Canada's Patrick Chan is one of the heavy favorites for gold at this week's World Figure Skating Championships. The 20-year-old has been the silver medalist at the last two championships (second to Evan Lysacek in 2009, and second to Daisuke Takahashi in 2010). This season has been a breakthrough one for Patrick, as he's added quadruple jumps into his repertoire, and has been landing them consistently throughout the season. Last summer at the Liberty Competition in Aston, PA, in July, my sister and I were witnesses of Patrick's first-ever quadruple in competition, and boy was it a beauty! He built from that success and has progressed to planning three quads to his programs at Worlds, 1 in the short program and 2 in the freeskate.
Despite being criticized for taking a large number of falls throughout the Grand Prix series, Patrick's freeskate at the 2011 Canadian Championships, was brilliant, silencing his critics. Some fans have called his "Phantasia" program one of the best free skates they've ever seen.
Patrick has lots of momentum and positive energy heading into this week's Worlds competition, so only time will tell if he steps up to the plate and finally wins his first World title, or if he'll settle for runner-up once again. He's definitely World Championship material. Such talent is rare! The question is if he can put it all together at the right time?
Here is Patrick's stellar freeskate from the 2011 Canadian Championships:
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