Chan, Patrick

Patrick Chan is a Canadian of Chinese descent (from the Han people). His Chinese name is Chen Weiqing ^[23] . Patrick's father, Lewis, immigrated to Canada from Hong Kong when he was a child (4 years old), and engaged in weightlifting, table tennis and golf ^[24] , and his mother, Karen, also moved from Hong Kong at the age of twenty ^[25] . At the age of five, Patrick showed abilities for alpine skiing, in particular, downhill, but concentrated on other forms after moving to Toronto . He also showed an interest in such sports as taekwondo , rock climbing , tennis and golf ^{[24] [26]} .

Patrick studied at a French language school and, thus, speaks English , French and Chinese ^{[27] [28]} . He completed his school education at the École secondaire Étienne-Brûlé French Language School ^[27] . After Chan became a national champion, the school instituted an annual sports prize, named after him. ^[20] In 2011, ^[29] Patrick planned to go to college and get a business degree ^[30] . He decided to study international economics at the through the system “each course in turn” ( eng. One course at a time ) in order to combine training with workouts ^[31] . After the Olympics in Sochi, Patrick announced his intention to begin the study of social sciences at the University of Toronto , noting that past attempts had to be postponed due to the fact that he could not do several things at the same time ^{[32] [33]} .

Early career

Patrick began skating at the age of five ^[34] .

The first major success was the victory at the Canada Championship among children in 2004 ^[8] . In 2005, Chan won the Canadian Junior Championships, which gave him the right to speak at the Junior World Championships , where the Canadian took seventh place ^[8] . At this tournament, he was the youngest participant at the age of fourteen ^[8] .

In the 2005/2006 season, Chan made his debut at the Junior Grand Prix. He won the gold medal at the stage in Montreal ^[35] and was fourth in the stage in Slovakia ^[36] . Thanks to these results, he qualified for the Junior Grand Prix finals, where he became the fifth ^[37] . That same year, Chan spoke at the Canadian Adult Championship and became the seventh. At the World Junior Championships, he finished sixth.

The free program of the new season was set to the music of Vivaldi " The Seasons " even during the life of the first coach of Chan - Osborne Colson ^[38] . Later, Chan had other programs for this music, in particular, at the 2008 Canadian Championships, but it was the memories of the first program under The Seasons that prompted the Canadian to return to this work on the eve of the 2014 Olympics , when his age approached 23 years. ^[38] . Despite the fact that in the 2006/2007 season, the age still allowed him to act as a junior, Patrick decided to try his hand at the “adult” Grand Prix series . At the Trophee Eric Bompard stage, he became the fifth ^[39] , and on the NHK Trophy the seventh ^[40] . In January 2007, Chan became fifth in the Canadian Championships in Halifax. ^[41] This allowed him to go to the junior world championship for the third time, where he won the silver medal ^[42] , becoming the first Canadian single in 1984 to be among the winners of this tournament ^[43] .

In the 2007/2008 season, Chan became the first at the Grand Prix stage of Trophée Eric Bompard ^[44] and third at Skate America ^[45] . In the Grand Prix Final, Patrick finished fifth ^[46] . He then won the Canadian Championship, becoming the youngest ever winner of this tournament. At that time he was 17 years old ^[47] . In 2008, Chan participated in the World Cup . He was seventh in the short program and eleventh in the arbitrary, taking ninth place in terms of points ^[48] . Gold was conquered by another Canadian, Jeffrey Battle. ^[48] The amount of occupied places allowed to declare three skaters to the next world championship from the Canadian team ^[49] .

2008/2009 season: first wins and prizes at ISU championships

Although Patrick has already won international competitions under the auspices of the ISU , the major championships have not yet submitted to him. For the new season, Chan created a new free program, using two works by Sergei Rachmaninoff ^[50] . Patrick started the 2008/2009 season with a victory at the Skate Canada Grand Prix stage ^[51] and then won the French stage Trophée Eric Bompard ^[52] , thus qualifying for the Grand Prix final ^[53] , where he again finished fifth in the ^{[54 ]} . At the Canadian Championship, Patrick defended his title ^[55] . Then he won the championship of four continents , beating his closest rival, American Evan Lysacek , by more than 12 points ^[56] .

A month later, Patrick took part in the second world championship in his career, which took place in Los Angeles . A short program for the instrumental composition “Tango de Los Exilados” by Vanessa May was performed skater cleanly and took third place, behind only 15 hundredths of points from Evan Lysacek and two points from Frenchman Briand Joubert , who won the “small” gold medal in the first part competitions in men ^[57] . In the free program, Joubert did not cope with the double axel at the end of the program and let Patrick go ahead, who did not have a quad jump in his program, unlike the French figure skater, but he skated it cleanly. Unable to get ahead of Lysacek, Chan nevertheless won the silver of the world championship ^[58] .

