Most of the skaters performing tonight at 7:30 in Stars on Ice at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre tick the right geographic and cultural boxes.
There is Olympic silver-medallist and three-time world champion Patrick Chan, three-time world champion and twice Olympic silver-medallist Elvis Stojko, Olympic bronze-medallist Jeffrey Buttle, Olympic ice-dance gold- and silver-medallists Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, and two-time defending world pairs champions Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford.
All are Canadians. Check the box. Makes sense for a nation defined by winter.
But the two-time defending world men’s champion skating tonight on Blanshard is Javier Fernandez from Spain. That’s like saying Canada is the two-time defending men’s World Cup soccer champion.
“People say to me: ‘Shouldn’t you be in soccer or tennis?’ ” Fernandez, a Real Madrid fan, said with a laugh.
Figure skating? Spain? It simply shouldn’t be, right?
“Even I get surprised sometimes and think to myself: ‘Did I really do that?’ ” Fernandez said during a telephone interview ahead of tonight’s Victoria show, which concludes the 12-city Canadian tour.
But he did do it. Twice.
“Spain is not known for skating,” the 25-year-old from Madrid said.
“The few rinks we have are very busy. It is hard to get ice time.”
So he has based himself largely in Toronto to train since 2011.
This is a Summer Olympics year, with Rio on the horizon. The big one for skaters comes in two years at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
“The goal is to be Olympic champion,” Fernandez said. “But I am aiming for something I can get . . . which is to be on the podium.”
Challenging Fernandez in Pyeongchang will be Chan, in the midst of an uneven comeback year that saw him finish fifth at the 2016 world championships won by Fernandez in Boston.
“Patrick and I have a good competition going, but we are friends and we hang out,” Fernandez said.
This is Fernandez’s first Victoria appearance. Chan, however, will tonight continue his long association with the capital, which has been both in competition and in the Stars on Ice show.
Long term, he would like nothing more than to end his career at Pyeongchang with Olympic gold. That has eluded world champions from Canada such as himself, Stojko, Brian Orser and Kurt Browning.
“The past season was not the best, but it was successful in its way and served its purpose,” Chan said of his comeback, after he took 18 months off following the 2014 Sochi Winter Games.
“Now I have a better idea of what the judges are looking for. As for Pyeongchang, I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself.”
For both Fernandez and Chan, a special aspect of this year’s Stars on Ice, is being able to skate with 44-year-old Stojko, who returns to the show after several years’ absence.
“Elvis is a legend of the sport and it is a thrill to be able to skate with him,” Fernandez said.
Chan concurred.
“We have built around Elvis and his strengths, and I’m honoured to be a part of it,” the 25-year-old native of Ottawa said.
“I can remember watching Elvis at Nagano in 1998 on the TV in my living room when I was a kid . . . and every little detail of that has stayed with me. I never dreamed that one day I would be skating with him. Some dreams come true.”
Chan knows the time will come when others will say they looked up to him and remember watching him peform at the Games and world championships on television.
He plans to open a skating school in Richmond following the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.
“I want to share my experiences and pass the torch,” Chan said.
“I want to inspire others.”
He will get a chance to do that tonight, along with a few of his talented friends, again on Blanshard.
