Chan sets the gold standard
World champ in league of his own
There are titles and there are entitlements.
Patrick Chan is careful about distinguishing between the two.
He is the defending men’s figure skating world champion. Odds are the 22-year-old will rise to the top again — or, rather, remain dominant and preeminent in segue from short to long program — in the free skate competition Saturday.
No challenger has beaten Chan in two years. Yet this event, worlds 2012, is the first literal defence of his title. And that makes a difference.
“When I step on the ice, I have to take that presence,’’ the Toronto skater explains. “I feel I have to skate as if I’ve been here before but I really haven’t. This is a whole different environment.’’
It is to Chan’s credit that he’s never exhibited any aura of entitlement, whether as multiple national gold medallist, Grand Prix champion or, since Moscow a year ago, world’s best male figure skater. So clearly superior to the rest of the field, this endlessly goodnatured and buoyant young man is more accurately competing against himself, skating in his own footsteps, superimposing — literally and metaphorically — earlier performances against the most recent and pleased with what he sees: Incremental enhancement, a forward thrust in technical and artistic proficiency.
Chan sets the gold standard in pure karat skating talent.
“I’ve been watching video of the world championships last year in Moscow and then my programs this year. There’s a big . . . improvement, in my eyes.’’ PATRICK CHAN
Others follow, if they can keep up, including the two former world champs who are back bidding here: Japan’s Daisuke Takahashi and Frenchman Brian Joubert. No male has won back-to-back global titles since Switzerland’s Stephane Lambiel in 2005-2006.
“I don’t think about that, I just think about defending it for myself,’’ says Chan. “I’ve been watching video of the world championships last year in Moscow and then my programs this year. There’s a big change, big improvement, in my eyes.’’
Yet Chan professes to be jittery, cast as The Man To Beat, a mild apprehension that was somewhat evident in his “Take Five’’ short program effort here Friday. Unusually for the reliably consistent competitor, Chan experienced some twitchy flubs in the execution, with a footwork passage notso-subtly askew. Indeed, Chan seesawed backward and forward to maintain balance and blade edge on a straight line sequence that remained upright only thanks to his extraordinary core body strength.
“I started going forwards and I lost my balance. Changed to backwards, trying to see if that would help but it didn’t help.’’
Slyly, Chan incorporated the double-bauble into his routine, as if it had been intentional, mugging for the crowd. “I played with it,’’ he said, after stopping to watch a replay. “The expression on my face was priceless. I kind of enjoyed it and I think the audience enjoyed it too.’’
Like it had been planned that way in the choreography as devised by Lori Nichol, which Chan claimed was close to the truth. “That was the exact reaction we wanted when Lori and I choreographed it. We wanted to make it look like I’m losing my balance and then gathering my balance, kind of tricking you guys. Actually, this time I fooled myself and was really offbalance. It was a unique situation.’’
What’s with all this “fooling you guys” stuff? Tessa Virtue made a similar remark the previous evening when discussing the footwork stumble that was ad-lib concealed from the audience and, apparently, also the judges in the ice dance final. Curious, though, how top Canadian skaters — Virtue’s gold medal partner Scott Moir also a teeny fumbler in their “Funny Face’’ free skate — are getting the benefit of the doubt here. Perhaps that’s a scoring benefit which accrues to a world or Olympic champion. Maybe the judges just like Canadians. Skating off the ice afterwards, however, Chan didn’t have the look of a skater who’d just reeled off a season-best 89.41, as it turned out. “I really doubted it,’’ he admitted. “I was kind of upset at myself for not keeping it together.’’ At least no one has claimed Joubert — who skated quite wonderfully in the short and is sitting fourth — was jobbed by the judges in his own country. Chan heard the ear-splitting ovation for Joubert all the way in the skaters’ dressing room. “Luckily, he wasn’t in my group. Whew.’’ The Canadian’s “Take Five’’ program seemed to be almost too big and ballsy for the Palais des Expositions ice surface. On several occasions, Chan came alarmingly close to the boards, reminiscent of the gouge his blade carved into the wood at the Grand Prix final in December. “At practice I was thinking this rink does not feel like Olympic size at all. I think it’s a matter of adrenaline and ice conditions as well. It’s how that blade glides on the ice. I’m nervous and kind of high on adrenaline. I push a lot harder without evening knowing it, so actually I have to tell myself to hold back.’’ Chan opened his program with a roughly landed quad toe that was dug out deep on the landing. An anticipated triple toe on the back end, for the required combination element, went AWOL but was tacked onto a later triple Lutz with a beautiful triple Axel in between. It’s a what-if scenario Chan has practised all year: Should the opening quad not feel right, he makes a program adjustment on the fly. “It’s so quick I don’t even think about it. If it’s a good quad toe landing, I put the triple toe on it. If it’s shaky, then I save it for the last jump. Thank goodness for altitude (training). I have the stamina to put it on the last jump and have enough flow out of the Lutz to do a triple toe.’’ While these are particulars contemplated off-ice with coach Christy Krall, the on-ice call is entirely Chan’s. “I’ve done this for so long now, it’s something I can do going off my own intuition, just feeling it. “That’s experience and being with a coach for a certain amount of time. They know what you need, when not to say something, when to say something. That’s what happens when you become a world champion veteran, coming back at the world championships this many times and doing Grand Prix all season. “You just have a feel. It’s not really technique at this point in the season, it’s all feeling.’’