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 Patrick Chan holds up his gold medal after winning the Men's Freeskate at the World Figure Skating Championships in London, Ont. Friday, March 15, 2013. (Derek Ruttan/QMI Agency) |
LONDON, ONT. - Patrick Chan was barbecued by some in the American media, and by a few who forgot (or didn't know) that there is a short program in figure skating. But that doesn't mean he didn't deserve the gold medal at the world figure skating championships last week.
Lost amidst the criticisms of his freeskate routine was the fact that the Toronto native's short program was a spectacular world record performance, which put him well ahead of the field and enabled him to hold off upstart Denis Ten of Kazakhstan following the free. Also forgotten or ignored was that Ten's freeskate, though impressive, was far from perfect. It was almost as if some writers, including a few who weren't even at the championships, felt that Chan should have hung his head in shame, handed back his gold medal and then thrown himself on a sword or something to that effect.
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