Canada’s Chan sets sights on Grand Prix hat-trick in Sochi
Patrick Chan left Skate Canada International earlier this season a little red-faced, but all-the-more more determined.
The two-time world figure skating champion said that, looking back now, suffering his first major international defeat in a year-and-a-half was a blessing in disguise and put him back on track for the rest of the season.
He’ll have a chance to test his theory against the best in the world this week at the ISU Grand Prix final in Sochi, Russia — the site of the 2014 Winter Olympics.
“It was a huge shock,” said Chan. “I haven’t lost in front of a home crowd in a long time, and it was definitely a wake-up call. I think that was the turning point in the season.
“I got embarrassed, I was disappointed in myself. But it was great ... I got back home and worked really hard.”
The 21-year-old Chan, the two-time defending Grand Prix final champion, finished as the runner-up to Spain’s Javier Fernandez at Skate Canada back in late October, but rebounded to win the Rostelecom Cup in Russia a couple of weeks later.
“You know what, sometimes it takes losing a competition to get you back on track, because you can’t win every competition there is for a long period of time,” said Chan. “I needed Javier to beat me. I said ‘Hey, I’m better than this, I can do better than this.’ It was not a bad thing at all.”
The Grand Prix final is the culmination of a fall series that includes six stops. Skaters compete in two events each, and the top six entries in each of the four disciplines based on points face off in the final.
Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir — Canada’s Olympic gold medallists and twotime defending world cham- pions — look for ice dance redemption after finishing second behind American rivals Meryl Davis and Charlie White last year in Quebec City.
Canada also qualified two pairs teams — defending Canadian champions Meagan Duhamel of Lively, Ont., and Eric Radford of Balmertown, Ont., along with Kirsten Moore-Towers of St. Catharines, Ont., and Dylan Moscovitch of Toronto.
Chan will face a stiff field that includes Fernandez, plus Japan’s fierce duo of Daisuke Takahashi and Yuzuru Hanyu. Notable absences are Russia’s Evgeni Plushenko and Evan Lysacek of the U.S. Both are making a comeback for the 2014 Sochi Games, but both have undergone surgery in recent weeks.
The Canadian team skaters said competing in the Sochi arena will provide some measure of comfort when they return a little more than a year from now for the Olympics.
“Obviously, it’s exciting to test out the Olympic venue, sort of get the lay of the land,” said Virtue. “We spent so much time in Vancouver before the 2010 Olympics, so I think this is an excellent opportunity for us to mentally and physically prepare ourselves for that specific venue.”