'So many stars had to align'
Patrick Chan reflects on being an integral part of the greatest Olympic team that Canadian figure skating has ever seen. They'll rightfully enter Skate Canada's Hall of Fame together.
It was a moment in time for all of them, those 2018 Olympic Winter Games in South Korea. When the “golden generation” of Canadian figure skating, which had spent two quadrennials building up to this zenith, stood on top of a podium in a faraway place called PyeongChang.
Golden together, golden forever.
Patrick Chan can’t help but feel a little nostalgic when he remembers those two weeks on the other side of the world, a memory that was brought to the fore again when Skate Canada announced that its 2025 Hall of Fame class would include six of the seven members from the group that won the first and only gold medal for Canada in the Team Event: Chan, Kaetlyn Osmond, Tessa Virtue, Scott Moir, Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford.
For the 34-year-old Chan, it was the lone Olympic gold medal he’d win in his decorated career — he was a silver medallist in the men’s event at the 2014 Sochi Games. And all these years later, he counts it as one the biggest memories of a career that also included three World championships.
“It’s definitely number one or number two. It’s close to the 10 titles in Canada. I think the 10 titles is more of a personal achievement,” he said from his home in Vancouver. “The Team Event was kind of looking at these people that … we grew up together through the junior ranks. I’m thinking more specifically of Tessa and Scott. We went through the Junior Grand Prix circuit together and we kind of survived the storms that came and went.
“It was really a relief, because we had worked so hard and we just kept our heads down. It gets harder as you get older, so it wasn’t an easy road to PyeongChang, especially for me. I really felt like I got a monkey off my back, and could smile and look at my friends and say thank you for supporting me at the rink and also off the ice.”
Seven years have indeed passed since the magical night in PyeongChang. While Chan was indeed giddy on that golden evening — it might be the happiest I’ve ever seen him in a moment of triumph, as he celebrated with some of his best friends in the sport and in life — it’s the Hall of Fame honour that is perhaps doing the most to remind him of how special that team was.
It’s been mentioned here more than once, but we’ll say it again — never before has Canada put together a group at the Winter Olympics that produced World champions in all four disciplines (Osmond would win hers a month after the Games in Milan, ending a 45-year golden drought for Canadian women). Yeah, it was something truly rare indeed, the kind of thing Chan wonders if we’ll see again anytime soon.
“I think the circumstances were so unique, now that I reflect on it. The fact that you could get world champions in every discipline on one team … that’s so rare. And I’m seeing it now with the state of skating in Canada, at least for the men and women,” he said. “It’s really hard to maintain that level of performance for such a long period of time for two Olympic cycles. It’s really unprecedented and we might see that one more time, at least in my lifetime, I’m hoping. But it’s so, so special.
“We were the first group to bring back the power of Canadian figure skating. We reinstated ourselves as a figure skating country. Who knows when this will happen again? It may never, honestly. So many stars had to align and so many things had to go right at the right time.”
For most of them, those Olympic Games of 2018 marked the end of their time in the biggest skating spotlights. All but Daleman would retire after that season — Osmond wouldn’t make it official until a year later — although Radford would return two years later with a different partner, Vanessa James, and they would skate under the five rings again in Beijing in 2022.
As we’ve documented here previously, a lot has changed in Chan’s life since those days of skating glory came to end. He married former Canadian pairs skater Elizabeth Putnam and they’re now proud parents of two young boys, three-year-old Oliver and Benjamin, who will mark his first birthday in June.
He’s also started into a career with a company called Nicola Wealth which, as its title suggests, is involved in wealth planning for its clients (he recently was promoted to an associate position within the firm). The business includes six offices across Canada, from Vancouver to Toronto. Not only has he found it an invigorating place to work, it’s also a short walk from his home in the Kitsilano area of Vancouver.
And for the first time in a while, Chan won’t enter the spring months planning for life on a skating tour. He had returned from a brief hiatus two years back, to join Kurt Browning for his farewell journey with the Canadian Stars On Ice tour. Liked it so much he wanted to be all-in for another go last year. But once he learned Putnam was pregnant for a second time, priorities shifted.
Tough decision? You bet. But one he hardly regrets. He just knew it was time.