At the end of a successful season for himself, Patrick took part in the World Team Championship , where he unsuccessfully performed in the short program, taking only ninth place ^[59] , but in the free program, he gathered the next day and gave a very good rental, losing only to Lysacek. This allowed Chan to climb to fourth place in the individual competition and bring his team 9 points out of 12 possible ^[60] . In the team competition, Patrick won the silver: the Canadian team lost only to the Americans ^[61] .

2009/2010 Season: Home Olympiad

Patrick started the Olympic season at the Liberty tournament in Florida by introducing his new free program “Fantasia” to the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber from the musical “ The Phantom of the Opera ” ^[62] , at the same time he played for the first time a pure quadruple toe loop during training, but at competitions this could not be done ^[62] . This season, Patrick was supposed to perform at the stages of the Grand Prix in Russia and Canada. However, in Vancouver, during training, the skater contracted swine flu , and treatment affected the training process and created enormous problems, expressed in fatigue of the calf muscles and loss of muscle mass ^[63] . Because of this, Patrick was unable to take part in the Moscow stage of the Grand Prix . The Canadian got ready for the home stage and went out on the ice, however, his rentals turned out to be unsuccessful and he took only sixth place with a modest amount, not even scoring 200 points ^[64] .

In the new year, the figure skater managed to regain form: at the national championship, Patrick won gold, gaining the highest points: more than 90 in the short and 170 in the arbitrary. At that time, the sum of points received by him (268.02) was the record of the Canadian championships ^[65] . Before the Winter Olympics in Vancouver , hopes were pinned on Chan, sometimes he was even considered one of the contenders for the Games gold ^{[66] [67]} . However, in the short program with a mistake the triple axel was performed, and Patrick was only the seventh after the first day of competition ^[68] . It was also impossible to avoid mistakes in an arbitrary program; nevertheless, the Canadian took fourth place in it, settling down in fifth place in the final protocol ^{[69] [70]} .

A month later, Patrick took part in the World Championships in Turin . Three out of four figure skaters who beat Chan in Vancouver did not take part in this world championship after the Olympics: Russian Evgeni Plushenko missed the championship due to injury ^[71] , Olympic champion Evan Lysacek decided to take a break in his career ^[72] , and the Swiss Stefan Lambiel ended his career immediately after the end of the Olympics ^[73] . The only participant of the Games, who beat Canadians, turned out to be higher this time: Japanese Daisuke Takahashi became world champion with a comfortable advantage of ten points ^[74] , and Chan added the second consecutive world championship silver to his list of awards ^[75] .

After the end of the competitive season, Patrick Chan presented his exemplary number for the song “ Don't Worry, Be Happy ” by Bobby McFerrin ^[76] .

2010/2011 Season: Quadruple Jump and First Win World Championship

On July 16, 2010, speaking at the Liberty tournament in Florida, Patrick successfully completed his first jump in four turns - the four-toe coat ^[77] . This happened in his new short program for Dave Brubeck 's jazz composition “ Take Five ” ^[77] . Nevertheless, the execution of the same jump in the free program turned out to be unsuccessful - the athlete fell ^[78] .

Patrick continued the 2010/2011 season at the Grand Prix. At a stage in Canada, he failed the short program, having fallen three times ^[79] , and according to its results took 4th place, with 73.20 points behind the leader, Japanese Nobunari Ode , more than eight points ^[79] . In the free program, Patrick won the first place with a score of 166.32 points, although it didn’t go without falling again: this time the Canadian suffered a failure on the axel ^{[80] [81]} . Oda also fell ^[80] , and in the end Patrick Chan won the tournament with a sum of 239.52 points, beating the Japanese by 3 points ^[81] . At the stage in Moscow, Patrick Chan won the short program, gaining 81.96 points. In this case, the Canadian again failed to execute Axel without falling ^[82] . In the free skate, Patrick dropped three times and scored 145.25 points. He lost to Czech Tomás Werner a free program and eventually became second, summing up 227.21 points from the judges ^[83] .

The results at the Grand Prix stages allowed Patrick to reach the final of the Grand Prix of the 2010/2011 season , in which he became the winner ^[84] . Although in the short program he lost to Japanese Nobunari Ode exactly 1 point, taking second place ^[85] , in the free program, Chan received 174.16 points ^[86] , which was one and a half points worse than the world record owned by Daisuke Takahashi at that time ^{[12 ]} . Chan beat out the nearest pursuer Takahiko Kodzuku by 14.5 points and won with a total of 259.75 points ^[86] .

In early January 2011, Patrick Chan spoke at the Canadian Championships . He cleanly skated the short program and received 88.78 points, beating the nearest pursuer Sean Sawyer by 15 points ^[87] . During the speech, a strange case occurred when Patrick jumped double Axel instead of triple, and seven judges put GOE from +1 to +3, and one judge put −3 (as a rule, an incorrectly executed element is evaluated, in particular, a fall) ^{[88 ]} . In the free program, Patrick jumped two quadruple sheepskin coats, one of them in a cascade ^[89] , scoring 197.07 points ^[90] .

