Canada's Keegan Messing caps roller-coaster Olympic journey with season-best performance

Keegan Messing's roller-coaster Olympic journey ended near the top.

The Canadian men's figure skating champion capped off his second Olympics with a memorable season-best performance in the free skate medal event on Thursday morning in Beijing — just three days after arriving.

The 30-year-old overcame adversity and earned a score of 172.37 while finishing 11th overall out of 24 skaters.

He missed the team event, where he was replaced by Roman Sadovsky, but he was able to make the trip from Canada in time to compete after passing the four tests required to fly to Beijing.

Messing's late trip to Beijing, which he described as a "whirlwind," began in Vancouver before heading to Montreal, Frankfurt and Milan en route to the Games.

WATCH l Messing skates to 11th-place finish in free skate medal event:

Despite the adversity, he somehow advanced to the free skate just over 24 hours later after posting the ninth-best short program score (93.24) — giving him a shot at his first Olympic medal.

Skating to "Lullaby for an Angel" by Karl Hugo, and "Home" by Phillip Phillips, Messing looked comfortable and happy on his free skate, nailing an early quadruple toe-double toe combination.

He followed it up with a triple axel and triple lutz-triple toe combination while delivering another solid skate against all odds as the crowd cheered.

"A skater who conveys pure and honest emotion," said the commentator following the performance.

WATCH l Messing describes 'whirlwind' trip to Beijing after positive COVID-19 test:

Messing showed a picture of his infant son, Wyatt, to the camera as the scores were announced — moving him into bronze position with eight skaters left to go.

Messing was ultimately bumped down just outside the top 10, but