VANCOUVER - Just 25 months before the Olympic world comes to Vancouver, Patrick Chan, Tessa Virtue, Scott Moir and a whole bunch of talented young Canadians hit the Pacific Coliseum ice and gave figure skating fans a tantalizing 2010 appetizer this week.
"We're miles ahead of where we were last year. I thought it was a really positive week," said Michael Slipchuk, Skate Canada's high performance director after the final 2008 BMO Canadian Figure Skating Championships medals had been handed yesterday
"We had some great events. There's youth and there's depth. We had three new champions crowned and it is really going to make the next two years interesting.
"It's not the same old, same old. The champions that didn't win are going to be back next year hungry to win them back. That's what we had 15 years ago and that's what drew people (fans) in. We couldn't ask for more."
Ask Slipchuk for a highlight and it didn't take long for him to answer.
"I'dhave to say Patrick," he said, talking about the 17-year-old Toronto native who ended Jeff Buttle's three-year reign as national men's champ with a brilliant Saturday afternoonfreeskate.
"We kind of thought there would be a breakthrough here this week, but the question was where would he end up. We didn't rule out the possibility that he could win this event. Now the people know what he's about. He's for real. His international season wasn't a fluke."
Not only can Chan skate, he's a face Skate Canada can sell to a Canadian public craving a star. The crowd loved him Saturday. He's smart. He's sensible. He's engaging.
And how timely is that for an organization that's trying to re-engage its public.
Attendance this week hit 39,580. No, that's not what it was when the likes of Elvis Stojko, Brian Orser, Kurt Browning, Victor Kraatz, Shaelynn Bourne and the Jamie Sale-David Pelletier pair -- who were inducted into the Skate Canada Hall of Fame on Sunday -- ruled.
But the turnout was about 10,000 more than organizers had expected.
"We're very pleased with what was accomplished," said Skate Canada CEO William Thompson, who admitted he had expected about 30,000 this week. "The execution of the event was a substantial improvement on what we've had the last few years. I'm happy with the attendance. It was better than I expected."
And the skating was better than what many might have expected.
There were some individual highlights, Cynthia Phaneuf's comeback comes to mind.
So does Coquitlam, B.C.'s Kevin Reynolds quad-triple-triple combination in Saturday's senior men's free. Only one other skater has ever done that -- Russia's Evgeni Plushenko at the 2003 worlds.
"Wow. I didn't see it, but that's amazing," Buttle said of the 17-year-old's feat. "He's an excellent jumper. I wish I had his air position. He spins like a top."
With 2007 national ice dance champs Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon taking the year off, Virtue and Moir won with a performance that Dubreuil and Lauzon, second at 2007 worlds, would have had a hard time beating. Anabelle Langlois and Cody Hay took the pairs crown from Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison, who finished second ahead of former champion Craig Buntin and his new partner Meagan Duhamel.
Joannie Rochette kept her women's title, but the week revealed a new group of improving women, including what may be a re-vitalized Phaneuf. The 2004 national senior champ but still only 19 years old, she finished third this week after more than two years battling an assortment of injuries.
"A year ago we looked at where we were at and we thought we might be about two years away from a new batch coming in, but we saw that this year," Slipchuk said of skaters in all four disciplines. "It's promising and we're moving in the right direction.
"Already there's going to be battles for next year. Every-one's going to want to see Jeff and Patrick. They're going to want to see the three pairs. On any given day they can be on any given order. The women's event is getting tighter.
"We want good Canadian competition coming into 2010. It's enough time that these kids can get experience at the world level in time for 2010. They're not going to come in green the first time."
They may leave some countries green with envy though.
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