Patrick's visit to Mennen Sports Arena in NJ, Photo by www.universalsports.com

For a full slideshow, visit www.universalsports.com

When Patrick Chan hit the ice for the first time at Morristown, N.J.’s Mennen Sports Arena, his temporary home-away-from-home, he had more than 50 awestruck skaters for company.

For two 75-minute sessions the two-time world silver medalist, still just 19, took on the role of mentor to skaters working to get an Axel, up to competitors with all of their double jumps and a triple or two.

“He was like my coach, except a lot cooler and cuter,” Abby Kimmelman, 16, said.

Read the Full Article at icednetwork.com

I know everyone is anxiously waiting for the results of the cheerios contest.  Patrick will be returning soon so we will announce a winner in the next two weeks.  Everyone can hold me accountable to that! Till he returns, I will write more later with updates on his trip to Asia!

Aivory

So for the Cheerios Contest, the last day to submit your questions is this friday!  After that, Patrick and I will sit down and go through them all and pick which question is the most interesting.  Results will be posted soon after so stay tuned!  Hopefully Patrick took some photos in Turin as well that I will post up on his site.

More to come…

Aivory

If there’s anyone out there like me who was obsessed with the Olympics, the red mittens, and all the hype that surrounded it than you’ll all feel like life has gotten way too monotonous since then.  Regular tv just doesn’t cut it anymore and even my favorite tv shows have lost its luster compared to the reality and the raw emotion that the Olympics had.  Another four years! Don’t steal my idea but I intend to search for hotel rooms and flight tickets sometime soon for SOCHI 2014!

Anyways, Patrick is off to Italy today.  Talked to him last night and he said that he’s been training really well and has been feeling really good about his skating.  Aside from some “silly” mistakes that he made in Vancouver he said that he has overcome them and is looking forward to Italy.  If your from Canada, don’t forget to watch him next Wednesday live on either CBCSports.ca or CBC Bold.  You can even judge the event yourself at Skatebuzz! Patrick will be taking his camera along so hopefully he will give us some behind the scenes stuff again like he did for Vancouver (which by the way there are more to come).

Just in case you haven’t seen the video yet, we have launched a new (yet small) contest for all of Patrick’s fans.  Basically, he has read several questions over the past month and promises to respond to them.  However please send in your questions through fan mail or commenting and try to be extremely unique!  The most interesting question will win a signed box of Cheerios! (and yes you will get the cereal inside it as well)

Side Note: Yesterday was St. Patty’s day and I received this awesome fan mail for Patrick.  Such a cute story that I thought I had to share it.

Yesterday, when our 5 yr old woke up I told him it was St. Patrick’s Day – that it was a “holiday” and we would wear green…he went along with it all. Later in the day he asked me when we were going to see Patrick Chan skate, confused I said I didn’t know. (Our kids both recently met Patrick at the Olympics) Throughout the day he would ask the question repeatedly. In the evening, we were shopping and he saw all the green gear for St. Patrick’s Day – he was so excited and wanted to buy some for “St. Patrick Chan Day”!! He was convinced that we were going to see Patrick skate and that we were to celebrate all day!! March 17th will be Patrick Chan day in our house!

Thanks Kristy for sharing your story! Anyways, stayed tuned for more updates and keep sending in your questions!

- Aivory

Patrick is offering one signed box of Cheerios to the fan who sends in the most unique and interesting question.  He also answers some questions in this youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq1qPIuKMxk

Check it out and send in your questions here! We will be monitoring them over the next couple weeks.

Aivory

I would like to point out that when I first watched Scott and Tessa perform their free dance at Thornhill back in August 2009, I did mention that the routine was potentially the gold-medal winning performance!

Prior to leaving Vancouver on Saturday I was able to have lunch with the Chan’s and catch up a little. Patrick’s mom Karen and I have a mutual love for crabs, especially fried crabs cooked in garlic.  The both of us can sit for hours and literally just pick at the crabs until they’re clean.  Anyways, so we all met up at this restaurant downtown called Tropika for their crab selection.  It’s also been a while since Patty ate anything remotely “bad” for him so I guess we can splurge a little.

It was cool just catching up.  He told me about the athlete village and how massive his space is! (He’s rooming with Bryce, Scott, and Vaughn, can anyone hear DANGER?) LOL The bathrooms are huge apparently and they have waterfall showers which is really cool.  I told him to take a video of his space so hopefully he does that soon! He also showed me his accreditation and the coolest thing about it is this tiny coke id that basically allows the athletes to swipe at any vending machine in the city and get free pop!

The star athletes and notable figures he’s met so far include Alex Bilodeau, Sidney Crosby and Michael Buble.  I can’t remember the story of meeting Crosby exactly although I remember an elevator somewhere. I’ll ask again.  What was refreshing though was that even after all that hype and celebrity status that Patty has now acquired, deep down he’s still the same guy.  We still talk about the same things we always have and eat the same stuff.  He still struggles with eating his crabs and loves his rice. Getting him through Robson street though was an experience and a half.  That’s when he gets swarmed although he really does take the time out to smile for everyone and take photos.

I’m going to work on getting Patrick a form.spring account so that he can answer your questions directly when he has a chance.  He’s still in Vancouver this week enjoying the rest of the Olympics before he starts training again!

Side Note: Best of Luck to Joannie Tonight! Your mom would be proud!

