THE CANADIAN PRESS
Patrick Chan arrived at last year’s Canadian figure skating championships an unheralded skater with little to lose. But he proceeded to knock off defending champion Jeffrey Buttle to win the men’s singles title and things haven’t been the same since.
The veteran Buttle went on to win the world championships last spring and then promptly retired, and now Chan, who turned just 18 on New Year’s Eve, finds himself the man to beat at this week’s Canadian figure skating championships in Saskatoon.
The Toronto skater plans to approach the week as if nothing as changed.
“I try not to think about the extra stress, I just want to go and treat it like I didn’t even medal last year,” Chan said in a recent conference call. “I know people are going to be watching me of course, but I’ve done three Grand Prixs (this season), three big competitions, so I’ll just treat this the same way.”
Chan opened the 2008-’09 season with a pair of Grand Prix victories, at Skate Canada in Ottawa then the Trophee Bompard in Paris, earning him the honour of No. 1 seed heading into the Grand Prix Final in December in South Korea.
But he stumbled to sixth — and last — in the short program in the Final. He fared a bit better in the long program to fifth overall.
“We all have to go through these moments, all the top athletes have had these moments, I bet Jeff (Buttle) has had the same thing happen,” Chan said. “We’ve all had those up and down days, it’s just a process, something I have to go through.”
The source of his skating misery was the triple Axel, a jump he’d been struggling to master. He failed to land a triple Axel in the competition, falling on one attempt in his short program.
“We’re practising it and I guess in a way we are taming it, but I’m still having some difficulties with it,” Chan said. “I constantly tell myself, and Don (Laws, Chan’s coach) tell me, that’s what you have to go through to get to that point where it’s a consistent jump.
“When I look back at when I first learned the triple Lutz, I had this much trouble as well, and look at it now, it’s pretty consistent. I think it’s just a matter of time.”
Joannie Rochette of Ile-Dupas, Que., will aim for a fifth straight women’s singles title this week. Tessa Virtue of London, Ont., and Scott Moir of Ilderton, Ont., are looking for their second consecutive ice dance title. Reigning world championship bronze medallist Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison will be the favourites to win the pairs after Anabelle Langlois and Cody Hay were forced to withdraw.
Langlois, from Gatineau, Que., isn’t fully recovered after she had surgery to repair a serious ankle injury suffered last summer. She and Hay now have to hope they can return in time for the Four Continents event early next month in Vancouver.
Virtue and Moir, silver medallists at the world championships, are making their season debut after Virtue was sidelined with compartment syndrome — an overuse injury that caused pain in her shins and eventually required surgery. She’s only been on the ice for the past six weeks.
“It was a different start to the season, but maybe a blessing in disguise at the same time, sometimes you forget how much you appreciate your skating partner, how much fun it is to dance (together). . .,” Moir said in a conference call. “We’re definitely rejuvenated and really excited.”
Virtue and Moir will unveil their innovative new free routine to Pink Floyd this week.
Some 150 skaters will compete at the 2009 Canadian championships at the Credit Union Centre.