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BEIJING — A fabulous Olympic debut by teenager Madeline Schizas put sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ into the final round of figure skating's team event at the Beijing Games.

The Canadians, who are the reigning champions in the event but are rebuilding, are fourth going into Monday's final programs.

Starting the day in sixth out of 10 countries, and needing to finish top-five to advance to final round of free skates, the 18-year-old from Oakville, Ont., skated a virtually flawless short program to "Dulcea Si Tandra Mea Fiara" to finish third with 69.60 points.

"(The Olympics) have been a real goal of mine, especially this past season, knowing that . . . I could quite possibly qualify," said Schizas, who captured her first Canadian title last month. "And so just getting out there, it made me so happy and so excited to represent my country and I was really happy I represented them well."

Roman Sadovsky had a shaky men's free program, finishing fifth out of five skaters, but sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ remained in fourth heading into Monday's final free programs — pairs, ice dance, and women.

The Russians lead with 45 points, following by the United States with 42. Third-place Japan has 39 points to sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½'s 30, putting the Canadians' medal chances all but out of reach. 

Sadovsky, a 22-year-old from Toronto, put a hand down on his opening quadruple Salchow and his program to Snow Patrol's "Chasing Cars" unravelled from there. He popped an Axel and a Lutz and had a fluke fall, to finish fifth out of the five men's skaters with 122.60 points.

"Really shaky," Sadovsky said. "I was fighting for every element. I guess I just didn't feel comfortable. Definitely not the outcome I hoped for. It's been a long year of training, I've had some good skates, some not so good skates, but this one is definitely closer to not so good. 

"But hoping that I can use this opportunity to find that comfort in the singles event."

Yuma Kagiyama scored 208.94 for first, while Mark Kondratiuk of Russia was second (181.65), and American Vincent Zhou took third (171.44).

Russia's Kamila Valieva landed the fourth triple Axel by a woman in Olympic history to score 90.18 points in the women's short program, while Japan's Wakaba Higuchi was second with 74.73. 

The pressure was on Schizas on Sunday morning, after the men's singles, ice dance and pairs events two days earlier. 

The Canadians were already in an unenviable position when Canadian champion Keegan Messing missed the team's charter to Beijing due to a positive COVID-19 test.

Tasked with replacing Messing on short notice, Sadovsky struggled in his short program as well, downgrading his quad jump to finish eighth out of nine skaters.

Messing, the reigning Canadian champion, is en route to Beijing via Milan after passing the required four COVID-19 tests. He's scheduled to arrive Monday, a day before the men's singles event begins with the short program.

Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, the reigning world bronze medallists, were fourth in the rhythm dance of the team event on Friday, while Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro were fifth in pairs, moving sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ into sixth going into Sunday.

Since substitutions are permitted, Skate sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ has said that Vanessa James and Eric Radford will skate the pairs free program Monday.

sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ took silver in the team event when it made its debut at the 2014 Sochi Games, then won gold in 2018 with a squad anchored by ice dance stars Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir and also featuring world champions Patrick Chan and Kaetlyn Osmond.

Chan and Osmond retired from competitive skating shortly after the 2018 Pyeongchang Games ended, and Virtue and Moir followed suit in September 2019, putting sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½'s program in rebuilding mode for the quadrennial leading up the Beijing.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 5, 2022.

The Canadian Press