Former champ has extra time for his rising household, new profession and beer-league hockey
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Patrick Chan, whose aptitude for skating earned him 10 Canadian championships, an Olympic gold medal and a era of admirers, is about to retire for a second time. This time for good … perhaps.
“It’s been 10 years with Stars on Ice and this is goodbye for the foreseeable future, but not goodbye from skating forever,” mentioned Chan.
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“We’ll see what life looks like in five years and if things are moving along on the career front. It all depends, but it would be an amazing thing if one day the (2018) Olympic gold team would come back and do a last hurrah. But that’s just me dreaming. I haven’t heard from anyone else.”
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Chan is finishing a cross-country tour with Stars on Ice, which visits Regina on Thursday on the Brandt Centre, earlier than ending with stops in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Victoria.
Former Canadian champion Elvis Stojko plus world champions Ilia Malinin and pairs skaters Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps are among the many slated performers. Chan’s applications are set to “A Lovely Night” from the film “La La Land” and “Send in the Clowns” by Frank Sinatra.
“There have been some arenas we’ve been going to consistently throughout my career,” mentioned Chan, who recounted a number of earlier journeys to Saskatoon and Regina. “In Halifax (a few nights ago), it was extremely emotional. It kind of sneaks up on you because you’re so focused on the show, but when I got to the end of ‘Send in the Clowns’ it hit me that I probably won’t be coming back to Halifax for a long time.
“When I get to Vancouver it’s back to reality and back to work and back to being a dad and my son doesn’t know any different.”
Chan and his spouse, former pairs skater Elizabeth Putnam, are quickly anticipating a second baby, plus he has a burgeoning profession awaiting as a wealth planning intern at Nicola Wealth in Vancouver. Although he’s wholesome sufficient to proceed taking part in leisure hockey, Chan mentioned at 33 it’s been getting harder bodily to tour plus he doesn’t need to be away from his rising household.
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Along with three straight world championships (2010-12) and two Olympic silvers in males’s singles, Chan was a part of a blended Canadian crew that received gold medals on the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang. Shortly after profitable with teammates Kaetlyn Osmond, Gabrielle Daleman, Meagan Duhamel, Eric Radford, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir — all of whom ought to be anticipating reunion-oriented telephone calls in a number of years from Chan — he retired from aggressive skating.
According to Chan, that retirement was simpler than this one.
“Walking away from this, the professional career, is harder than the competitive career,” Chan mentioned over the telephone earlier than a latest efficiency in Moncton. “The competitive career is more training, more stringent and a very precise process. There’s not much flexibility there.
“When it comes to performing and being on the road and doing a tour, it’s the best of. both worlds. You’re doing something you love and something that’s fairly natural for you to do in front of a crowd, with no pressure really, other than the pressure you put on yourself to skate your best. So I find it a lot harder to walk away from it now than back in 2018.”
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Chan grew up in Ottawa, snowboarding usually close by at Mont Tremblant, earlier than his household moved to Toronto and wanted one thing athletic to preserve him busy. Wanting to play hockey, Chan in the end joined the Can Skate program and — to his mom’s pleasure — as an alternative selected determine skates reasonably than hockey skates, main to one among Canada’s most illustrious and well-decorated athletic careers. But he hasn’t fully shaken that hockey bug, a well-recognized affliction for 1000’s of older gamers throughout Canada.
“I’m still playing hockey every Sunday night in the beer-league with my buddies,” mentioned Chan. “They’ve been an important part of my transition into life after skating by accepting and just chatting about some life challenges. We get to the rink at 9:45, play an hour-and-a-half game and, you know, have a beer after and chat.”
And off come the skates. One extra time.
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