| 2070 Beiträge - Forenlegende
|
|
|
TORONTO - When Patrick Chan was feeling the pressure before making his Olympic debut, he reached out to a Canadian athlete who was shouldering perhaps the greatest pressure of all. Chans drive to the rink four years ago in Vancouver included a phone call to Sidney Crosby. The two share a common trainer in Andy OBrien, who was in the car with Chan that day. "I told Andy I was nervous, who wouldnt be, I was really nervous about the event. Andy was like Oh Ill call Sid," said Chan, who opens his season next week at Skate Canada International. "We talked about expectations and at the end of the day, he told me Yeah, the Canadian hockey team has the most pressure out of all the events. The way he put it in perspective was that we train every day and we train every day to kind of build an automatic pilot, and in order to initiate that automatic pilot when youre playing, you have to put it in perspective. "For example, my mentality is that this isnt the end of the world, people will support me because they want me to win, and they want the best for me and they want a medal for Canada, and I accept that. But then I have to be selfish in a way and realize Im doing it for myself and that was the mistake I made in Vancouver. I wanted to win the medal for Canada, and I looked at it as a big picture instead of narrowing it down to me wanting to be there, and me wanting to compete and excited to compete, and eager to win a medal." Chan, who was 19 in Vancouver, went on to finish fifth in his first Olympics, while Crosby, of course, scored the winning goal in Canadas thrilling victory over the U.S. for gold. Four years later, the pressures have changed for Chan, who talked about his preparations for Sochi in a wide-ranging conference call Tuesday that touched on everything from the gay rights controversy in Russia to his move to Detroit. Chan, who spoken about Russias controversial gay laws before saying he plans to focus on skating, said Tuesday he believes that "everyone deserves a fair chance." "I always believed, it doesnt matter what colour, what race, what gender, or whats your opinion on gays, it doesnt matter as long as you have the talent and you work hard and you have something to show and something to prove, anyone deserves to be on the field, and especially in the Olympic Games," Chan said. "Thats my opinion. Figure skating, were full of gays, and I train with a lot of gay skaters, and some of them are my best friends, and honestly it doesnt bother me. I just honestly believe everyone deserves to be on the ice to compete." The Toronto skater said hell be fending off a different kind of pressure in Sochi, where hell come in as a three-time defending world champion. "Vancouver was a pressure because it was a thought of winning a gold medal at home, I put that pressure on myself, like Oh my god the dream of all dreams would be to win and Olympic gold medal in your home country and hearing your anthem in Canada. "Sochi is different. . . coming in as three-time world champion, you put expectations on yourself, theres a lot of talk. Is this the year that hes not going to put it together, and hes going to be dethroned? I think I have many more tools going into Sochi to overcome those pressures." Chan, who will be 23 in Sochi — his birthday is New Years Eve — has learned to shift his priorities. Hes figured out how to narrow his focus, which goes back to Crosbys call in the car ride to the rink. "If you look at the Olympics as a mountain, its like Mount Everest, its impossible. You already start beating yourself up, just like my long program. My long program is my nemesis because I look at it as a huge mountain I have to climb thats going to kill me and Im going to be out of breath and exhausted at the end. "But it doesnt seem so bad if I cut it down into portions. For Mount Everest I would focus on reaching the first base camp, then reaching the second base camp, then reaching the third, then you can get to the top. You have to look at it in stages and not try to sprint to the top." Chan said hes a much happier skater than hes been in a while, and credits his move to Detroit. Chan pulled up stakes in Colorado Springs and drove to Detroit a couple of weeks before last springs world championships. He made the move, he said, to reinvigorate his career after his motivation had seeped out of him in Colorado. Detroit has become his "comfort zone" in the months since. "Its funny, the rink in Colorado was full, like 25 people on the ice, which is insane, and that was international skaters mixed with national level skaters. There was 25 skaters yet I still felt alone on the ice," he said. "It was beyond