The championship of the four continents of 2011, Patrick Chan missed. His next competition was the World Championship , which was originally scheduled to take place in Tokyo ^[91] , but was transferred to Moscow ^[92] due to an earthquake and took place in April 2011. Chan skated his short program flawlessly, performing a purely cascade of “quadruple toe loop - triple toe loop”, triple axel and triple flip ^[93] . For the technique he received 51.48 points, for components 41.54 and a total of 93.02, which was a new world record ^[94] . The previous record (91.30 points) belonged to Russian Evgeny Plushenko, who set it at the 2010 European Championships ^[95] . The next day, Patrick Chan scored 187.96 points in the free skate program, which also became a world record ^[96] . He beat a past achievement of 175 points from Japanese Daisuke Takahashi by more than 10 points. He also set a record for the amount - 280.98 points ^[9] . Until April 19, 2012, all records in the men's single skating belonged to Patrick Chan, and for the records set at the world championship, the Canadian won the Lou Marsh prize ^[19] .

Season 2011/2012: Nice title defense

Patrick started the season with the Japan Open 2011 tournament, performing his new free program Aranjuez Concert to the music of Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo ^[97] . The speech did not turn out to be clean: Patrick scored 159 points, having fallen three times ^[98] . However, this amount was enough for the skater to win the men's event. As a result, the North American team, which Patrick played for in this tournament, won, beating the European team by 1 point ^[99] .

Despite the mistakes that the skater made this season, he won almost all the starts. At the Canadian Grand Prix stage, Patrick took the third place in the short program, landing from a quadruple sheepskin coat with a small blot, as well as “twisting” the axel to double ^[100] . In the free program, Patrick jumped two quadruple sheepskin coats: falling on the first, the second he performed cleanly, and in a cascade with a triple toe loop ^[101] . In total, Chan scored 253.74 points and won gold ^[102] . In November, Patrick won the fifth leg of the “ Trophée Eric Bompard ” ^[103] . In the short program, the athlete fell from a quadruple toe loop, but he performed all the other elements purely ^[104] . Despite the fall, he was the first and the next day in a free program, he jumped two quadruple sheepskin coats, but fell on the steps path, and the rest jumped with blots ^[105] . He scored 156 points and beat his closest rival, Chinese Song Nan, by 16 points ^[106] . Thus, he was selected to the Grand Prix Final in Quebec , which was held from 9 to 11 December 2011.

In Canada, in the short program, during the performance of the “quadruple toe-to-triple-toe-toe-loop” cascade, Patrick did not calculate with the exit and crashed into the board ^[107] . The remaining elements of the Canadian performed cleanly and took first place after a short program with 86 points ^[107] . Patrick was the last in the free skate program, and he needed to score 162 points to get ahead of Daisuke Takahashi from Japan, who scored 172 points. Patrick jumped two quad, but one of them landed on two legs and the other with a touch of the hand. At the end of the program, the figure skater also fell from the triple lutz , but performed the rest of the elements at a high level and won an arbitrary program, scoring 173 points ^[108] and the entire Grand Prix Final with a score of 260.30 points ^[109] . At the end of the year, Patrick Chan became the Sportsman of the Year according to Canadian channel Sportsnet ^[110] and Quebecor Media ^[111] . In addition, the Canadian also received the Lionel Konaher Award ^[112] .

On January 21, 2012, Patrick won the Canadian Championship, showing the highest results on both days of the competition ^[113] . In the short program, he scored 101.33 points, the next day in the free program he scored another record amount of 200.81 points, and in total - 302.14. Thus, Patrick Chan broke all three unofficial world records ^[114] , and also became the first figure skater in the world to break the 300-point total ^[113] .

In February 2012, Patrick won the gold in the championship of four continents. Despite the fact that in the short program, Chan fell from a quad sheepskin coat, he scored 87.95 points ^[115] . Patrick skated the arbitrary program Aranjuez Concert without errors and received 185.99 points, which is 1.97 lower than the official world record set by him at the World Championships in Moscow in 2011 ^{[9] [116]} .

March 30, 2012 at the World Championships, Patrick Chan performed his short program “Take Five”, left by him since last season. The Canadian figure skater won first place after a short program with 89 points, losing a few points due to blunders on the road with jumps ^[117] and not gaining 3.61 points to the world record set by him a year earlier ^[11] . In the free program, Patrick played purely all the elements, except for the torn double axel at the end of the program ^[118] . He received 176.70 points and outperformed Daisuke Takahashi by 6.45 points in sum ^[119] . Patrick won the second world championship in a row ^[118] .

In April 2012, Chan spoke at the World Team Championship . In the short program, he finished second with a high total of 89.81 points ^[120] , but lost Daisuke Takahashi, who broke the world record owned by Patrick, by 98 hundredths of points ^[121] . In a free program, a Canadian fell from an unfinished quad sheepskin coat, performed the “quadruple toe loop + triple toe loop” cascade with a blot, but the rest of the elements were executed flawlessly. For his program, Patrick received 170.65 points, but lost to the winner, Takahashi, 16 points ^[122] . This tournament was the only one that Chan could not win in the final season.

