Madeline Schizas pursues Canadian women's figure skating 3-peat

Knowing what it takes to defend a national women's figure skating championship has Madeline Schizas feeling prepared to do it again.

Winner of two straight titles, the 20-year-old from Oakville, Ont., pursues a three-peat in Calgary starting with Friday's short program.

"I felt definitely a lot of pressure last year going into Canadians," Schizas said. "I'd had a subpar fall season and knew that I was going to have to kind of step up for nationals. That created a fair bit of stress.

"This year, I feel much calmer and what I took from that experience was just that I pulled off what I was trying to do and that was while being fairly stressed. So I've decided to just cut out the stress part and jump to pulling it off."

Schizas would be the first woman to claim three consecutive wins since Joannie Rochette capped a run of six in 2010. Watching Rochette skate her short program at the 2010 Olympic Games en route to a bronze medal inspired a seven-year-old Schizas.

"This is the most calm and the most prepared I feel like I've been coming into a national championship and I'm hoping to show that to everybody," Schizas said.

"This is the third go-round of being favoured to win a Canadian title. I kind of know how long it takes me to get ready and I know what it's going to feel like."

Senior competition gets underway Thursday evening with the synchronized team short program and concludes Saturday with the men's free program at WinSport Arena.

Two-time world ice dance bronze medallists Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier return to the Canadian championship after withdrawing from the 2023 edition. Gilles underwent cancer surgery to remove an ovary.

Reigning ice dance champions Nikolaj Sorensen and Laurence Fournier Beaudry withdrew from