2010 Skate Canada

Chan Jumps to Top With His First Quad

1.Total Score 239.54; 1. FS 166.32 (83.18+84.14 -1.0) Patrick CHAN obviously loves what he does. He was able to smile even after falling three times in the Short Program. Going into Saturday’s Free, on the surface, he didn’t seem to have a care. The boy doesn’t get out of his teens until this New Year’s Eve, yet he has escaped from a normal teenager’s angst. The secret is he loves what he is doing.

After third degree questioning, he did admit, "It was a little tough because I really didn’t know what I had done wrong yesterday. Maybe, I hestitated. But today, it was pretty exhilarating to land the quad and hear the crowd. They were so loud, I couldn’t even hear my music for the first couple of seconds. The quad takes skating to another level. It brings a different feeling. There’s a lot of excitement and a lot of tension because, if it goes wrong, as I have demonstrated, it can really take you down. Doing it is like being in a whirlwind, a vortex."

He skated ninth of the 12 skaters, presenting a reshuffling of his last year’s Phantom of the Opera. The quad was so good, all but one of the judging panel gave +2 and the ninth punched in his/her vote for the maximum +3. Chan banked a total of 12.30 points for this one move. The following jump, the triple Axel was another matter. It wasn’t straight in the air and there was no way he could NOT fall. Nevertheless, getting credit for the rotation earned him 5.50 points and he sprang back up as if he had hit a trampoline and not hard ice. That was followed by a +0.30 triple Lutz and +1.0 Level 3 straight line steps. As in the Short, no competitor received the maximum Level 4 for their steps, and only two other competitors received Level 3, Fernandez and Gachinski.

Two of Chan’s three spins were the maximum Level 4, and both received a GoE of +0.79. His third spin, the change foot sit was Level 3 with +0.57. Apart from the fall, his only negative GoE came on the ninth of the 13 elements, on his last combination of jumps, a triple loop to triple toe, which received -0.70 taken off its base value because the second jump was not quite fully rotated. The Specialist gave one arrow. Had it been more under-rotated, Chan would have received a second arrow and been downgraded to a double, which loses the skater a LOT of points.

Chan explained how modern dance instructor Kathy Johnson played a major part in his getting his quad this season, and how he made the decision to include a quad toe in both routines. "Last season, I was doing the quad in the harness but not really getting it. The quad (toe loop) is definitely more consistent than my triple Axel. Kathy explained how to use my core body as well as my arms and legs. Everything has to move together. Before, I wasn’t doing that and the arms and legs were not being reinforced and supplemented by my core. When I put that extra strength into action, the rotation came so much more easily."

Johnson, who studied Martha Graham technique and then attended the Julliard School of Dance in New York, got interested in skaters after her daughter took up the figure skating, and she realized how much alike the dance and skating fields are. Chan agrees. "I’ve looked at a lot of ballet tapes. They don’t have the advantage we have of glide and momentum. I did a lot of ballet when I was young so I wasn’t unused to dance but there are things I didn’t realize before."

Chan landed his first quad in competition at the Liberty Open in Aston, PA, this summer. "We are very careful not to over train it," Chan says. "If I have a day when things are not working out, after two attempts, we just move on to something else." He also said the break-up with former coach Don Laws and his move to Colorado Springs under the guidance of Christy Krall was made to take advantage of the training opportunities. "Every day, there are people on the ice in Colorado, including Juniors like Brandon Mroz and Joshua Ferris, doing quads. It’s very motivational to see that."

He also revealed that if he had won Olympic gold, he probably would have moved on to the next challenge, possibly even out of skating. "In the greater pattern of things, maybe it was all for the best that things happened the way they did. My goal, obviously, now is Sochi (where the Winter Olympics will take place in 2014). Although fifth place in the 2010 Olympics was an achievement in itself, most of Canada tuned in hoping to see Chan win a medal and now that is a goal which will define his next four years.

