One day after Even Lysacek beat Evgeni Plushenko for the gold medal in men's figure skating, Elvis Stojko had harsh words for the current state of figure skating. He was incensed with the fact that Plushenko landed two quad jumps in his two programs and still lost to a skater whose program had a lower degree of difficulty.

"The sport took a step backward. Brian Boitano did the same thing, technically, in 1988. There are junior skaters who can skate that same program," he stated in his column on Yahoo.com.

Perhaps he has a point. Imagine if the scoring system in the Snowboarding halfpipe gave more points for five 360's than a double mctwist 1260 (Shaun White's signature move)? Boarders like Shaun would realize that trying to pull of risky moves that sap tons of energy are hardly worth it, and would go for more variety. According to Stojko, a similar thing is happening in skating, and the athletes are not being encouraged to push the envelope.

If you want to read his angry tirade against the current scoring system put in place by the ISU, click here. He closes by saying "I am going to watch hockey, where athletes are allowed to push the envelope. A real sport."

No argument from me there, Elvis!

With the Vancouver 2010 Olympics looming, I am going to devote some time to preparing for what’s to come. I will focus on the sports that Canada will be competitive in and attempt to introduce our medal contenders. We should know the athletes who will be wearing the maple leaf, so that we can put our full support behind them. To kick this off, we focus on figure skating.

Patrick Chan:

Patrick Chan provides us with a reason to believe that the future of Canadian figure skating is very promising. At just 18 years of age, we might have expected to wait a few more years for his work to bear fruition, but since he has been Canadian champion 2 years running, then winning the silver medal at the 2009 World Figure Skating Championships in Los Angeles, we can sense that the future is upon us.

The fact that he has already achieved so much in such a young career is indicative of Chan’s determination. In an article by Lori Ewing on the ctvolympics.ca website, Canadian figure skating legend, Kurt Browning, recalls a very motivated, younger Patrick Chan, declaring, “I want to be part of what keeps figure skating in this country great.”

This resolve is what pushes Chan to always be working. As Ewing writes, “When he's not on the ice, he's doing pilates and yoga, and taking care of his aching limbs in the whirlpool and ice bath.” Indeed, work ethic and ambition make up a large part of any professional athlete’s successes, but just as important are an individual’s built in talents.

In this regard, Chan has no shortage of praise being thrown his way. On his abilities, choreographer, Lori Nichol, says, “He has such mastery of his blades and of all the things blades can do, but he's also incredibly strong and so he can take it to all sorts of levels.”

Retired Canadian skater, Jeffrey Buttle, bronze medalist at the 2006 Turin Olympics, agrees, “"He skates like he's 10 years older than he actually is. In terms of maturity, he has skating skills and edges and posture that are head and shoulders ahead of the rest of the competition.''
The other ingredient to his accomplishments is perhaps just as rare and also essential: a lack of anxiety. Browning, a competitor who has felt the pressure of skating in front of millions at the Olympics, is notably impressed by the youngster, "You're used to seeing skaters go to the competition and the level drops because it's competition. You're nervous. It didn't with him, and I'm starting to get used to it now. He just has a way of going out there under different and difficult situations and being able to lay down a really high percentage of his planned content. . . it's rare, really rare.''

What’s rare is seeing so much admiration and respect pouring from past champions to such a young man. A greater endorsement is hard to imagine, and if they deem him worthy of such acclaim, there’s no reason we shouldn’t believe.

Come back on Monday to read about our female medal hopeful – Joannie Rochette