Chan-troversy surrounds Men's Event

Patrick Chan has received a large amount of criticism today as he found himself on top of the Skate Canada International Men's event. Chan came from fourth place in the short to first over all with a commanding lead from the rest of the field, which left many wondering why?

Chan's short could only be described as a disaster. Falling on three different required elements (the quad, triple axel, and in his footwork sequence), many - including Chan - were shocked to find him so close to podium placement. Chan beat out several men who were much cleaner and delivered the technical, and Chan was even awarded the highest tech score of the night... with THREE falls.

Home country advantage always seems to play a part of the judging, and is normally reflected in the program components score (the IJS's version of the artistic mark), however Chan received the highest hometown hero advantage to date, and for a program that didn't just have a slight flaw.

Fast forward to tonight's event, and, once again, Chan was hardly perfect. A fall on the triple axel (which is his trademark fall) and scratchy landings and spins throughout left, what many thought, room for others to seize the moment. The judges, however scored Chan to where he was ten points above the event's silver medalist, Nobunari Oda, who was clean in the short program, and had one fall in the long. Chan's long program score was not the issue, it was the blatant overscore in teh short that held him up and gave him the gold medal.

Chan's reaction was his typical one, pretend to be shocked and then go on to tell the media that he knew the judges wanted to give him those scores. Really, Chan? Maybe try skating well once and actually deserving them.