Chan also revealed that his views have changed about quads. "I now realize quads are a whole different level. You exert a lot more strength through your legs, through your glutes and the reat of your body. Your arms have to pull in really, really close. In the past, I kind of took the side that if you did a clean program without the quad you can still win. I understand differently now because I’m on the other side of the wall. I still believe it’s possible (to win a world title without a quad). Evan’s win at the Olympics was fair. He totally deserved it. He worked so hard for it. But including quads brings a level of excitement. You elevate your program to that level of excitement. Everyone else who has done quads, like Plushenko, has that excitement. Elvis had that excitement, Kurt(Browning) had that excitement, and I think that’s thanks to the quad. You get that extra oomph in your program from it."

2. .Total 236.52; 3. FS 155.15 (81.87+74.28 -1.0) Nobunari ODA, who had been in the lead after the Short, skated last to music from Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto No.1. He was slightly anti-climatic. He also began with a quad toe, which was meant to be combined with a triple, but the landing was not as slick as Chan’s. He decided not to take the risk of trying the other jump and received only the base value of 10.30. He did attach a triple toe to his next jump, a triple Axel which was so smoothly executed the entire judging panel punched in +2 and he banked a total of 14.60 points.

However, he fell on his second attempt at the triple Axel, set at the halfway point where the bonus ten percent clicks in for jumps. Towards the end, he was tiring. The last element was his third spin, and, although he got Level 4 for the other two spins, his flying sit was Level 3,with a negative (-0.13). Since he is now training in Canada, he will not go back to his native Japan until after Skate America, and won’t get to see his son born on October 1 until then. Asked about his feelings being separated from his wife and child at this critical time, he said that his mother is helping his wife, and his coach is deliberately making him as busy as possible so he hardly has time to think about loneliness. Although he won the silver, he was a full three points behind Chan, and he said he has a lot to work on before his next Grand Prix and a limited number of days to do so.

3. Total 233.04; 2. FS 155.51 (80.35+75.16) Adam RIPPON performed to Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.2. He was second in the free but was unable to advance from third, finishing a clear three and a half points behind Oda. Rippon competed in his first US senior championship last season, finishing fifth. The competitors in that event who were fourth and fifth ended up at Worlds as the replacements for Evan Lysacek and Johnny Weir, where Rippon did extremely well, finishing sixth.

That success has put a lot of expectations on the youngster, who will turn 21 on November 11. He explained that winning the bronze here, "gives me a lot of confidence. I came in here not feeling my best. I had a cold. Then, I had a rough bit when Patrick and I collided (in practice), but with all that, I kept my head focused and stayed the course. I’m a little upset with my performance [quality] today. I know I can do better. I can hear my choreographers (David Wilson and Sebastien Britten) saying, ‘You had a blank face on you here and there you were early on the music.’ Next time I want to concentrate better on my breathing, and take each element one at a time."

Rippon began with a triple Axel to double toe followed by an inside spreadeagle into a double Axel and a triple Lutz with the three rotations executed with both arms over his head. This is Rippon’s own invention, a variation on the famed Boitano Lutz, in which one arm is positioned above the head. Pulling your arms into the body is a critical factor in creating proper rotation in a jump, so placing in a different position makes the jumps far more difficult. The judges were certainly impressed. Three of them awarded Rippon the maximum +3 GoE, while five others punched in +2 and the remaining official thought it was nothing special and worthy only of +1.

Later Ripon showed another variation with arms over the head in a three jump combination of triple Lutz to double toe to double loop. Rippon’s only negative came when he stepped out of his second triple Axel, set when the bonus marks click in. After this point, he also presented a +0.80 triple flip to triple toe loop, the previously mentioned three jump combination, a triple loop and a triple Salchow. Two of his spins earned the maximum Level 4 with +0.21 and +0.64. The other spin was Level 3 and +0.43. It was definitely a showing of great potential.

