Chan in third, but not about to panic
COMEBACK: Canadian has some catching up to do in adding technical elements to his programs
BOSTON — In this comeback year for one of Canada’s most decorated male skaters, Patrick Chan is about to find one of two realities.
Either the world awaits for the Toronto skater or the world has passed him by.
More likely, the reality will be somewhere in between for the three-time global champ, who finished third after the men’s short program here Wednesday night at TD Garden.
Chan certainly looked strong and confident in his return to the world championship stage, especially when he nailed his opening quad-triple combination. Failing to land a triple axel cost him, however. Docked for that miscue, Chan scored 94.84 points. Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu leads with 110.56 points and Spain’s Javier Fernandez is second with 98.52.
Chan will have an opportunity to improve his positioning in Friday’s long skate, but isn’t about to panic.
In many ways, these world championships are all about The Fours for Chan — and we’re not talking about the popular watering hole steps from the Garden.
In pursuit of a fourth world title — and thus the opportunity to match a Canadian great from a previous generation, Kurt Browning — Chan’s use of the “quad,” the four-spin jump that’s taking the sport by storm, is an issue.
Chan acknowledges it, wrestles with it and ultimately will have to come up with a plan to deal with it if he’s going to be a contender for the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics.
But here in Boston, there’s no need to press the issue, just to progress.
“I’m at a disadvantage now technically,” Chan said recently. “I’m competing against men who are doing five quads between the short program and the long program and I’m at three between the two programs.
“Who would ever have imagined that three wasn’t enough for some people. It’s crazy to try catch up technically at this time, but I think that’s good and bad.”
Perhaps as a means to temper expectations and the pressure he places upon himself, Chan won’t read too much into results this year. The competitor in him wants it, of course, but the realist can measure how much his top rivals improved in his self-imposed sabbatical following the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
“It’s tough to go back to starting over, back to ground zero and working my may back up,” Chan said. “Just being patient and not looking for success right off the bat ... I just had to be realistic and remind myself not to get too ahead of myself.”
Still, it has become clear that Chan has grown frustrated with the trend in his sport, likening it to a “slam dunk competition.”
This is Chan’s first appearance in the worlds since 2013 where he captured gold. Like many top skaters, he took a pass in 2014 after the Sochi Olympics and last year was on his hiatus from the sport.
Despite leaving the sport after finishing second to Hanyu in Sochi, Chan has had some positive moment in his return, including defeating his Japanese rival in Skate Canada.
Though he skated in professional shows in his 18-month hiatus, Chan clearly missed the competitive side of his sport.
“That’s why I came back,” Chan told reporters here earlier this week. “If I didn’t have that feeling, I’d stick to shows. I still have that little hunger for being better than everyone else, that’s why we compete, that’s why we’re athletes.”
Meanwhile, the first world championship experience didn’t go so well for Toronto’s Nam Nguyen, who missed his opening quad-triple combination and failed to land a triple axel.
“I don’t really know what happened,” Nguyen said. “I’m very, very upset with myself. I have to do my job but I didn’t.”