Chantastic

"Chantastic" ... that's what they're calling Patrick Chan these days.

I spent most of last weekend glued to the TV as CBC Country Canada was broadcasting the entire Canadian Figure Skating Championships, "entire" meaning all performances, not just those of the medal contenders. Todd's parents, Marilyn and John, were visiting and happily (or maybe just politely) joined me for some of that time. Obviously, they failed in passing on an appreciation of the sport to their son, though Todd did suffer through a few performances with me.

The men's event was incredibly exciting, and 17-year-old Patrick Chan, the rising star of Canadian figure skating, brought down the house with his long program set to Vivaldi's Four Seasons. You can see the YouTube video of Chan's program here. The audience was up on their feet cheering at least 20 seconds before the end of his program. Jeffrey Buttle, one of my very favourite skaters, also had a beautiful performance, even if it earned him only a silver medal.

The other big news was 17-year-old Kevin Reynold's quad-triple-triple jump, which you can also view on YouTube here. (Only the clip of the jump is included, as the rest of his program was not so memorable.) He is only the second person to ever do this, the first being Evgeny Plushenko. These guys aren't even old enough to buy a drink in a bar yet! The future of Canadian figure skating looks very bright.