Early start leads to shaky skate for Chan

GANGNEUNG, SOUTH KOREA— The first day of Patrick Chan’s final Olympics began before the sun came up.

The three-time world champion rose at 5 a.m., grabbed a coffee on the way to the bus for a 7 a.m. practice. Then it was back to the athletes village for some oatmeal, and a short rest before hopping the bus back to the Gangneung Ice Arena for a 10 a.m. competition.

The bleary-eyed Chan had a shaky skate to open Canada’s gold-medal quest in the figure skating team event at the Pyeongchang Winter Games. But he wasn’t the only one.

“I don’t think any of us in our entire careers, even mine, have ever skated this early, or with this type of schedule. I definitley think that played a role,” Chan said. “But we’re not in control of that.”

Skating to “Dust in the Wind” by Kansas, the three-time world champion from Toronto fell on both his quadruple toe loop and triple Axel to score 81.66, putting him in third in the men’s short program.

Shoma Uno was the only skater to lay down anything resembling a clean program, scoring 103.25 to put Japan in the lead. Alexei Bychenko of Israel sits second with 88.49. American phenom Nathan Chen, considered a favourite for gold in the individual event, fell once and popped a quad jump to score 80.61. Two-time world pairs champs Meagan Duhamel of Lively, Ont., and Eric Radford of Balmertown, Ont., were to skate their short program later Friday.

Figure skating traditionally runs well into the night at the Olympic Games, but North American prime time television demands has it finished by the early afternoon in South Korea, throwing skaters’ schedules topsy-turvy.

Canada captured silver when the team event made its Olympic debut four years ago in Sochi. But boasting a veteran team that is solid across all four disciplines, the Canadians arrived in South Korea as the world’s top-ranked team.

The team event, with its Ryder Cup vibe, sees the world’s10 top countries compete in short programs of all four disciplines. Only the five top teams move on to compete in the long program.