Patrick Chan opened the Olympic season with a short-programme victory on Friday night at Skate Canada.
The Canadian star and three-time world champion scored 88.10 points, but tripled his quad toe loop attempt and couldn’t hold the landing on his second triple toe loop.
“I didn’t have technical goals. I didn’t say, ‘I want to land my quad, then my Axel, so I can come first,”‘ Chan said. “I wanted to go out and be excited to be there as opposed to dreading competing, which had become a bad habit of mine over the last two seasons. I was kind of dreading competing and never really enjoying competing, which is really weird as an elite athlete.
“I went into this event thinking, ‘Hey, I’m lucky to be here, I’m lucky to be at the level I am, I’ve won three world championships, I’ve got nothing to prove, I’m out here to have a great time.”‘
Japan’s Nobunari Oda was second at 80.82, and teammate Yuzuru Hanyu followed at 80.40.
Earlier, American Gracie Gold won the women’s short program.