'I'm almost back to where I was'
Wesley Chiu lost the back half of last season to an ankle injury, but the 2024 Canadian champion believes he's on the right track to challenge for an Olympic team berth
More than three years later, the tension that was in the air around him still remains vivid to Wesley Chiu. The heightened sense of nerves that only an Olympic Winter Games can create — and this was about just getting there.
Chiu was 16 years old at the time, a guy just up from the junior ranks who didn’t really see himself as someone who would factor in the hunt for one of the two available Canadian men’s berths at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games. Those two spots ended up going to Keegan Messing and Roman Sadovsky, while Chiu — who had placed second in the short program — found himself standing on the podium in the bronze-medal position in his senior debut.
But it’s the memory of the stress that moment created that sticks with him as he ponders what lies ahead at the 2026 Canadian national skating championships, where only one men’s Olympic berth will be available when the country’s best gather in Gatineau, Que. (ironically, the arena there is right across the river from Ottawa, where those 2022 nationals were held in an empty building due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions).
“Well, to be honest, I think it’ll be quite stressful,” he says of what he expects the mood will be come January. “I was in that dressing room leading up to the 2022 Olympics, and I’ll just say there were a lot of nerves in that room. And I’m sure it’ll be the same (in Gatineau). So I’m glad I had that experience three or four years ago.
“Back then, there wasn’t as much pressure as I was just a junior moving up to senior, but it was really good to sort of be a fly on the wall and just watch everything unfold, so that I’ll know what to expect when it's my turn.”
That turn is surely at hand, with the start of the 2025-26 season drawing ever closer, and the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics a little more than nine months away. And if we’re being honest here, the 20-year-old Chiu isn’t exactly riding a wave of momentum heading into the campaign. The ankle injury that cut short his previous season back in November is indeed still a thing, but it’s a thing that keeps getting a little bit better with each passing day.
“Yeah, it’s still a thing. It’s not as big of a thing,” he said. “I’m able to train every day (with a ‘reduced load,’ Chiu adds), jump every day, and I’m almost back to where I was pre-injury, but I’m still doing a lot of rehab. It’s still going to be a top priority for this summer, just to really build strength in the ankle and prevent further injury.”
It’s perhaps worthwhile at this point to turn back the clock to the beginning of 2024, just to revisit the path that has carried Chiu to where he is right now. It was in January of that year that Chiu parlayed a superb short program into his first Canadian senior title at the national championships in Calgary. His debut at the Four Continents Championships was also an impressive affair, with more quality skating turning into a seventh-place finish.
After that, it was on to another first, at the 2024 World Championships in Montreal, where Chiu would finish as the top Canadian in 17th place, but his result combined with that of Roman Sadovsky (who followed Chiu as Canadian champion earlier this year) wasn’t enough to retain two spots for 2025 Worlds in Boston (more on that competition in a bit)
But mostly, it was a rare experience for the then-teenager who trains at the Connaught Skating Club in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond, B.C.
“It’s so special. Worlds doesn’t come to Canada very often so with that, and also being my first Worlds, I think it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity and it’s something I’ll never forget,” he said at the time. “Just so many emotions … it’s something you dream of as a kid. I’m basically living my dream.”
Fast forward now to the fall of 2024, and Chiu opened his new season with a 14th-place finish at Neberhorn Trophy in Germany, then moved up a ninth a month later at Skate America. Little did he know then, however, that the event in Allen, Texas, would end up being his last competitive outing of the season, even as he felt like he was beginning to build some momentum with his performances.
Disaster struck at the Cup of China Grand Prix event at the end of November when Chiu badly sprained his right ankle on a fall during practice and he never made it to the starting line. There would be no attempt at a national title defence in January in Laval, Que. No trip to Four Continents in South Korea in February to take a shot at possibly landing that lone spot for Canada at Boston Worlds.
Just a heaping dose of frustration that was unrelenting for months.
“To be honest, it kind of sucked,” he says now. “But in the moment, I really thought I would be able to make a comeback at some point in the season. I wasn’t sure when, but I thought it would be possible to compete again last season. So leading up to every competition, I did train as if I was going to compete, but it really came down to literally the last few days before I had to leave, where I had to make an important decision.
“I think (my long-term health) was the biggest factor that led me into making the decisions that I made.”
So how close did he coming to getting on the plane to Seoul?
“It was pretty close. Actually, I had all my jumps, sort of here and there. It was really more about putting it into a program, because doing a quad on its own is quite different when you have a bunch of other things going on and you have to do things back to back.,” he said of the lead-up to Four Continents. “That really was extra tough on the ankle. So, it really came down to the last, I’d say, like, two days before my flight to Korea.”
