SportyMags
Hey sports fans!! Thanks for stopping by my blog! I am a self admitted “rink rat” so a lot of this blog will be about figure skating and hockey, however as an ex-figure skater, ex-varsity athlete and a sports fan in general, I usually have thoughts and opinions about alot of different sports I follow, so visit often!
Patrick Chan: Ready for GPF
Today I was fortunate enough to attend a conference call with Patrick Chan who spoke about the upcoming Grand Prix Final event. Here are some of the things he talked about.
Heading into the Grand Prix Final with 2 Grand Prix golds, Patrick is feeling calm and confident. His focus is to stay healthy and give himself the best chance to do well. His wins at Skate Canada and Cup of China helped him figure out what he needs to do to be successful. He improved a lot from the previous season and is happy about it.
The experience at Skate Canada and the experience at Cup of China were very different. At Skate Canada it was at home, skating in front of a home crowd, so he really had to focus on controlling his excitement with all the buzz at the event. At Cup of China, it was a bit more methodical. He didn’t pay attention to his surroundings. His performance gave him confidence, in landing the 2nd quad toe and the 2nd 3A.
The biggest challenge going into next week at Marseilles is getting there and feeling rested. His body has been through a lot of travel and at most has had a 2 week break. Patrick wants to get there, be in a good state of mind, and not be distracted by the jumping competition (Yuzu, Shoma…) Both he and Javi have the same technical plan so he will focus on his job. He will focus on keeping his nerves under control and not changing his mental approach throughout.
A reporter asked; “since working with Marina and winning 2 gold medals, are you confident about winning the GPF or winning a medal?” Patrick replied that he didn’t go into the Grand Prix events expecting to win. At this point in his career he wants to be concerned only with his own challenges and goals. The minute he gets concerned with winning, that means lots of quads, and that means setting himself up for trouble.
When asked about any last minute tweaks to his programs, Patrick replied that he hasn’t changed any of the jumps but has made some changes in his spins and footwork. He has changed his spins to be more esthetically appealing for GOE, and he has changed his footwork slightly to add full body movement. He has more accents in his step sequence in the long program, which make it more dynamic (sharp and aggressive movements), not all just soft.
One of the very neat things Patrick said was “we know there will be record breaking scores, there’s no doubt about it”!
Can’t wait to see this!! I hope he is right!! Queue Yuzu!!
Personally, I can’t wait for the GPF to get started. I suspect the event will go by much quicker than I am used to since each discipline only has one group of skaters. Yes it includes juniors too but I am so used to at least 2 or more groups of skaters per discipline that this will fly by in an instant!! Don’t blink!!
My personal podium wish:
- Yuzuru Hanyu
- Patrick Chan
- Shoma Uno
Good luck to everyone!
Go Yuzu Go!!! Doki Doki!!
SportyMags 
I hope Yuzu will not put too much pressure on himself but just enjoy his program during the coming finals. He always skates with so much emotion and connects so well his audience. He is a joy to watch! Certainly I will be rooting for Yuzu to win. But whatever the outcome, he will always be the greatest and most loved skater to me
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Interesting read for sure. Ever since people in a Yuzuru Facebook fan group have said Patrick Chan has been repeatedly overscored, I’ve been super paranoid about it. And as a result, I get very critical with him especially when he wins despite having downgraded jumps or falls on the “merit” of his components score. He has some nice moments artistically, but he isn’t a performer like Plushenko was or like Javier Fernandez is. and he doesn’t care that x-factor Yuzuru has when he gives a solid skate.
Of course my hope is for Yuzuru to give a clean performance overall so only Javier Fernandez could challenge him for top position. Javi is the only other skater who is consistently the complete package (2-3 landed quads and great as a performer). I’d like to see Shoma on the podium as well because he’s very talented with his jumps and has great determination.
Then of course there’s Nathan Chen. I hope he skates cleanly so my country could make the podium. Adam Rippon has become one of my favorites these past 2 seasons, but he needs more quads 😛 what can I say? Ever since I got on Plushenko’s side of the quad debate, I want the winners of these competitions to have at least 2 quads per program and be great performers that draw me into their skating. I’m glad Patrick Chan is adding quads and I look forward to the changes in his step sequences with more dynamics and such… but the other 5 skaters are ones I’d had more time to bond with (Patrick, I think I only enjoyed him once and it was last year’s Skate Canada… very short-lived, unfortunately)
So my dream podium for GPF would be:
1. Yuzuru
2. Javier Fernandez
3. Nathan Chen [he has the quads, but because he’s still so young I don’t think the judges will give him enough points on the components side].
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