01.02 Canadian Skater Patrick Chan Unfazed by Russian Competition
SOCHI, February 1 (RIA Novosti) –The favorite for the men’s figure skating gold at the Sochi Olympics, Canada’s Patrick Chan, said Saturday he does not see Russian veteran Evgeni Plushenko as a rival.
Three-time Olympic medalist Plushenko, 31, surprised Chan by winning a protracted battle at the Russian qualifiers last month ahead of 18-year-old Maxim Kovtun, even though the younger man had bested Plushenko at the Russian national championships.
“It's exciting and it maybe makes me a little nervous that he is here, but at the end of the day when I'm on the ice I'm by myself,” said Chan, the reigning world champion, after training in Sochi.
“It's going to be a challenge for me to stay focused on what I have to do and what I know I can do in my programs,” he added. “Not in the sense that he [Plushenko] could challenge me for a gold medal but it’s maybe a bit of a distraction.”
Chan and Plushenko have not skated against each other since the Japan Open exhibition in 2012, when Plushenko finished fourth, two places ahead of Chan.
Chan admitted he was surprised that Plushenko, who last competed at a major international competition over a year ago, had even qualified for the Olympics.
"Evgeny is a great skater, one of the best skaters in the world," he said. "I didn't really expect him to come. It was a bit of a surprise, I think, to many people that he was selected to go to the Olympics."
Plushenko secured his Olympic spot with a closed performance for Russian skating officials that followed a fifth-place disappointment for Kovtun at last month's European championships, which Plushenko missed to focus on training.
Chan spent considerable time assessing the ice on Saturday at Sochi’s Iceberg Skating Palace before performing fragments of his programs and then a full short program including a quadruple toeloop-triple toeloop combination.
Chan’s first competitive date is likely to be a short program skate Thursday as part of the new team event, before the free program two days later and finally the men’s individual competition February 13-14.