2012/2013 season: home world championship and third consecutive title

Demonstration number of the 2011/2012 season Patrick decided to convert to a new short program ^[123] . The new season began for Chan with a series of defeats, which seemed a major setback at that time. After the change of coach, he lost three tournaments in a row - the World Team Championship (2011/2012 season), the Japan Open 2012 and the Canadian Grand Prix stage. At the same time, almost nothing happened on the Japan Open: while performing his new program to the music of Giacomo Puccini “La Boheme”, the skater fell four times, and of the eight jumping elements, only two were purely performed ^[124] , he scored a little more than 137 points, that for the two-time world champion was an undoubted failure. Later he noted that such a start “woke” him, although after his failure he wanted to hide from everyone. However, the North American team took second place in the tournament ^[125] .

Less than a month later, another setback occurred: at the home stage of the Grand Prix, Patrick Chan lost to Spaniard Javier Fernandez ^[126] . However, in November, at the stage in Russia, Patrick won, beating his nearest rival by 33 points ^[127] , and thereby secured a place in the Grand Prix final in Sochi . There, Patrick was second in the short program, skipping ahead of Daisuke Takahashi ^[128] , and in an arbitrary program he was beaten by a quadruple failure - the athlete fell, after which he jumped an extra cascade, left without an element ^[129] . He became the fourth in the free program, but in total he was ahead of her winner - Fernandez - by 4 hundredths of points, taking the third place ^[130] .

On March 13, 2013, at the World Championships in Canadian London, Chan returned his world record in the short program, receiving 98.37 points for hire ^[131] . In the short program, Patrick cleanly performed a cascade of quadruple and triple sheepskin coats, triple axel and triple lutz . All its spins and tracks were rated fourth level of difficulty ^[132] . The closest pursuer, the representative of Kazakhstan, Denis Ten , fell behind Patrick by 6.81 points, while showing the fourth result in world history for short programs ^[131] . However, in the free program, Patrick performed less successfully, after an ideally executed cascade of quadruple and triple sheepskin coats and an “isolated” quadruple sheepskin falling from a triple lutz and an undetected triple axel. He lost the program to Tenu, but by the amount he beat the Kazakhstani athlete by 1.3 points. Patrick Chan scored 267.78 points ^[133] .

Although Chan won the third world championship in a row, the season was not as easy as the last one: the Canadians had new and very strong rivals in the face of Javier Fernandez and Yuzuru Hanya ^[134] . They had already managed to defeat Patrick in the face-to-face fight, and the Japanese even “took away” the world record in the short program ^[135] , having then improved once more ^[134] before Chan managed to regain the record at the “home” world championship ^[131] .

2013/2014 season: world records in Paris and two Olympic silver

In the summer of 2013, Chiang announced that a new free program would be delivered under Antonio Vivaldi's The Seasons ^{[38] [136]} . The figure skater has already set programs for this music at the beginning of his career, and at this stage decided to return to what had brought him happiness in the past ^[38] . In addition, the program reminded Chan of his first coach, Osborne Colson , thanks to whom Patrick took the first steps toward his future success ^[38] . A short program ( Rakhmaninov's “Elegy”) has been left by Chan since last season ^[136] .

Patrick Chan started the season with victories at the Canadian stage in St. John and Trophée Eric Bompard in Paris , and at the French stage he broke all three records at that time (in short and free-form programs, and by the amount) ^[10] . However, in the finals of the Grand Prix in Fukuoka , the Japanese Canadian figure skater took revenge from Yuzuru Hania, and Chan this time won silver ^[137] . At the same time, Hania managed to beat Patrick's record in the short program, set three weeks earlier ^[138] . In January, Patrick won the Canadian Championship for the seventh time in a row and selected for the Olympics in Sochi ^[139] .

Chan took part in the Olympic team tournament of figure skaters, where he finished third in the short program ^[140] , losing to Russian Plushenko and Japanese Hania. In the free program, a replacement was made, and instead of Chan, Canada was played by Kevin Reynolds , who helped bring the team tournament silver to Canada ^[141] .

A week later, Chan took part in the competition of single men . On February 13, Patrick performed a short program to the music of Rachmaninov and scored 97.52 points. He lost 4 points to Hania, who again beat the world record ^[142] , and a day later won the free program as well, becoming an Olympic champion ^[143] . Patrick Chan, in his turn, was more than 20 points ahead of Kazakhstan's figure skater Denis Ten who became the third and again became the silver medalist of the games, now in the individual championship. For Chan, the silver of the Olympics was clearly not the result he was counting on ^[144] . In March, the skater said that he would not go to Saitamu World Championships ^[145] .