“It’ll be a real adjustment. But to be honest, being on tour last year, it was really fun and a great time, but there was just a bit of a scent of ‘OK, I’m one of the older cast members.’ I’m one of the few who has a life outside of skating now,” he explains now. “It was almost like the writing was on the wall in a way. And so as hard as the decision was, my worries now are … when I’m at work, I think about ‘oh, I’m missing Benji growing up right now. I feel like I’m missing out.’
“If I take into consideration everything else that’s happening in my life, it’s the right decision. And we know that nine times out of 10, the right decision is the hardest decision to make.”
It’s also why, when he was recently offered a chance to do a seminar in the B.C. interior — a six-hour drive from home — he knew he had to say no. Putnam is a well-known choreographer in the Vancouver area, but the new arrival into their lives has made her limit the amount of work she does.
While it can be a grind at times, as any mom or dad will tell you, there is also a special joy in bringing a new life into the world and watching it grow. Those who have done it will tell you there are few better feelings in life.
“There’s days once a week, at least, where you’re just breathing a little heavier and you’re kind of going through the grind of parenting. And it’s tough, but it’s also a lot of fun,” Chan explained. “There’s a lot of fun, cute moments where you pinch yourself, and Liz and I look at each other and say ‘can you believe we made that?’ It’s just an amazing thing.
“I still can’t believe I’m a father. It’s been a great experience and a huge growth experience for me, at least. Just learning a lot about myself and how to be more mature. Parenting is harder than going to the Olympics, I tell you.”
Chan’s lone dalliance with skating these days is helping his wife with choreography, and there’s one moment of pride he shares in that area. Last season, they created two programs for South Korean skater Minkyu Seo and he used them to become world junior champion. Chan and Putnam did a short program for Seo this season — skated to Beethoven’s legendary “Moonlight Sonata” — and it helped the 16-year-old to a silver medal this week at Junior Worlds in Debrecen, Hungary.
(Seo won a small gold medal for the best short program in that competition).
It’s a partnership that spawned out of a visit by a group of South Korean skaters to a club in the Vancouver suburb of Coquitlam five years ago.
“(Seo) and a group of Korean skaters would come every summer and train with Bruno Delmaestro and a few other coaches. At that time, I happened to be sort of coaching, or at least I was a little more involved in skating,” said Chan. “I taught him some skating skill classes. That’s kind of how it all started. He hasn’t been back here in at least three years, I think. But we managed to keep in touch and his coach felt like he wanted a program from us. We’re lucky enough that he became junior world champion, so our names are still around.”
Up until now, most of the choreography work Putnam and Chan have done for Seo is via the video route. She uses Chan as a model of sorts to illustrate her vision, which is filmed and then sent to Seo and his coaching team in South Korea. But that will change this summer, when the Korean teen comes to Vancouver to work with them directly.
“We did the whole thing over video, at least last season. To be honest, the choreography gets modified by his team in Korea. We just kind of give him the skeleton,” said Chan. “But this year will be the first time he comes here for the summer. Liz is really excited to be able to do some follow up with him and actually tune it up. I think he’s at a stage now where he’s moving into the senior ranks soon. Once you’re junior world champion, the natural progression is to start improving your skating skills and your artistry. So I think there will be a little more focus on that and we hope to be a small part of it.”
While Chan sees this as a chance to stay involved in skating in just a small way, it works for him right now with his busy life.
“It’s doing it for fun and kind of getting back on the ice and doing the figure skating movement patterns … it’s kind of nice to tap into that. It’s kind of like putting an old shoe on and remembering how it was,” he said. “I’m completely satisfied with that and I’m fine just doing that every once in a while. I don’t have a huge desire to get into full-on training for tour, for example.”
Every now and then, though, it’s nice to get a little blast from the past. Chan felt that back in October, when he received Canada’s Order of Sport for his skating achievements. It was a glitzy affair at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec, right across the river from the nation’s capital of Ottawa. It was a huge night of gratitude for Chan, who had so many of the people who mattered to his career in the room with him that evening.
“It was kind of a perfect timing at a point in my life, where I could really appreciate what I accomplished, instead of being critical of what happened or what didn’t happen,” he said. “(Skate Canada high performance director) Mike Slipchuk was there, a lot of people from Skate Canada. My agent. Liz, the kids. My parents. It was emotional, for sure. A moment of reflection. It was more thanking my support (team) and the people around me. More than anything, they made it possible for me to pursue this dream.”
