Photo by Justine Chiu
With day 1 of the new season out of the way – at least at my club – it feels as if the competitions can’t be far behind. Lucky doesn’t begin to describe how I feel about getting the chance to talk to some of the ‘greats’ in skating as well as ordinary people dedicated to doing extraordinary things. Mind you – once you are committed to doing extraordinary things – it kind of takes away the whole “ordinary” thing.
I think if you were to ask him – Canadian and World Champion, Patrick Chan might describe himself as ‘ordinary’ but with the accomplishments of this past season, nothing could be further from the truth.
In Toronto to receive THREE Guiness Book of World Records – for highest score for the Short, Free and Overall scores – I got the chance to ask Patrick to go ‘on the record’ about the experience which he did on the spur of the moment and battling jet lag. What a great sport to answer in English and French and although he complained that he was a little “off” in his French, as a Canadian he considers it important to be bilingual.
There are people in the wings that want to help Patrick achieve his goals; appreciating the fact that he is a young man who is willing to “raise the bar” even though he is the one to have set the bar. You have to admire that kind of commitment. In addition to the Guiness Book of World Records presentation, Chan is in town for the Sk ate Canada High Performance Camp as well as a fundraising dinner being held in his honour as part of a grassroots and ongoing campaign. As if all that training didn’t keep him busy enough!
He is very happy to be competing at Skate Canada in Mississauga and then the Grand Prix in France and my money is on his return to the Grand Prix Final which will be in Quebec City in December.
How is his new friend? The Quad Salchow is coming along nicely he says with a grin and “thanks for asking”.
Anytime 🙂
@@@@@@ check out Pj’s YouTube Channel: PjKwongWordbroker @@@@@@