After the Olympics in Sochi

After the Silver of the Games, Patrick did not take part in the competitions of the season 2014/2015, with the exception of the “ Japan Open 2014 ”, which he won by more than 20 points ^[146] . Nevertheless, the Canadian this season put on a new free program to the music of Chopin , which he performed at the Japanese tournament in October ^[147] . However, at the beginning of the season, Chan announced that he would miss it completely ^[148] . After the World Cup in Shanghai, which took place without Canadian participation, Chan told the press that he plans to return and would like very much to speak at the next Olympiad in Pyeongchang, which was less than three years before ^[147] .

In June 2015, Patrick Chan announced that he was putting on a new short program with choreographer David Wilson , with whom he recently worked regularly, and also created an arbitrary program with him ^[149] . After the 2014 Olympics, ISU allowed the use of music with words in programs ^[150] , which allowed Chan to use the song “ Mack the Knife ” performed by Canadian Michael Buble ^[149] .

Since then, the figure skater has not appeared more than a year in competitions until the end of October 2015, when he performed at the Canadian stage and won it, gaining a very high amount of points ^[151] .

The next tournament for Patrick Chan was to be a stage in France , but only a short program competition took place in Bordeaux . On the evening of the same day, terrorist acts were committed in Paris , and for safety reasons Trophée Eric Bompard was canceled ^[152] , and the figure skaters were distributed according to the results of the short program ^[153] . According to these results, Patrick took only fifth place in France, but he selected for the Barcelona Grand Prix Final, becoming the fifth of six figure skaters who make it to the finals ^[154] . There Patrick again failed to avoid failure - during the execution of the short program, the skater performed a triple toe loop instead of a quadruple, and then with his second jump in a triple lutz cascade, which is prohibited by the competition rules. Thus, Chan lost the cascade and finished last after a short program with a lag of more than 40 points from the leading Yuzuru Hania ^[155] . Nevertheless, the free program was much better, and Patrick Chan became the third in it, remaining the fourth in sum ^[156] . It is noteworthy that the skater scored the same amount with the Chinese skater Jin Boyan , who performed four quadruple jumps and two triple axels in his program. According to the ISU rules, the one in the final table is the one who became higher in the arbitrary program, and thus the Canadian figure skater became the fourth and Boyan the fifth ^[156] .

In January 2016, Patrick Chan won his eighth Canadian champion title with a score of 295.67 points ^[157] . The next competition under the auspices of the ISU was the championship of the four continents in February 2016. Again, Patrick did not successfully complete the short program, scoring 86.22 points, and he performed the free program to the music of Chopin perfectly. Chang scored 203.99 points, a record for himself, and ranked first in terms of total, ahead of Jin Boyan by only 38 hundredths of points. At the end of the tournament, Patrick's sum for an arbitrary program was second in the history of figure skating ^[158] .

At the beginning of April, the Canadian figure skater became the fifth at the world championship in Boston ^[159] , although he was third after the short program ^[160] . The skater failed to repeat the success of the championship of four continents, and he fell behind more than 30 points from his best result in an arbitrary program. At the same time he turned out to be the best North American skater in this tournament.

Season 2016/2017: Pre-Olympic Season Complications

In the offseason, Patrick announced that he would create a new free-form program, which will be put on the track “A Journey” by Eric Redford - the greenhouse figure skater and Chan teammate ^{[161] [162]} . Immediately after the end of the Finnish Challenger Tournament , Patrick spoke about his new short program for the Beatles composition. A Canadian noted that he had taken the indicative number of the season 2014/2015, which, like Rakhmaninov's “Elegy” four years earlier ^[123] , had converted into a short program ^[163] as a basis.

Patrick started the pre-Olympic season in October at the Finlandia Trophy tournament , where he managed to win second place in a difficult fight ^[164] , losing to the American Nathan Chen . The winner of the tournament performed a very difficult free program, including five quadruple jumps in it, while Patrick played only two ^[165] . This was one of the first cases when Chan had to fight with a skater who owned such an arsenal of complex jumping elements: before the tournament in Finland, no one declared four different “quadruple” in one program ^[166] .

In late October, the Canadian figure skater performed at the home stage of the Mississauga Grand Prix , where he won first place ^[167] . Sochi Olympic champion Yuzuru Hania didn’t manage to perform a short program purely, and although the arbitrary Japanese won, Patrick won ^[168] . In mid-November in Beijing, Chan took part in his second stage of the Grand Prix this season, where he won in a bitter struggle, although after the short program he occupied only third place, but in the arbitrary he managed to collect the amount of 196.31, beating the Chinese figure skater Boyan Jin in totaling 1.18 points ^[169] . This allowed him to confidently reach the Grand Prix finals , which was held in Marseilles .

In France, the Canadian again met with those who owned a much larger number of quadruple jumps than he himself. There he did not perform in the best way for himself and finished in the penultimate place, however, he improved his previous achievement in the short program ^[170] .

In late January, another national championship took place in Ottawa , in which no one managed to compete with Patrick and he became the champion of the country for the ninth time ^[171] . In February, the figure skater performed in Gangneung at the championship of four continents , which he completed with the best of Canadian figure skaters, but without a medal ^[172] . This championship was considered as a “rehearsal” of the Olympiad, since it was on this arena that the Olympic tournament was scheduled for next year ^[173] .