And that brings us right up to today, where there is clearly a renewed focus on doing whatever it takes to protect that pesky ankle and put him in the best position possible to not have it flare up again in any kind of major way. That’s mission No. 1 for Chiu and coach Keegan Murphy this summer.
“That sort of injury was, I guess, sort of like a fluke take off. It hadn’t really ever happened to me (previously), but there are things that you can do to, I guess, reduce the chances of (another injury),” he explained. “Working on strength and stability in the ankle is important, identifying any weaknesses that I have structurally and try to fix that. And also, I think I'll be working on my technique a lot, even on just basic singles and doubles. That’s really my biggest focus right now, just getting those to be solid so I have a better foundation on my triples and quads.
‘After taking so much time off last season, it’s just a big goal of mine to get out of the gate (next season) in the best shape I could be in.”
While choreography has been completed on two new programs for Chiu, he suggests there’s a possibility he might keep one or both of last year’s routines (Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” for the short, “Nuvole Bianche” and “Experience” by Ludovico Einaudi for the free) but that’s a decision that’s being kept under wraps for now.
“I’ve been working on new programs, and we have considered keeping old programs, but now I have two (new) programs that are ready to go for next season.,” he said. “I don’t want to specify on whether I’m keeping (last year’s programs) or getting new ones. Want to keep that a surprise.”
That should come into clearer focus during the summer months, when Chiu and his camp hope to get back into competition for the first time in many months. That also falls in line with Skate Canada’s urging that national team skaters put their programs in front of judges before the fall season begins.
“I always do a few summer competitions before high performance camp (at the end of August in Mississauga, Ont.),” he said. “And the B.C. section has a really nice camp where we bring in judges from all over the world, where they get to look at our programs, and we get to get some feedback before the season actually starts. So that's been really nice, but I’ll definitely be focusing on those summer competitions for this season.”
Chiu agrees with SC officials that getting that early start is vital.
“I think it’s really important, especially as I’m more experienced with the senior schedule now. The transition to from junior to senior was, I guess, pretty easy for me in terms of summer training, because juniors usually start (competing) earlier,” he said “But now that I have adjusted to the senior schedule, it’s been a bit more challenging to get myself going earlier in the summer. But it’s always nice to get a few runs just to work out the kinks before all the internationals start.”
Skate Canada can bring three men to its home Grand Prix each year and, assuming all is well health wise, one would think Chiu would get strong consideration for one of those spots (he finished seventh at SCI in Vancouver in 2024). He’d also like to get a Challenger Series event or two under his belt.
And he knows from experience how much racking up the run-throughs in competition can mean. He’d competed four times internationally in the run-up to 2024 nationals in Calgary, where he won his Canadian title. Chiu does believe those two happenings were intricately connected.
“I really think the experience that I accumulated leading up to nationals, having dealt with the home crowd atmosphere with Skate Canada International when it was here in Vancouver,” he said in explaining the key to him winning that crown. “And also NHK Trophy, having to deal with the pressure of skating in front of such a huge arena with lots of with the amazing Japanese fans that are really into the sport … that was also a really eye opening experience for me.
“So yeah, I think with those two experiences, I was really able to get comfortable when the situation around me is brand new. It really taught me to just rely on myself and my training.”
Last season also taught him that he’s not a fan of missing the biggest events. He watched with envy back in March when Sadovsky got to compete against the world’s best in front of raucous full houses at TD Garden in Boston.
“I definitely wish I could have been there or given myself an opportunity to be there, but as a viewer, I thought it was a pretty exciting event,” said Chiu. “I think it was, in many ways, a step up from Worlds in Montreal, just with the whole production (in the arena) and everything. I thought they did a really good job with that. So yeah, kind of jealous.”
Of course, he was watching with special interest in terms of seeing whether Sadovsky could earn a top-10 finish and create a provisional second berth for the 2026 Olympics. As we all know, that didn’t happen (Sadovsky finished 14th) and so the battle will be on for one precious Olympic ticket come January in Gatineau.
“I think (Sadovsky) did put out a good effort. Across Canada, all the Canadian men were cheering him on. But it is what it is. We have to play the cards that we’re dealt with,” he said. “So on my end, I’ll be working as hard as I can to just be in the best shape possible and give myself the best shot at (the Olympic team) next season.”
And yeah, this time Chiu will be right in the middle of all those stress and nerves. But after a lost season in 2024-25, he’ll surely welcome all of it.
“Just consistency is the biggest thing,” he says in defining what will matter most on the road to those nationals in early January. “It’s important that everyone knows that they look at your body of work throughout the whole season and as well as last season. So a lot of people think it comes down to nationals, but it’s really what you do throughout the season.
“So I think that’s my biggest goal, just being able to put out quality and reliable performances time and time again. I think that’ll be the biggest factor into deciding (who goes to) the Olympics.”