motivation, I was not motivated, I was just more frustrated because there was so many people." In Detroit, there are usually about eight elite skaters on the ice, including U.S. team member Jeremy Abbott, and rising Canadian skater Elladj Balde. "Coming here, I was worried I was not going to be able to make friends and would be alone again. but that was totally not the case," he said. "We all get along, so we all move for each other, we all respect each other, we all push each other, we all motivate each other. And then if I have a bad day, I can get off the ice and sit in the lobby and have my lunch with Elladj and totally forget about the session and just laugh about things outside of skating. "Those little things go a long, long way. We come in every day, and it gets monotonous, it gets boring, its frustrating, so its good to have your friends around and have people who support you and make you laugh and make you forget about skating once in awhile." Greg Maddux Braves Jersey .C. Lions has come to an end. Banks told TSN on Jan 2 that he had no interest in playing out the option year of his contract with the Lions in 2014, and he again made that clear in a conversation with Lions GM Wally Buono last week. Tyler Flowers Jersey . Ferrer, trying to win his fourth title on Mexican soil, will next play South Africas Kevin Anderson, who eliminated American Sam Querrey,7-6 (2), 6-4. Also Wednesday, Gilles Simon (6) of France beat Donald Young of the United States 6-4, 6-3, Ukraines Alexandr Dolgopolov downed Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-3, 6-4 and Croatias Ivo Karlovic defeated Dudi Sela of Israel 7-6 (4), 6-2. http://www.baseballbravesshop.com/bob-uecker-braves-jersey/ . Peter Holland and Brad Staubitz were sent to Toronto on Saturday as the Maple Leafs traded defenceman Jesse Blacker and draft picks to the Anaheim Ducks. Gordon Beckham Red Jersey . PETERSBURG, Fla. Gordon Beckham White Jersey .Y. -- Paul Byron and Matt Stajan scored as the Calgary Flames started a five-game road trip with a 2-1 overtime win over the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday afternoon.SANDY, Utah -- Steven Lenhart scored two goals in a four-minute span of the first half to lead the San Jose Earthquakes to a 2-1 victory over Real Salt Lake on Saturday night. The Earthquakes second victory in 15 road games this season moved them within three points of a playoff spot with four games remaining in the Major League Soccer regular season. "It was a big win for sure," San Jose coach Mark Watson said. "We knew we maybe had to be perfect, and win the rest of our games. I thought the effort and the commitment the players put in was fantastic." Real Salt Lake, which had won this seasons previous two meetings by shutout, got a goal from Javier Morales in the 19th minute. It was his eighth of the season and came during a flurry of scoring on an otherwise quiet night at the goal. Real Salt Lake remained tied for second place behind Seattle in the chase for the Supporters Shield, awarded to top team in the regular season. Still, it missed an opportunity to capitalize on a struggling Earthquakes team that won the Shield a season ago. Lenhart began the goal spurt when he headed in a cross from Cordell Cato in the 18th minute. After Morales equalizer, Lenhart beat goalkeeper Nick Rimanndo with another header, this time off a free kick from Shea Salinas.dddddddddddd "I think he heads the ball harder than I shoot it," Salinas said of Lenhart, who recorded the sixth career multi-goal game of his career. "Its pretty impressive." Lenhart entered the night with two goals in 17 games and hadnt scored since July 27 against Portland. The forward followed each goal with an animated celebration that included a leap into the air and fist pump toward a section of the announced crowd of 20,504 - the fourth-largest in Rio Tinto Stadium history. Lenhart left to a chorus of boos when he was replaced at the beginning of stoppage time. San Jose, which ranks 16th in the league in scoring, tallied more than one goal for just the second time in seven games. Morales goal came on a corner kick from Kyle Beckerman. Salt Lake, which played without injured leading scorer Javier Morales (calf), had its three-game home winning streak snapped. Salt Lake tested the Earthquakes defence in the second half, but repeatedly failed to connect on crossing passes into the goal box. Robbie Findley and Chris Wingert each narrowly missed on shots that went wide left in the final 20 minutes. Cheap China Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys China Cheap Jerseys From China China NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys Cheap Jerseys China ' ' '
|