4. Total 218.65; 6. FS 138.56 (70.06+69.50 -1.0) Kevin Reynolds had been over-the-moon after moving into the record books as the first skater to execute two triple jumps in a Short Program. But he wasn’t able to sustain that standard. His opening quad Salchow and quad toe loop to triple toe loop were awarded +0.71 above their respective base values of 10.50 and 14.40 which meant he had acquired 26.32 points almost immediately after starting. But then he singled both his triple Axel attempts, and a publicized quad loop attempt turned into a triple. Towards the end of the four minute forty second routine he fell on a combination of triple flip to triple toe loop.The routine was set to The Skaters’ Waltz and two other Johann Strauss pieces of music.

5. Total 210.85; 4.FS 144.11 (75.11+69.00) Javier FERNANDEZ, Spain, showed he is also ready for the top ranks by bringing off a +1.71 quad toe and a +1.43 triple Axel. And, although he singled his second attempt at a triple Axel, he gave one of the event’s most enjoyable presentations set to the soundtrack of Pirates of the Carribbean by Klaus Badelt and Hans Zimmer, which included passages in which he mimed drinking from a bottle and staggering around in a Johnny Depp manner.

6. Total 209.05; 5. FS 139.34 (72.98+66.36) Albert PREAUBERT, France, used to give the public unusual enjoyable showings. However, after starting with a triple toe instead of the planned quad, and doing only a double toe after his first triple Axel, his routine, set to piano music by Franz Schubert, went rather flat.

7. Total 204.08; 7.FS 137.51 (73.91+63.60) Artur GACHINKI, Russia, put his hand down on his opening quad toe, but his triple Axel to double toe to double loop , and second triple Axel were very smoothly executed. He performed to The Bolt by Shostakovich, miming and doing all sort of weird positions including wiggling his gloved fingers, one hand white, one black.

8.Total 191.86; 8. FS 131.16 (67.66+64.50 -1.0) Jeremy TEN, from British Columbia, began his routine, set to The Queen Symphony by Tolga Kashif, with a very nice triple Axel, a triple Lutz to triple toe loop and a triple flip, but then he fell on his triple Axel which may have been because one of his boots came undone. He stopped and went to the referee, Susan Lynch, and was allowed to pick up the routine after relacing the boot without penalty.

9. Total 188.96; 9. FS 127.96 (69.56+58.40) Yasuri NANRI from Japan performed to Bizet’s Carmen played by Rodion Shchedrin. His black and white outfit also included a red glove and red lower part of one sleeve. Although he began with a +1.0 triple Axel to triple toe loop, he fell on his triple Axel.

10.Total 181.65; 10. FS 124.67 (64.45+61.22 -1.0) Grant HOCHSTEIN advanced from 12^th to 10^th with a routine set to the Adagio from Spartacus, despite falling on his triple Axel. "I didn’t do as well as I had done at the Finlandia Trophy three weeks ago, but, even though I fell on the triple Axel, I was pleased I got credit for the rotation. I was nervous going into Finlandia. Now I realize I should have been more relaxed there. This was a higher level and more business-like. I felt I skated with my heart." Apart from the fall, he received (small) negatives for only two elements. He got a -0.30 for his second triple Lutz, although the majority of the panel punched in zero, which meant they felt it was perfectly acceptable in all aspects. He also got a -0.60 on his last jumping pass, a triple flip to double toe which was meant to include a third jump, a double loop.

Hochstein e started out in Tae Kwon Do when he was five. "I was really good and I was only a couple of test away from getting my black belt. But then I watched the 1998 Olympics and Michelle Kwan changed my life." He still knows some of the moves, though, so, whatever you do, keep your distance!

11.Total 175.84; 11.FS 118.35 (55.71+62.64) Kristoffer BERNTSSON, Sweden FS Michael Jackson Medley

12.Total 167.60; 12.FS 107.82 (49.60+59.22 -1.0) Paolo BACCHINI Selection of music from Cirque du Soleil.

2010 Skate Canada Men's Medalists