In late March, a Canadian performed at the world championship in Helsinki , where he managed to enter the top five skaters of the world ^[174] . Those who had bypassed Chan performed much more than quadruple jumps, and although Patrick had the least score of his personal record in total points, this was not enough to win the medal ^[175] . At the same time, Chan contributed to the conquest of his country’s two places in the upcoming Olympics in Pyeongchang ^[175] and improved his previous achievement in the short program ^[176] . Three weeks after that, the skater participated in the World Team Championship . In the short program, not everything went well: Chan scored only 85 points and took sixth place, bringing his country 7 points out of 12 possible ^[177] , but Patrick lost to only two Japanese in the free skate program, earning 10 more points for Canada ^[178] . For his hire, the skater received 190.74 points ^[178] .

Season 2017/2018: change of coach and Pyeongchang's Olympic gold

In the summer of 2017, Patrick announced his choice of programs for the Olympic season ^[179] . Two months later, he himself commented on his choice, telling that choreographer David Wilson helped him. His short program for the song “Dust in the Wind” by the Kansas group besides Wilson, the figure skater had previously planned with Katie Johnson ^[180] . The figure skater noted that "Dust in the Wind" says that "all are one and are small particles of this universe." Patrick dedicated a free program to Canadian composer Leonard Cohen , who died in 2016 ^[181] , who wrote the song “ Hallelujah ” - this was the song (performed by Jeff Buckley ) Chan took for his rentals ^[180] . He noted that although it does not carry such a deep history as its short program, it will allow it to feel pride in its people when it will perform with it at the Olympics ^[180] .

The new season, the Canadian figure skater began in the Grand Prix series at the home stage , where he finished next to the pedestal ^[182] , failing his free program ^[183] . Patrick scored a total of 151 points and was seventh among the twelve participants, and ranked fourth in total. After that, he withdrew from the Japanese stage ^[184] , and instead, the Canadian quota was taken by Keegan Messing . Thus, Patrick Chan automatically lost all chances to get to the Grand Prix finals, repeatedly stated that he no longer enjoyed his rentals ^[185] , and was even forced to remove the quad Salchow from his programs, and closer to the new year he stopped workouts ^{[186] [187]} . As a result, the Canadian left Marina Zueva to Ravi Valia , moved to Vancouver and began to ride in the same group with Caitlin Osmond ^[188] .

In January 2018, the Canadian Championship took place in Vancouver, which Patrick won for the tenth time in his career ^{[190] [191]} . He was not able to score too high points, which was affected by the drop in the short program from the quad sheepskin coat ^[192] , as well as the loss of an element in an arbitrary program. Although Patrick avoided falls there, he failed to complete the triple Axel by performing three times a double. According to the rules of the competition, it is possible to execute no more than two double axels, and therefore the third turned out to be an unacceptable element ^[193] . Nevertheless, Patrick scored 272.24 points in the amount (90.98 in short and 181.26 in random) ^[190] and added to his collection of medals an anniversary, the tenth gold ^{[191] [194]} .

Already in February, shortly before the start of the Olympics in Pyeongchang, Chan noted that a change of coach helped him to gain confidence and comfort in skating ^[195] . In his interview, he also noted that at the last Games for himself, he wanted first of all to roll back his programs cleanly ^[196] .

Olympic competitions for Patrick began a few hours before the opening ceremony, when he performed the short program in team competitions . Having fallen twice (on the quadruple sheepskin and triple axel), Patrick nevertheless ranked third ^[197] , beating both Nathan Chen from the United States and Mikhail Kolyada from Russia , who were viewed as his main competitors in the fight for team gold ^{[198 ]} . After the first day of competition, in which short programs of male singles and sports couples were held, Canadians were in the lead ^[199] and were ahead of the Russians by 4 points, and Americans by 3 points.

Two days later, Patrick played an arbitrary program, which largely decided the fate of the gold medal: there were two types of competitions ahead, Canada had a gap of six points from the closest pursuers (Russians), so if the team defeated Mikhail Kolyad, the Canadian team could miss gold only the most incredible event. February 12, the competition day began with a free program for men. Chan performed his program for Leonard Cohen's song Hallelujah, and he managed almost everything except the triple axel, which he under-twisted and fell from him. Nevertheless, he defeated Kolyada, scored 179.75 points and took the first place out of five participants in the men's free skate ^[200] , bringing his team ten points out of ten possible. The gap from the Russians increased to seven points before the women's free program. Patrick's partner in the national team Gabriel Daleman took third place in the free program, losing two points to his pursuers ^[201] , and in the only discipline left - free dance - there was no chance of losing the gold medal: Russia could play no more than 4 points, and the advantage of Canadians was 5. In the free dance, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir performed last and won it with a score of 118.10 points. Canadians won with a huge advantage, gaining 73 points, and in all eight types they took the place not lower than the third ^[202] . Thus, Patrick Chan became the Olympic champion ^[203] .

