Music: {allcanada} Canadians 5th after Day 1 of Olympic figure skating team event

A pair of figure skaters pose on the ice.

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Canada sits fifth in the figure skating team event at the Milano-Cortina Olympic Games after the first day of competition.

Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier scored a season-best 85.79 points in their rhythm dance to Supermodel by RuPaul at Milano Ice Skating Arena on Friday morning, hours before the opening ceremony.

"I think we'll be continuing to push a little bit more going into the individual [event], but again, we're very, very pleased with what we put down today."

Gilles and Poirier, silver medallists at the past two world championships, finished 1.06 points behind Great Britain's Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson.

Trennt Michaud and Lia Pereira — skating in place of former world champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps — placed fourth in the pairs short program, while Madeline Schizas finished sixth in women's singles for a total of 19 points in the standings.

A recent training accident in Quebec put Stelallo-Dudek's chances of skating at the Olympics in jeopardy. They withdrew from the team event earlier this week but have not yet been ruled out of the individual pairs event on Feb. 15-16, with her condition being evaluated daily.

At 42, Stellato-Dudek would become the oldest female figure skater in nearly a century to compete at the Olympics.

Pereira said her and Michaud have given Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps their space to digest the situation.

"Part of the program in the short performance [on Friday] was dedicated to them," Pereira told reporters. "We had extra motivated to skate well for them.

WATCH | Gilles, Poirier give Canada strong start in team event:

Gilles and Poirier put Canadian Olympic figure skating team in 4th after rhythm dance

Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier open up the figure skating team event at the Milano-Cortina Winter Games with a score of 85.79 in the rhythm dance.

The United States, led by three-time world ice dance champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates, topped the standings with 25 points, followed by Japan with 23 and Italy with 22.

Georgia ranked fourth with 20, while France trailed Canada by two points in sixth.

"As soon as we stepped on the ice, just to feel the energy from the crowd was warm," Pereira said. "We have family and friends [here] and this is our first team event at an Olympics. We felt the support behind us."

Pereira added she and Michaud did well at handling nerves in the moment.

"Two little things we had to fight through that cost us points, unfortunately, but there were a lot of good things [in the program] and we felt good."

WATCH | Pairs skaters Pereira, Michaud step up for Canada:

Canadian Olympic figure skating team sits 4th after Pereira and Michaud's short program

Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud score 68.24 in the pairs short program during the figure skating team event at the Milano-Cortina Winter Games. Pereira and Michaud replaced former world champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps after Stellato-Dudek suffered an accident in training.

Schizas punched the ice in excitement as her Canadian teammates celebrated in a rinkside box after delivering what she believed was a stellar skate, hours before the opening ceremony.

Skating to her Lion King routine, the energetic 22-year-old from Oakville, Ont., landed three triple jumps before a raucous crowd but an under-rotation proved costly.

She scored 64.97 points, roughly 1.5 below her season's best, to place sixth in the women's short program.

As a result, Canada slipped from fourth to fifth in the team standings after three segments.

"I skated really well. I skated as well as I could have, so I'm really happy with my performance," said Schizas, who hadn't yet seen the judging breakdown. "I'm just curious to see what I could have done better today.

"[The jumps] all felt OK, so I am not really sure if something was called or not."

Madeline Schizas of Oakville, Ont., scores 64.97 in the women's short program during the figure skating team event at the Milano-Cortina Winter Games. Canada finishes the day in fifth place.

Schizas's coach, Nancy Lemaire, said she was "a little bit" surprised by her score but chalked it up to the two-point deduction for coming up a quarter-rotation short on the triple-toe loop at the end of a combination.

"I don't think she really needs to change anything," Lemaire added. "Just keep being aggressive, be proud of how she did, and come back in the long."

Chock and Bates, fresh off their record seventh U.S. title, also are favoured to win the individual ice dance event later in the Winter Games. But they got a taste of how challenging that could be from the new French duo of Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron, the latter the defending Olympic champion with his former partner, Gabriella Papadakis.

The Canadian-born Fournier Beaudry announced she had become a French citizen in November, making the 33-year-old eligible to compete for France at the Olympics.

Just before Chock and Bates took the ice Friday, Beaudry and Cizeron had posted their own world-best score of 89.98 points.

"I think our goal was to really keep building," Cizeron said. "I think we've been improving at each competition and adding to our score, obviously, but getting more precise with our technical elements and having more fun, enjoying the performance, and giving 100 per cent. So I think we're kind of still climbing that ramp a little bit."

The team event continues with the men's short program Saturday evening. The top five countries after the short programs advance to the final in the 10-team event, which wraps up Sunday.

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