What a night. Keegan Messing finished third in the men’s short program at Skate America. But he won much more than a placing. About a month ago, his younger brother, Paxon, a father of three little ones, was killed in a motorcycle accident in Alaska. I heard the news by text in the waiting room […]
Nathan Chen
Patrick Chan, a Farewell Look
When I first met Patrick Chan, he was peering over the Hershey Centre rink boards from the ice with only his eyes in sight. He was 10 years old but looked eight, maybe less, at the Canadian national junior championships. As a juvenile, the category on the lowest rung, he took a bronze medal. His […]
Patrick Chan, pulling himself to the finish
So much of what Patrick Chan does is linked to emotion, his inner life, how it feels to do something, what it means to him. It gives him a restless foot. And that’s how he’s found himself in Vancouver for the past couple of months to prepare for the national skating championships and Olympics, thousands […]
The wild and woolly men's event at Skate America
LAKE PLACID, N.Y. Nathan Chen still has a beautific head of hair. Perhaps a little more tousled than usual. Perhaps it’s the least of his worries. At least he is in one piece. Some of his competitors took a physical drubbing in the men’s free skate at Skate America. It was hurtful to watch at […]
The cast of characters in Skate America's men's short program
LAKE PLACID, N.Y. Nathan Chen has a beautific head of hair. Charcoal black curls sproinging out of his scalp like the crazy curves you encounter on a Lake Placid road. And what a ride he takes those curls on: up death-defying quads here, around some new fascinating body movement there. Heavens, even pair skater Eric […]
Patrick Chan deletes a quad – for now
You have to feel for these guys. These single men’s skaters who are going to war this season to out-power all who lie in their paths. They will rotate like spinning tops. They will try to defy gravity, shrug at it, taunt it like fiends. They are coming close to Cirque de Soleil performers who […]
Chen hobbled only by boots
HELSINKI Nathan Chen has blasted history, made history and defied history with his assembly of powerful quads this season. When the 17-year-old American defeated a savvy Olympic veteran in Yuzuru Hanyu at the Four Continents championships last month, well, the figure skating world just hasn’t been the same. On the first day of the world […]
Jason Brown: bouncing back
If Jason Brown ever found himself in the Hundred Acre Wood, he would be Tigger, hopping and bopping, swinging his arms around everybody with glee, smiling until tomorrow. “Tiggers are wonderful things,” the song goes. “Their tops are made out of rubber. Their bottoms are made out of springs.” The young American is irrepressibly positive, […]
Patrick Chan's new plan of attack
It’s as if Patrick Chan is sweating his way through a nightmare. Just as he is about to grasp the golden ring, it slips out of his reach. He’s running as fast as he can but it feels like slow motion, as his opponents pull away. We know how it feels, when the bottom suddenly […]
The quad fest at Four Continents
Is Nathan Chen for real? Has he been bundled onto earth somehow by a shiny space ship bearing gifts? Is he the lottery ticket somebody lost, then pulled triumphantly out of a drawer? Is this all a fairy tale? Injured after last year’s U.S. nationals, Chen was competing at only his second major international event […]