Chan turns to NFL's Comeback Kid for inspiration

Here's something we may have missed about Patrick Chan all season: he has studied John Elway.

Canada's men's figure skating champion, who in three weeks will try to put paid to a major comeback from both injury and lack of training by winning an Olympic medal, has taken solace from The Comeback Kid, a legendary National Football League quarterback.

Elway spent his career bringing the Denver Broncos back from the brink of defeat in the final seconds, and now, the 19-year-old Canadian skater is trying to do the same for Team Chan.

And he's finding inspiration wherever he can.

"I read a lot," Chan told CBCSports.ca. "I have great people who send me articles - [about cyclist] Lance Armstrong, John Elway. I use them as examples, and, you know, what they went through is what I'm going through, and they did it.

"It calms me down and prepares me for the next day."

After suffering a small calf tear near the end of the summer that took him out of most of the Grand Prix season, Chan returned to competition in late November at Skate Canada and proceeded to stink the joint out, finishing sixth.

Then, when Team Chan separated with long-time coach Don Laws, who resigned in early January to be replaced with the skater's choreographer, Lori Nichol, the chattering classes were certain: panic had set in.

No chance.

9 likely medal contenders

So, with his butt backed up to the goal line and a long way to go to pay dirt, Chan rallied and went for it at the national championships in London, Ont., in mid-January.

After a solid short program (with a couple of bumps), Chan put in an excellent long program that started with a bobble on the opening triple axel but, overall, showed that the injury is no longer a factor and that Chan still has the combination of artistry and footwork necessary for a medal in Vancouver.

"I feel awesome," Chan said after the skate. "I'm really taken aback with everything that's happened here. With all the hardship that I had this season, I was able to come through with a good performance here."

Better than that, his total score of 268.02 points was right there with the contenders around the globe. Yes, the score was inflated but so are all results at nationals, which is why the International Skating Union (ISU) doesn't allow in-country championships to count for personal bests.

Russian skater Evgeni Plushenko, back after a year away in an attempt to defend his 2006 Olympic gold, finished with 255.39 points at the European championships (after a head-scratching 271.59 at the Russian nationals), and Jeremy Abbott of the U.S. piled up 263.66 points at the U.S. event.

This is, however, the deepest field ever seen in the men's competition heading for the Olympics - entirely the result of the changes to the judging system instituted by the ISU in 2004 that eliminated the subjective 6.0 style and replaced it with a more objective breakdown.

Observers believe there are as many as nine likely medal contenders for the Vancouver Games:

• Patrick Chan, Canada.
• Evgeni Plushenko, Russia.
• Stephane Lambiel, Switzerland.
• Brian Joubert, France.
• Daisuke Takahashi, Japan.
• Nobunari Oda, Japan.
• Johnny Weir, U.S.
• Evan Lysacek, U.S., defending world champion.
• Jeremy Abbott, U.S.

Lysacek, Chan and Joubert were the winners at last year's world championships in Los Angeles, but that was before Plushenko returned and Abbott put in such a strong season and won his second straight U.S. title.

Faith in the Phantom

Nailing the long program will be key for any of the nine, and if Chan is going to complete this comeback and pull an Elway, that's what, he believes, will help him do it.

His faith in the strength of his Phantom of the Opera-themed long program was evident even at Skate Canada, where, a couple of months before Laws bowed out and Nichol took over, Chan enthused about his relationship with his choreographer.

"It's unbelievable, me and Lori, how we worked together [on the program] - the chemistry we had this year," he said. "I gave more feedback this year to her during the process for doing the choreography for the long.

"I don't know how we did it. It's just amazing. Being Phantom of the Opera, I'm able to perform and kind of be the Phantom much better than [in last year's program]."

Is Chan facing third and long? Perhaps.

But as Elway showed almost 25 years ago in the playoffs in Cleveland when he brought his team 98 desperate yards to score, if you have the talent and the belief, well… why not?