_daleman on May 20, 2025: "5 months post surgery to the day! and we’re back jumping!! For the first time in over 2 years I’m jumping without pain! Couldn’t be prouder of myself, Feels so good to be back! 1% stronger everyday 💪🏻 #recovery #comebackstronger...

www.instagram.com

Daleman back to jumping post surgery saying it’s the first time in over two years jumping without pain.

 

[Wyliefan]

Rob Brodie's Substack pointed me to this very powerful video from Kaetlyn Osmond, talking about how hard it's been to create a new life after skating and how some people have torn her down for not having the right body, the right look, the right whatever. I can't believe there are people who can't appreciate her and who are so horrible about it. But she's back on the ice and jumping (even got a triple loop on the first try!). Sounds like she's mostly interested in doing shows, but I wonder if there might be more to it ...
https://www.instagram.com/p/DKNLB0Fpa2-/

 

[withwings]

Thank you for posting this.

 

[danafan]

So the grand prix assignments are out. I was hoping they would not assign Schizas to SCI in order to open up an extra host pick. However Medland-Spence was assigned NHK - I was hopeful she would get a non host pick after winning Warsaw last year so I was pleasantly surprised by this! Schizas and Dupuis will be at SCI with one spot TBD and Schizas will also be at Finlandia.
I hope there will be a good and fair process to pick the TBD at SCI. It's possible Medland-Spence could get this and end up with two assignments but I would like to see how Ruiter, Landry and Brezden look.

 

[Karen-W]

So the grand prix assignments are out. I was hoping they would not assign Schizas to SCI in order to open up an extra host pick. However Medland-Spence was assigned NHK - I was hopeful she would get a non host pick after winning Warsaw last year so I was pleasantly surprised by this! Schizas and Dupuis will be at SCI with one spot TBD and Schizas will also be at Finlandia.
I hope there will be a good and fair process to pick the TBD at SCI. It's possible Medland-Spence could get this and end up with two assignments but I would like to see how Ruiter, Landry and Brezden look.

Don't forget Daleman's back on the ice. Plus Shiryaeva should be in the mix.

 

[Habs]

Don't forget Daleman's back on the ice. Plus Shiryaeva should be in the mix.

I wondered if they're holding the TBA for Daleman depending on how she looks this summer and into the early fall.

 

[danafan]

I wondered if they're holding the TBA for Daleman depending on how she looks this summer and into the early fall.

Oh I would love to see her in the mix.

 

[Colonel Green]

I wondered if they're holding the TBA for Daleman depending on how she looks this summer and into the early fall.

At this point I tend to doubt they're keeping it specifically with her in mind.

 

[Karen-W]

At this point I tend to doubt they're keeping it specifically with her in mind.

Agreed. I think they're just letting several contenders prove themselves.

 

[honey]

I also doubt they are keeping that TBD with any 1 particular skater in mind, but probably several.

I did notice that Daleman has posted a couple of things on IG and TikTok tagged in Colorado Springs. Interested to know what the purpose is. She has so much raw jumping talent, but over the years the technique has been getting away from her with loose air positions. Say what we will about Tom Z but I feel like he could reign that in a bit.

 

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Rob Brodie's latest interview with Maddie Schizas: 'It was time to learn something new'

But there is a long road to get there before then. Schizas benefited greatly last season by getting busy early when it comes to competitions, and she and her team want to stick with that plan again in the season to come.

“That’s my plan right now. I am going to do at least one summer event in August or maybe something before that, but we’re kind of figuring out how that’s going to work,” she said, adding Challenger Series events are likely also going to be on her fall agenda.

“Ideally, I’d like to do two (Challengers). We’ll see how it all plays out (Schizas learned last week she’s got two Grand Prix assignments: a return to Skate Canada International, this time in Saskatoon, Sask., from Oct. 31-Nov. 2, and Finlandia Trophy in Helsinki, the last event of the series, from Nov. 21-23).”

 

[ginsengtea]

Rob Brodie's latest interview with Maddie Schizas: 'It was time to learn something new'

It's disheartening to hear that she has to change her Lion King SP because of music rights issues, and that she’s still waiting to hear back about her second choice. Sounds like she has a third option lined up just in case. She mentioned that Disney quoted her “a truly exorbitant amount of money” - can’t help but wonder how much that actually was.