Chantastic....the return of Patrick

[Alilou]

Patrick skating on the roof of a camper van for an ad. So weird, and random.

Drifter Vans on Instagram: "Watch now! Our friend Patrick Chan flips the script and the ice for our latest campaign! Talk about a short commute to work. Who needs a rink when you’ve got a roof? ⛸️ 🚐 • • • • #iceskating #vanlife"

717 likes, 40 comments - driftercampervansFebruary 9, 2024 on : "Watch now! Our friend Patrick Chan flips the script and the ice for our latest campaign! Talk about a short commute to work. Who needs a ...".

www.instagram.com

 

[Sylvia]

CBC’s Scott Russell backstage at Montreal Worlds with Patrick Chan and young Oliver : https://www.instagram.com/p/C46LipWPBLg/?igsh=NHpqMDZ6NHJ0M21o

 

[cheremary]

Patrick has announced that this year's Stars on Ice tour will be his last, and that he and his wife are expecting another boy this summer. I'm so glad to have seen him skate in the gala at Montreal Worlds and hope that he will continue to do occasional skating appearances if not a full tour.

Patrick Chan on Instagram: "One more time. #starsonicecanada #soi24"

2,044 likes, 79 comments - pchan31April 19, 2024 on : "One more time. #starsonicecanada #soi24".

www.instagram.com

 

[tylersf]

Patrick has announced that this year's Stars on Ice tour will be his last, and that he and his wife are expecting another boy this summer. I'm so glad to have seen him skate in the gala at Montreal Worlds and hope that he will continue to do occasional skating appearances if not a full tour.

Patrick Chan on Instagram: "One more time. #starsonicecanada #soi24"

2,044 likes, 79 comments - pchan31April 19, 2024 on : "One more time. #starsonicecanada #soi24".

www.instagram.com

Congratulations on his achievements and progeny!

 

[Sylvia]

I was able to read the entire article by Simon Houpt (April 26, 2024) on my phone by clicking on the link in this post: https://twitter.com/globeandmail/status/1783985430163296302

https://twitter.com/x/status/1783985430163296302

Excerpts:

Then [after the SOI tour ends on May 16], Chan, 33, will go home to Vancouver, where he lives with his wife, skater Elizabeth Putnam, whom he married in 2020, and their 2 1/2-year-old son, Oliver – they’re expecting another child later this year – and clock in for work in his first year as a wealth-planning intern at a local wealth-management firm. Already, one post-skating career for which he had high hopes, as a commercial realtor, didn’t pan out. It has all, he admits, been quite an adjustment.

What do you consider your lowest depths of misery?
The first six months after my son was born, we were kind of coming out of the pandemic, I had started a new career in commercial real estate, and that combination of walking through uncharted territory in two different worlds, I felt like I had no control, I had no experience. I just felt so unprepared for all of it. I would rush off to work and then come back really upset or frustrated with whatever was going on there. I had zero patience by the time I got home and treated my wife and my son really unfairly. I wasn’t necessarily present or patient. That was a really dark time. We went to couples therapy and I went to a therapist for myself, personally. Just trying to figure out, how do I grow from this?

How did being a father change you?
My parents were immigrant parents and went through a lot of struggles as young adolescents, and I’m not blaming them, but I want to be a better version of them. And that took a lot of work – it’s still ongoing. Whether it’s as simple as – I hate to admit it, but just, like, being extremely frustrated, or yelling, being really impatient, all these things that I thought I had a good handle on – I didn’t really. It wasn’t a real test until I had a child. So, thank goodness for my wife, who is five years wiser than I am, and a perfect counterbalance to my personality. I’ve had to really put my ego aside and admit that I approach things maybe not the best way. So that’s taken a lot of vulnerability. Just to be like: Yeah, I was wrong and I messed up and I’m sorry.

Becoming a father is my greatest achievement. Getting to this place where I can comfortably say this is the end of one chapter and I’m prioritizing the next. I’m riddled with fear and uncertainty, but I know that this is what I want, and I can’t wait to see how this develops and grows.

Do you have a greatest regret?
I have a few regrets. They’re all quite great. Not going to university as a young boy, to push myself to balance skating and school at the same time. The other thing would be a couple of coaching choices in my career I think could have pushed me further, and I think I could have been more successful near the end of my career. But now we’re just being nitpicky.

 

[manhn]

I found the interview really thoughtful and honest. I hope the best for him and his family.

 

[Firedancer]

I would love to hear him expand on the question about regrets, specifically, the coaching choices and how he could have been more successful near the end of his career. I definitely agree he could have been. I wish Patrick the best going forward. I am happy I got see him skate one last time in Montreal.

 

[skateboy]

I was able to read the entire article by Simon Houpt (April 26, 2024) on my phone by clicking on the link in this post: https://twitter.com/globeandmail/status/1783985430163296302

https://twitter.com/x/status/1783985430163296302

Excerpts:

I have often thought about Patrick, and the 2014 Olympics. Does anyone else remember the expectations of him winning the gold medal? If you go back and read archives here on FSU, there were actual threads titled: "Who will win silver and gold?" EVERYONE thought that Patrick would be the undisputed gold medalist.

Must have been incredible pressure. And, at the end of the day, Hanyu won with a VERY flawed long program... even he thought he had blown it. Then Patrick (who was a far better skater at the time) made even more mistakes and ended up with silver. Patrick took it all with a smile, but it had to have been a devastating loss. I haven't heard him talk much about it.