On February 14, the draw took place, which determined the order of performances of single skaters in the short program, and according to its results, Chan received the 21st starting number in the fourth warm-up out of five ^[204] . He performed his program much better than in team competitions, but the triple Axel did not again submit. After the short program, Patrick took the sixth place with a score of 90.01 points ^[205] , which is more than 7 points better than the result in a team tournament. On February 17, Chan performed an arbitrary program, and this time it was possible to avoid falls, but the judges rated his hire only at 173.42 points ^[206] . Due to the abundance of quadruple jumps of his competitors (for example, the winner in the free skate performed purely six quadruple jumps) Chang dropped to ninth place in a personal tournament with a total of 263.43 points ^[207] .

Completion of competitive career and first seminars for young figure skaters

After the end of the Olympics, Patrick returned to Vancouver and plans to open a figure skating academy in this city in the near future ^{[18] [208] [209]} . Although he said earlier that the competition at the Olympics in Pyeongchang will be his last in his career ^[210] , the Canadian officially announced the end of his sports career only on April 16 ^{[17] [211]} . Chan noted that he achieved all goals and fulfilled all his dreams in figure skating, and hopes that his success will inspire young skaters and convince them that it is possible to achieve everything through hard work and dedication to their work ^[211] . Already at the end of April, Patrick held seminars for young figure skaters and noted that changes occurred in the figure skating world, in particular, the expectation level increased as new and ever younger phenomena appeared; at the same time, the talent must be identified precisely at a young age. The increasing level of demands and training turns young skaters “into cars”, which creates a strong psychological pressure on both themselves and their parents ^[212] . In September, Patrick held a new two-day seminar, in which 150 people participated, and noted that he plans to become part of the figure skating academy, which he dreams of opening. He also said that he was trying to pass on his experience to the younger generation in British Columbia , which should contribute to the emergence of competitive skaters in the province and raise the level of figure skating as a whole ^[213] .

Together with those who ended their careers after the Olympic victory in the team tournament, Tessa Virtue , Scott Moir, Megan Duhamel and Eric Redford , as well as “taking a pause” Caitlin Osmond , Patrick since October 5, 2018 went to the “Thank You Canada” tour ( Eng. The Thank You Canada Tour ) ^[214] . Dancers Kaitlin Weaver and Andrew Poje and two-time Olympic silver medalist Elvis Stojko ^{[215] also} took part in this project, which ran until November 24. According to Chan, performances in 28 cities became a challenge both for him and for all participants in the tour, since nothing like this had ever happened in the life of figure skaters ^[33] .

Patrick's first coach was Osborne Colson , who worked with him until his death in July 2006 (he was already 90 years old at the time). Colson paid considerable attention to the work on the obligatory figures, which influenced the formation of the technique of skating, a strong aspect of Patrick Chan skating. However, the skater noted that Colson often sent him to train to others, because he did not want to say the same thing every day ^[34] . In the summer of 2007, Patrick trained with in Barry , and this helped him study the triple axel and quadruple toe loop, but the skater quickly realized that this place was not for him ^[34] . He also noted that finding a new coach is not a very difficult task.

Then Chan went to Sin Amano , who was training at the same rink. Chan later noted that Colson died suddenly, and he himself did not want to change anything in the middle of the season, therefore, therefore, Amano, who agreed to such conditions, became his temporary coach; cooperation with Amano lasted only six months ^[34] .

Next, Chan trained part of the time in Florida with Don Laws, and some in Toronto with Ellen Burka ^[34] . The athlete himself noted that Burka helps him in the technique of performing jumps, comments on the training, and also participates in the elaboration of the details of the programs. Chan practiced every day, except Sunday, for four hours on the ice and three hours out. With Lawes, he began training in the summer of 2007, and apart from that, Patrick was forced to take a break in training in order to pass school exams. In addition, since 2006, Chan has worked with choreographer Laurie Nicole ^[34] .

In the middle of the 2009/2010 season, Don Lowes refused to work with Chan, and Christy Kroll and Laurie Nicole became his new coaches ^[216] . Patrick reached his first important successes with them: he “learned” the quadruple jump, won the world championship in Moscow and there he broke all world records ^[9] . Immediately after Chan’s second victory at the World Championships, in Nice a year later, Christie Kroll decided to stop working with him ^{[217] [218]} . The reasons for this were not reported, but for the skater himself this was a surprise ^[219] .

In April 2012, Patrick switched to Katie Johnson ^[217] , with whom he participated in the Olympics in Sochi. At the same time, a significant number for Patrick ( Rakhmaninov 's Elegy), which later became a new Canadian program ^[220], was supplied with former teammate Jeffrey Buttle . In addition, Chan also replaced the main choreographer after leaving Christy Kroll, and instead of Laurie Nicole, David Wilson ^[21] , who helped Patrick set up programs until the end of his career, became them. However, in 2016, after an unsuccessful performance at the World Championships, Johnson ceased cooperation with Chan ^[221] , and Patrick decided to work without a coach in the near future ^[222] .

