CHAN WILL HANG UP HIS FIGURE SKATES
33-YEAR-OLD 10-TIME CANADIAN CHAMPION SAYS IT’S TIME TO FOCUS ON HIS YOUNG FAMILY
There is nothing quite like a dirty diaper to bring Patrick Chan back to reality.
It is, actually, a reality he adores and welcomes as a young husband, a soon to be father of two, and next month he can call himself something he’s never been before: a former figure skater.
That wasn’t an easy one to digest.
Not after 10 years of being national champion — and who dominates any individual sport for that long? Not after winning three world championships, setting scoring records, going to three Olympic Games, taking home three medals. There is a lot to celebrate, now in his life and before, only no father gets presented with a medal on a podium with the world watching for getting up in the middle of the night and taking care of his children.
“You can’t wait for the universe to tell you it’s time,” said Chan, the Canadian treasure who will skate for the final time with Stars on Ice on May 16 in Victoria, ending a lifetime of figure skating. “At this stage of my life, with all that’s going on, it was time. It’s a hard decision to make, to close that chapter that’s been so much of your life.
“I think it’s a combination of feeling grateful and yet it’s bittersweet. It’s emotional. This is all I’ve known for the first 30 years of my life. I’ve grown up skating. Skating helped me grow from a young boy to a young man. This tour has taught me so much. To close that chapter, it’s not easy.”
It’s never easy for a worldclass competitive athlete to say goodbye. This is not like some athletes, who are breaking down. His body is fine. He is 33 years old and there are no injuries that have forced him to the finish line.
Life did that to him. He’s building a career in the finance industry and he and wife, Liz, are building a family, with one son now and another on the way. Life on the road, trying to juggle skating, business, fatherhood, being a husband, family life became too much to handle.
“I still love this,” Chan said of performance skating. “I’m working for a financial management company that requires a certain consistency from me. It’s gotten harder to justify being away (at shows). I can’t imagine leaving for a month in the middle of tax season (again).”
The reality of life after figure skating. Bills. Taxes. Diapers. Groceries. Sounds a lot like most of us. But most of us aren’t 10-time national champions or three-time world champions or the Canadian athlete of the year in 2011.
Chan was almost the last of the great run of Canadian male figure skaters on the world scene. The baton was passed from Toller Cranston to Brian Orser; from Orser to Kurt Browning; from Browning to Elvis Stojko; from Stojko to Jeffrey Buttle; from Buttle to Chan. And now, there is nobody really on the horizon to challenge the world, the way Canadians had been challenging for almost 40 years.
With one unfortunate similarity. Orser yearned for Olympic gold, won silver. Browning had tough Olympic experiences and Stojko won two silver medals. Buttle took home a bronze medal in 2006 and Chan won a gold, not in singles skating but in the team event.
He also has two silver medals, one from Sochi in singles and one from the team event.
In fairness, nobody really remembers the team medals. Hardly anyone forgets the second-place finish in Sochi. Least of all, Chan.
“It felt like I lost,” Chan said. “I came home with a silver and was expecting a gold. The first couple of years it sticks at you, and eats away at you and makes you really bitter. I felt like I was blaming others. It was an odd time to go through, but I wasn’t mature enough to deal with it.
“After 10 years, I appreciate what I accomplished (in 2014). I appreciate getting there. I was a bit of a spoiled brat back then, thinking an Olympic silver medal wasn’t good enough. Do you know how hard that was to think that way? And then you look back at it, and think differently, ‘Do you know hard that was? How many people would dream to be in the position to come home with an Olympic silver medal?’ That’s the way I look at it now. I’m proud of that medal.”
But it isn’t the world championship, the three Olympics, the years with Stars on Ice that Chan relishes most. It’s the 10 times he won the Canadian title. The most of any skater in history.
Orser won eight Canadians. Stojko won seven. Cranston won six. Browning four. “The 10, that means something to me,” said Chan. “That’s a decade of dominance. Across this country. That’s unforgettable.”
And soon, in an arena in Victoria, he will take off his skates for the final time as a performer or a competitor and began his new life at age 33.
“I’d like to say I’m emotional about this, but really I’m just matter of fact,” said Chan. “I’ve been doing this tour for 10 years. It’s enough.
“It might be hard for the first couple of days (of retirement), but then I’ll have to change a diaper and go back to work. You can’t be living in a world of tour life, being a renowned athlete. It’s not reality.”
Not the reality he wants anymore.