Ontarian Madeline Schizaz had her work cut out to help Canada secure a spot in the team figure skating final. The 18-year-old put in an inspiring performance in her short program to earn the country its ticket to the medal event.
Posted at 10:20 p.m.
Heading into Saturday night’s competition, Canada was sixth in the standings after three events. Only the first five nations qualified for the final.
under the room My Sweet and Tender BeastSchizaz offered a high quality performance, she who perfectly managed a triple toe loop as well as a double axel, in particular.
His performance earned him a score of 69.60 and allowed him to take the lead. The execution of the defending national champion was sufficient. Only Kamila Valieva (90.18) of the Russian Olympic Committee and Wakaba Iguchi (74.73) of Japan did better.
Canada finished fourth overall and will look to defend its Olympic title won in this event in 2018. The Russian Olympic Committee is in first place, followed by the United States and Japan. China is the last and fifth qualified team.
The pressure was on Schizas’ shoulders Sunday morning after the men’s, ice dance and pairs programs had been completed two days earlier.
The Canadians were already in an unenviable position when Canadian champion Keegan Messing missed the team’s flight to Beijing due to testing positive for COVID-19.
Tasked with replacing Messing on short notice, Roman Sadovsky had a shaky short program to finish eighth out of nine skaters.
Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, bronze medalists at the last World Championships, took fourth place in ice dancing while Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro finished fifth in pairs on Friday. Canada had then climbed to the sixth echelon.
As substitutions are permitted, Skate Canada has announced that Vanessa James and Eric Radford will compete in the pairs free program on Monday.
Canada won silver in the team discipline’s debut at the Sochi 2014 Games and went on to win gold at the PyeongChang 2018 Games. on ice Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir as well as world champions Patrick Chan and Kaetlyn Osmond.
Chan and Osmond retired shortly after the end of the PyeongChang Games while Virtue and Moir took the same route in September 2019, putting Canada’s program into rebuilding.
With The Canadian Press