About Maddie
Maddie first started on the ice at the age of three, one year after she started asking to learn to skate. When she was six her parents took her to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver so she could see the best in the world. Dazzled by Canadian Joannie Rochette, she set upon her own skating journey.
By the age of sixteen, Maddie already had an impressive resume as a skater, becoming the 2019 National Junior Silver Medalist, an Ontario provincial medallist, and the 2018 Ontario Winter Games Novice champion. In 2020 Maddie made her Senior debut, winning the 2020 Skate Canada Challenge as well as becoming the Skate Canada 2020 Ladies' National Bronze Medalist.
That season, Maddie also represented Canada internationally at the Volvo Open in Riga, Latvia, and at the Bavarian Open in Oberstdorf, Germany, where she was a 2020 Gold Medalist. At the 2020 Challenge Cup in The Hague, Netherlands, she became the highest scoring Canadian senior lady at any international event in the 2019/20 season and brought home Canada's only Senior Ladies' medal.
The following year, Maddie won the 2021 Skate Canada Challenge, marking her second consecutive gold medal in this competition. After the cancellation of Nationals due to COVID-19, Canadian skating journalist Beverley Smith wrote that “Perhaps we can’t technically call Madeline Schizas a Canadian champion... But effectively, she is, after her decisive win Saturday in the Skate Canada Challenge.” Maddie went on to be selected as one of Canada’s two entries to the 2021 World Championships in Stockholm, her debut at an ISU championship. She placed thirteenth in the competition, earning Team Canada a berth at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
Maddie secured her spot on Canada's Olympic Team with a fantastic 2022 season that saw her win her first Skate Canada National Championship. Maddie’s Olympic Games debut came later that season, skating to a personal best 69.60 points in the women’s short program, placing third to earn Canada a spot in the free program medal round, where she skated another personal best 132.04 points. Due to her impressive skates, Canada finished 4th in the team event, with 4x world champion figure skater Kurt Browning of the CBC dubbing her “the definite MVP of the team so far.” In the individual portion, she placed 20th and 18th in the short and free programs, respectively, earning a 19th place finish overall.
Maddie is coached by Nancy Lemaire and Derek Schmidt of the Milton Skating Club, as well as her original coaches Ann and Paul Fisher and a team that includes specialists in jumping, spinning and dance. She trains on and off ice for more than twenty-four hours a week.
Aside from skating, Maddie is currently studying Urban Planning at the University of Waterloo and is passionate about music. She is an accomplished pianist and singer, as well as the enthusiastic music teacher to over a dozen young students. Maddie has also tried out the entertainment world by working as a skating double on the Netflix series Spinning Out (you can spot her as the jumping partner of skater Johnny Weir).
Maddie lives in Oakville, Ontario with her dad, mom and dog Sebastian.