Elvis Stojko, Patrick Chan weigh in on state of Canadian men's figure skating
Elvis Stojko remembers watching Brian Orser spin through the air with a triple axel on his TV screen, inspiring him to one day follow the path carved out by the Canadian figure skating legend.
"It was a really amazing time for us," Stojko said. "We had so many great idols and great heroes to look up to."
Orser stacked hardware with two Olympic silver medals, a world championship and eight straight national titles in the 1980s. Next came Kurt Browning, who strutted his way to four world championships.
Stojko carried on the mantle of Canadian success, winning 10 national championships, three world titles and two Olympic silver medals in the 1990s.
"I was very, very lucky in the '90s to have that chance to skate during the — I guess they were considering it a golden era of skating," Stojko said.
But Canada's men no longer rule the ice, or top the podium.
No Canadian has won a men's world or Olympic medal since Patrick Chan claimed silver at the 2014 Games, and that drought isn't expected to end any time soon.
Rather than a roster of contenders, Canada is sending only one men's participant to next year's worlds after national champion Wesley Chiu and Roman Sadovsky finished 17th and 19th last March in Montreal.
At Skate Canada International last weekend in Halifax, top Canadian Aleksa Rakic showed promise but still finished seventh in the 12-skater Grand Prix event that featured only a sample of the world contenders.
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"I just hope they can figure out a way to bring it back, but it will be a tough climb," Stojko said.
Stojko believes one major problem is that young athletes can't find figure skating on