More than just a meme: Canadian figure skater Madeline Schizas is doing things her way

The Milano Olympics for Madeline Schizas may be remembered for a school assignment more than anything she did on the ice.

Schizas, the Canadian figure skater, went viral in Italy over a public request for an extension on a sociology paper — with the very understandable reason that she was, indeed, competing in the Olympics.

The light-hearted saga blew up on social media. It still follows Schizas as a new season begins.

“I mean, I’m a little sick of it,” Schizas admitted. “That was a lot.”

Now, the 23-year-old is looking to take back her story. With the pressure and expectations of the Olympics — where she helped Canada finish fifth in the team event but failed to even qualify for the free dance as an individual — behind her, Schizas’ goal for this season is simple: joy.

“Especially with the pressure [of the] Olympics, there's a lot of cooks in the kitchen trying to tell you what to do,” Schizas said. “I think that this season has been just one where we've said, ‘OK, enough of this.’ Like, let's really just make the decisions that we feel are the correct ones as opposed to the decisions we feel might appease other people.”

Schizas’ Grand Prix season gets underway Friday at the Skate Canada International in Kelowna, B.C., the second stop of the year. Live coverage on CBC Gem and CBCSports.ca begins at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT.

The Oakville, Ont., native will skate her short program to the Benny Goodman classic Sing, Sing, Sing, which coach Nancy Lemaire said was a specific choice after Schizas also performed to the song when she was just six.

“She always had opinions about the type of music she wanted to skate to, the energy that she wanted to have in the program,” said Lemaire, who has guided Schizas throughout her