Kudos to him for this interview. I wish him the best.

 

[sadya]

That FS should have been the winning FS. It was worthy of an Olympic Gold skate. It's unfortunate he made so many mistakes.

 

[Sylvia]

“Send In the Clowns”: Patrick Chan Farewell by Beverley Smith (April 28):

"Send In the Clowns": Patrick Chan Farewell - Bev Smith Writes

I like to watch Patrick Chan skate for the same reason I like to watch Audrey Hepburn act, or Lang Lang play classical piano or Mikhail Baryshnikov dance, or a craggy hill in Scotland beckon, all misty and verdant. Chan’s presence on the ice is one of life’s little pleasures: that slip and slide...

bevsmithwrites.com

 

[cheremary]

Patrick is the featured episode of the "Don't Change Much" podcast:

Don't Change Much Podcast | Presented By Canadian Men's Health Foundation

Listen to Canada’s newest men’s health podcast

menshealthfoundation.ca

I found the interview really thoughtful and honest. I hope the best for him and his family.

I completely agree. I recently listened to the podcast that @Sylvia posted above, and thought that interview and these two articles from the Globe and Mail and Beverley Smith really show the work that Patrick has put in in reflecting on his life and a level of self awareness that will serve him in good stead going forward.

It's not easy to change careers, particularly if you don't have the educational background in the new profession, and coupled with being a new parent is a lot of change all at once. As he said, he could've easily had many opportunities in skating, and it takes courage to want to develop new skills in new areas of life, and that's incredibly commendable.

I'll certainly miss him on the ice but hope that he'll want to put on that comfortable pair of old shoes again at some point. I do wish his final tour had been announced earlier (though it sounds like he didn't even know himself until recently) so that more people would be able to see him live, and can only hope there will be good quality videos posted from CSOI, particularly as the theme sounds quite interesting this year! And if Elvis Stojko is any indication, he can always come back to skating when the kids are older.

 

[Japanfan]

I have often thought about Patrick, and the 2014 Olympics. Does anyone else remember the expectations of him winning the gold medal? If you go back and read archives here on FSU, there were actual threads titled: "Who will win silver and gold?" EVERYONE thought that Patrick would be the undisputed gold medalist.

Patrick took it all with a smile, but it had to have been a devastating loss. I haven't heard him talk much about it.

I didn't think he was going to win because he was so defensive in interviews in the lead-up to the games. So unlike Yags who years before had said that winning Olympic Gold was his destiny - and skated all season like it was.

I don't know that Patrick was devastated by the loss. I think he was just glad to have it all over with.

He was a great skater, but not a great competitor.

 

[Sylvia]

"This Week in Skating" podcast episode (May 5, 2024):

This Week in Skating / Interview with Patrick Chan

Listen to This Week in Skating Podcast on RedCircle

redcircle.com

In this episode, Daphne and Gina talk with three-time World champion, three-time Olympic medalist and 10-time Canadian Champion Patrick Chan. Patrick announced in April that the 2024 Stars on Ice Canadian tour will be his last tour.

 

[Sylvia]

Robert Brodie's Substack post (May 10) between the Toronto & Regina SOI shows:

'I knew it was never going to be easy'

Patrick Chan is nearing the finish line of his much decorated figure skating career, and the current Stars On Ice tour is bringing up all the feels for the Canadian skating star.

rwbrodiewrites.substack.com

2 excerpts:

“It’s definitely a bit of a rollercoaster. It’s a tour definitely mixed with some reflection of previous tours and how I remember it,” the 33-year-old Chan says on a day off from Toronto, before the SOI cast headed off to Regina for a show on Thursday night. “I saw Scott (Moir) in London, he came to the show … just hugging him and talking with him, I got really emotional for some reason. It brought back a flood of memories of what it was like touring with Scott and what that meant to me. And the memories we made and the things I learned, the stupid things we did … just everything came rushing back.
“We went through the juniors together and all the way to the top. I have moments like that where I just reflect and reminisce a lot on how things used to be. But at the same time, I miss my family, I miss my wife (former pairs skater Elizabeth Putnam), I miss (his son) Oliver a lot … I think I’m stepping away at the right time, considering where I am in my life and how hard being away from my son for four weeks has been already. I knew it was never going to be easy; these types of decisions are always tough.”

“Near the end of my career, it was about being at peace with what I accomplished. That was a big thing for me. I think it’s very common for a lot of highly competitive athletes to never be satisfied. Being in my 30s, that’s kind of where the script had switched and now just appreciating how hard it was to accomplish what I did. A silver instead of a gold doesn’t really make a difference in the grand scheme of things.”
And yes, he does mean that 2014 Olympic gold there. But also lot more.
“Honestly, I’m referring to that, but also even some coaching choices and the way I probably acted very selfishly sometimes as a competitor. Didn’t treat my coaches the best, didn’t treat my friends the best,” he said. “It’s the medal and more. It’s a lot of things that you naturally reflect on and regret and wish you did differently. So that’s humbled me a lot. Just keeping a perspective of instead of just reacting, maybe taking a second to absorb what’s happening and making the right decision.

Oliver with his father and the cast before the Vancouver show:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1790171199739445546

Patrick reminisces about the 2018 tour stop in Toronto: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6hlgadpi8k/
A funny moment backstage involving Jeff Buttle: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6kaGFcMJnK/
His favorite group number: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6kaGFcMJnK/
His 3 favorite SOI traditions: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6_42aMpvsO/