Oakville's Madeline Schizas finishes 8th at Skate Canada International

Okay, here is Maddie Skeesis at Skate Canada International. Once again, her sixth straight appearance, the Oakville, Ontario natives. Best finish here came four years ago when she finished just off the podium. Didn't have a great short. She's in ninth position, the podium likely out of reach, but she wants to have a strong skate now because she has another Grand Prix assignment a little bit later. And Maddie's got goals of her own for this event. She's moved some of her harder elements to the second half of the program. She tried that in the short yesterday. Didn't totally work out in her favor, but good for her. She's going to try it again today. Of course, she'll be seeking, I believe it's a 10% bonus on the last three jumping passes. By beefing them up it's a good strategy, triple flip and off to a better start. Oh my gosh, no. Just a little lazy free leg there because she looked like she had it and then the leg just collapsed. Maybe a little bobble on the landing of the flip that caused that but you know when you catch your leg it's also a jarring fall. We're back on the recovery mode. Planned toe. Oh, oh really sweet. Two triples back to back. Very nice triple loop. First three jumping passes in the first half of the program and she'll save the other three until the second half. You can see if you're watching the technical tracker there, she's got some nice green boxes, which means that the judges are giving her a positive grade of execution. You'll see she's got a level 4 flying sit-spin right now. Level 4 being the holy grail of levels. Everybody wants to get that. It's the highest one. And the red box, unfortunately, means you're in a minus grade of execution, what we call the GOE. So we don't want to see too many of those. She knows the assignment. She did well to get back into that sequence after the planned triple loop turned into a double. The jump that gave her trouble in the short program, here comes the Lutz. Three revolutions, clean landing. I'm And what I liked about that, Kurt, she gave herself a lot of room to do that jump. She didn't put it too close to the boards, which seemed like the problem yesterday. The confidence continued into that triple salchow, and now with no jumps left, she can relax into her Edith Piaf medley, and I think it suits her. Me too. Thank you. This build-up of music right near the big finish, spinning flourish to end it all. Well, she's got to be a lot happier with that performance after a disappointing short for Madi, but she has really been... The best female skater in Canada over the last five years. It was Gabby Dellman a little bit earlier. Gabby had a lot of injuries in the last few years, but Maddie is back, I'm sure, or Gabby, rather, is back, and I'm sure she will be challenging Maddie for that top spot on the podium at the Canadian Nationals, which are taking place in January. Let's see if we get that war of quotes going again. Did you pick that up? No, I can't hear you. I think skaters are inclined to speak in tongues with their coach so that they can't be overheard when they go in the Kiss and Cry. Oh, it was not what we thought. We thought that she caught her free leg, but that was just a little bit too far back and forced the edge until it caught the ice, I guess. But the triple toe, triple toe, as you said, Kurt, was really lovely. So much speed in and out. Great job. And he gives me a lot of confidence with the triple loop. I always feel it's a very good jump for her, but then... Didn't work the second time, but she saved it, got into her sequence, Once, s'effondrer. so got as many points out of that as she could. I could not hear. She has laser focus with those eyes that look on her face that says it's game time, and I thought it did suit the energy of this program. I'm going crazy. Nice, light timing. She has great rotation position. A very repeatable style of jumping that could work for her under pressure. For sure. Occasionally, like, strange things seem to happen to her. And sometimes you sit back and go, is it the gremlins in the ice? Or is it something that she lets go every once in a while with concentration? The clean, clean skate eludes her sometimes, but today was a good day. And we have to remember this is her season debut. Maddie said she wanted to be completely ready before hitting the competition ice this season. So it is her first time out. You see there 119.43. Three. You know, well off her personal best, but starts the season. Losing. And of course for her, it's important to confirm that she's the number one Canadian at the Skate Canada event. Going to be a battle royal at Nationals in January. Will be.