A month later, however, Patrick came to work in the team of coach Marina Zueva ^[223] . At the same time, Wilson was not the choreographer of his new short program: in the new season, Chan put it on the basis of the indicative number ^[163] , which was choreographed by Pasquale Camerlengo ^[224] . A little more than a year, the skater trained in the group with Zueva, and although he did not win medals at the World Championships in Helsinki, he performed very strongly and scored 295.16 points ^[174] , which was less than two-tenths of the points than his personal record of 2013 ^{[ 225]} . But after the failure at the start of the Olympic season, Patrick decided to stop training and change the coach ^[188] . He went to Vancouver ^[188] and began training in the group of Canadian coach Ravi Walia , famous for working with single- man Caitlin Osmond ^[226] . Before the national championship, the skater noted that this step helped to gain self-confidence ^[195] . He then became the ten-time champion of Canada and the Olympic champion ^{[144] [203]} .

Riding style

Patrick Chan is primarily known for his high mastery of skating, in particular, his ability to master the ridge and aesthetics of his programs ^[227] . He is able to glide extremely smoothly over the ice ^[7] , rolling on the edges of the blades of the skates, and not on the blades themselves ^[4] . Patrick noted that he is able to very quickly pick up the desired speed, and because of this he manages to perform even a quadruple jump with a short run ^{[7] [228]} . Other athletes are sometimes forced to drive the entire rink to prepare for the performance of the “quadruple”. All Canadian programs are rife with binding elements ^[7] . Another fact that confirms the skill of skiing Chan is its ability, unlike other skaters, to drive half of the rink on one foot ^[7] , as well as to perform large curved lines. So, at the World Championships in Moscow, he performed a step track, having driven a full skating rink on one leg. All this is the factors of figure skating, which are evaluated by the judges in the second assessment.

Patrick works hard to achieve a similar level of skiing ^{[7] [228]} . At first, he avoided the inclusion of quad jumps in his programs, but at the end of 2010 he added four-sheepskin coats to his activeness ^[229] and became the leader of world figure skating. The skater himself noted that this jump, in addition to the high basic cost of the element, helps to gain self-confidence ^[230] . However, another complex element - the Triple Axel - has always been a problem for Patrick, which is common to many skaters who focus on the components. For example, the Swiss silver medalist in Turin, Stefan Lambiel, often did not perform the triple axel at all, being limited to double, but in the performance of the spins he had no equal ^[231] . Due to frequent mistakes in the jump elements of the Chan, his competitors and sports media commentators often criticize: after winning with two falls at the home world championship , the term “Chanflation” ^{[232] was used} , denoting superiority due to the second evaluation with gross errors in the technique . However, another Canadian skater Jeffrey Battle , who is Patrick's choreographer, suggested that such statements are made by uncompetitive figure skaters, and right after Battle alone, Patrick Chan’s sore feet start to hurt from watching the skating ^[4] .

Achievements of Patrick Chan, in addition to awards at competitions, were noted outside the rink. In January 2008, the Chinese Cultural Center in Greater Toronto awarded Chan the award “Chinese Canadian Youth of the Year 2007” ^[233] . In May of the same year, Patrick was voted “Asian of the Year” in art and sports, according to Asia Network magazine ^[234] .

In the summer of 2009, the figure skater starred in a television advertisement for the breakfast ^[235] . In 2010, the figure skater, along with teammates (speed skater Cindy Klassen and snowboarders and Brad Martin ), signed a sponsorship contract with a chain of fast food restaurants McDonald's , which is a sponsor of the Olympic Games ^[236] . After some time, the athletes who entered into such agreements were criticized for promoting unhealthy diets, and they were called upon to abandon individual contracts ^[237] . Patrick is involved in advertising for wines produced by Flat Rock Cellars. At first, he advertised icy wines ^[238] , and towards the end of his career as an amateur figure skater - sparkling ^{[18] [22] [209]} ; and in honor of the figure skater a brand was created, named after him ^{[22] [238]} . Patrick noted that he was a fan of wine, and if funds allowed, after figure skating, he plans to do winemaking , and earlier, in the process of advertising his own brand of wines, he had to work at one of the wineries in Ontario ^[33] .

Patrick plans to take part in a charity football match of legends and stars, which took place on September 15, 2018 in Vancouver at BC Place Stadium, whose capacity has been increased ^[239] . Swedish hockey players Daniel and Henrik Sedyna ^[240] also took part in the match, which should pre- empt the MLS regular season game between Vancouver Whitecaps and Seattle Sounders . After the match, the match participants' T-shirts were sold at auction, all the money was transferred to the foundation of the Children's Hospital of British Columbia ^{[241] [242]} .

In connection with the upcoming 2022 Olympics in Beijing, Chan was invited to China as a coach. According to him, the reason for the invitation was the initiative of the friends of (girls of Chan ^[243] ) and Ravi Valia (his last coach) ^[33] .

Competition venues

Detailed Results