Chan expects to feel more of that when the Skate Canada Hall of Fame induction occurs (details on that have yet to be released, though it’s traditionally done during the Canadian national championships. Ironically enough, that’s also in Gatineau next year). It’ll be one more occasion for the “dream team” to reunite, to share some memories and just catch up.
And to remember just what it took to get to that special night in South Korea.
“(This honour) makes me appreciate it more than I ever did when I was in it, which is ironic. You’d think ‘how can you not absorb and appreciate it when you’re actually standing in the opening ceremony (at the Olympics) or in the village with your friends?’” he said. “But it’s hard because your mindset is so different. Now, being a father and chasing a new career, starting over … it just makes me really realize how much work we put in and how much time and dedication it took.
“I kind of laugh (now) because I thought it was the end all, be all, my skating career and going to the Olympics and performing. Being at the top, that was going to be my life. Funny enough, it was just a first chapter, right? Now I have so many more years ahead and so many aspirations. It makes me really cherish it and just appreciate the friendships, the successes, the hard work, and really pat myself on the back.”
Golden together, golden forever.
Junior achievement
For Canadian skaters, the just-completed World Junior Championships in Debrecen, Hungary, went down in a way that mirrors what we’ll end up seeing when the sport’s biggest show lands in Boston in three weeks.
As in, much better success in the pairs and ice dance disciplines than in the singles categories for men and women.
In fact, it was a pairs team that got Canada back on the podium at this event for the first time since Calgary in 2023, when Nadiia Bashynska and Peter Beaumont took home a bronze medal in ice dance. The medal colour was the same this time, with Martina Ariano Kent and Charly Laliberte Laurent doing the honours. The Quebec duo moved up from fourth after the short program, finishing third in the free skate and third overall with a 155.02 total, less than two points better than Oxana Vouillamoz and Tim Bouvart of Switzerland.
Ariano Kent and Laliberte Laurent, who are based in Chambly, Quebec, came into Junior Worlds as the least heralded of Canada’s three entries based on this season’s results, but got the job done when it counted and improved their finish by two places over 2024 Junior Worlds. Back in January, they were silver medallists at the Canadian Championships behind Winnipeg’s Ava Kemp and Yohnatan Elizarov, who came into this event ranked No. 2 in the world standings but wound up 10th overall (145.37). They had been sixth in two previous tries at this competition.
“It’s incredible, I still can’t believe it!” said Ariano Kent, 17, per Skate Canada. “Before the competition, we kept repeating the same phrases to each other, so we’d be in the best possible state of mind. Now here we are, on the podium with the best skaters in the world. It’s very special.”
“It’s a dream come true,” added the 19-year-old Laliberté-Laurent. “We’ve faced a lot of adversity lately and I think it’s helped build our character. We focused on our jumps and that’s what really made the difference.”
Meanwhile, Jazmine Desrochers and Kieran Thrasher, who train in Oakville, Ontario, placed eighth in their Junior Worlds debut at Fonix Arena (147.35) in Debrecen. They had won the bronze medal at the Junior Grand Prix Final earlier this season in Grenoble, France.
The last Canadian medal in pairs at Junior Worlds — also a bronze — was earned by Brooke McIntosh and Benjamin Mimar in 2022 in Tallinn, Estonia.
In the men’s event, Canadian senior silver medallist Anthony Paradis of Boisbriand, Quebec, had the top placement, finishing 16th, one spot in front of David Bondar, of Richmond Hill, Ontario, the reigning Canadian junior champion. Among the women, Lulu Lin of Oakville, Ontario — who had much of her season scuttled by an injury — wound up 24th, while Vancouver’s Kara Yun didn’t qualify for the free skate.
Around the boards
They made history a year ago as the first-ever three-time World champions in their sport. And Montreal-based Les Supremes will aim for a record-setting fourth gold medal in a row when the 2025 World Synchronized Skating Championships are held April 4-5 in Helsinki. They were named earlier this week by Skate Canada to again wear the red maple leaf at the global competition, and they’ll be joined there by Nova, another Quebec-based team that placed fifth at 2024 Worlds in Zagreb, Croatia, and recently struck gold at the Lumiere Cup competition.