Vic Satzewich woke up to an unexpected email Saturday.
“The first email I read was actually from a Wall Street Journal reporter,” says the Sociology professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences.
The reporter shared a now-famous screenshot of an Olympic figure-skater’s polite email asking for a short extension on an assignment, and asked if it was real.
“And I sort of scratched my head and said to myself, ‘I don’t know.’ And then the next email I opened on Saturday morning was in fact from Maddie. …And sure enough, it was real.”
“I thought, what, this is incredible.”
“I thought, Geez, I should respond fairly quickly because I don’t want her to worry about this little 3-per-cent assignment in the in the middle of what’s probably the biggest moment of her life.”
So he did. At the time, neither he nor figure skater Maddie Schizas fully realized just how many people were invested in that email.
Since then, Schizas and McMaster have both shared Satzewich’s reply online, and it’s been read by millions of people around the world.
“Guys we did it!” CBC’s post reads.
“Competing at the Winter Olympics sounds like a pretty good excuse to us!” the Olympics account posted, sharing the entire saga.
“The update we’ve all been waiting for” Skate Canada said.
Schizas and he were both slightly taken aback by how quickly the story spread. Beside becoming a viral sensation on social media, it appeared in dozens of media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, the Canadian Press and the Olympics’ own website.
She emailed Satzewich again to apologize about all the attention coming his way.
“And I said, you know, don’t worry, this is, you know, this is a great story. It’s a funny story,” Satzewich said.
“And, you know, just wanted to reassure her that this wasn’t a problem for me, I’m happy to sort of play my part to help her.”
With his wife’s help, he created his first-ever Instagram post to show his support.
“I think the world needs a kind of a little bit of lightness these days, so this is Maddie’s gift to the world, really.”