- Aivory

I was definitely nervous walking into the rink yesterday.  A lot more subdued than when I first went in during the short.  Arriving an hour early, there was a lot of time to build up anticipation and nerves. I was more focused on watching skating, (and neglected twitter).  It was cool though, I sat next to the girls from General Mills, one of which created the Cheerios cereal box with Patty’s face.  Pretty cool to give them a running commentary of the event as well as answer any questions they might have about skating and scoring.

The first axel Patrick did was amazing! I was feeling good and really his Phantom routine is ridiculously hard! If anyone else were to skate that program they would be out of breath by the middle, without jumps! That’s how hard it is! I’m sure I don’t need to recap the routine since it will probably be on youtube but I can definitely tell you that I could finally breathe after he skated.  I’m incredibly pleased with his skate.

I had a good chat with his mom after the event.  We both came to an agreement that Patrick should now realize what he is capable of.  Even with flaws in his routine he managed to come fifth which shows that he does have the capability for greatness.  He isn’t far at all from winning gold and with a little more training and focus for another four years, he is well positioned to really achieve his dream! (I’m also extremely happy that Evan won btw, he’s my second favorite).  A little more hard work and more experience and Patty will get there, I’m sure! What an Olympic Experience!

Off again to explore the city! I’ll be hanging out with the Chan’s tomorrow so hopefully I’ll be able to get inside Patty’s head and fill you in with more details about his experience.  Till then!

-Aivory

What a day! (Eh? Because we are in Canada after all) This has been quite a day so I’ll recap what Vancouver is like right now.  Arriving at the airport you see so much Olympic Pride sprawled out on every wall and every corner.  The accreditation station is located inside the airport itself which is pretty cool! I really have to commend VANOC and Translink for the ease of transportation moving in and around Vancouver.  The trains are straight forward and get you everywhere and the buses are also very convenient.  From where I’m staying in Burnaby to Downtown or the Pacific Coliseum it has been a breeze, accessibility wise.  I’ll follow this up with some pictures.

Walking around downtown Burrard is walking in a sea of red and white.  Never have I seen such Canadian pride before, it really is an amazing experience! (Plus, Vancouver really is the home of food.  I found a restaurant I wanted to eat at on every corner! I settled with Guu on Thurlow though, which was a fantastic choice!) Anyways, getting back to the point at hand.

First day of the Men’s competition.  I was so nervous walking into the PNE (could also be because there were policemen just walking around everywhere!) It’s funny, walking downtown, all you see is red and white but walking into the Pacific Coliseum all you see is sky blue! All the volunteers and anyone from VANOC is wearing that light blue color.

I’ve been in skating for a long time and never have I been that interested in the first group of a competition.  However, this competition was so different.  I am actually in awe of how amazing today’s skating was.  I have never seen that many clean programs at an international competition before! Notable mentions go to Florent Amodio who started off the competition on a high note.  Denis Ten was also another crowd favorite as was Daisuke Takahashi and Evan Lysacek.  I am very aware that there have been several other amazing skates but for me, those ones were my favorite.  Now about Patrick’s skate.  Yes he has definitely skated better days and even his axel during the warm up was a lot more spectacular than the one he did in competition.  However, he is sitting in seventh place which isn’t that far from the podium at all! I still have a lot of hope in him and I’m resting on the fact that he usually delivers when he has too.  I have so much faith in this kid, not only because he is my best friend but also because I know how much this means to him as well.  So I’m not worried and really I am so so proud of him for getting here to Vancouver as well!  It really is his dream come true to be able to skate on Olympic Ice!! Let’s keep cheering him on Canada! #Chancan!

I’ll keep updating from Vancouver as the week progresses with all the exciting events and news! Till tomorrow!

- Aivory

Story of the day, of course since I’m leaving for Vancouver, I’m decked out head to toe in either Olympic gear or something red.  Crossing security, my bag was inspected and the lady then chatted up with me about the Olympics and Patrick.  She saw that I had my multitude of gadgets in my bag and asked if I was a photographer (which I’m not.) We then launched into a five minute conversation about how she saw this figure skater on tv and was rooting for him.  Naturally it was Patrick and of course I did express how proud I was about my best friend.  It’s funny how he’s a local celebrity (or national) since he’s always just been that goofy kid that eats my food and is somehow amazing at all sports (he plays golf, soccer, tennis, skiing, and others as well!).  Hopefully it doesn’t get to his head. LOL

Anyways, I’ll try to document what my Vancouver experience is like.  I’ll talk about the transportation, the energy levels, quotes from Patrick’s mom, etc.  I’m not sure how much access I will get to Patrick before he skates but hopefully I do get to see him after.  Stay tuned for more!

-Aivory

Looking back, it’s really cool to just remember just how he started as a young kid to where he is now.  I remember there was once a time where I could do a double toe and he couldn’t.  I was better than him at one point! That quickly changed extremely fast.  When I went on to the next jump, he was already three jumps ahead of me, that rascal. LOL and finally he’s at the Olympics! Words can’t be expressed to show how much it really means for him, for his family, for his supporters that he’s actually there! I’m definitely going to be a little sentimental next week.  Plus, I can’t wait to eat fantastic chinese food with his mom, she knows the best places! Let the games begin!

Coverage of Patrick’s Arrival | Sing Tao News