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Canada's Patrick Chan, next to his coach Ravi Walia, reacts after receiving his marks for the men's figure skating short program at the Pyeonchang Winter Olympics, Friday, Feb. 16, 2018 in Gangneung, South Korea.Paul Chiasson

Patrick Chan could feel the troublesome jump get away from him before his blades left the ice.

The triple Axel that has plagued Chan's career proved his downfall once again Friday morning, and he heads into his final Olympic skate — and likely the last skate of his competitive career — in sixth place.

"My arms are just so fast," Chan said, doing a demo for reporters. "My leg is not even coming through, and my arms are already up here, ready to rotate. It's a lack of patience and trust in that left leg, that forward takeoff leg.

"When you're in competition mode and you're in that moment and you're by yourself, things go so fast through your head. Your body tends to fall back to bad habits."

Skating to "Dust in the Wind" by Kansas, the three-time world champion opened with a beautiful quadruple toe loop, but fell on the Axel — and in the short program, there is no room for error. He finished with 90.01 points.

A reporter asked: "Do you hate that sucker?"

"Yeah, I do, I do," Chan said. "I've been blessed with good skating skills but not good triple Axel skills."

Japan's Yuzuru Hanyu, who hadn't competed and had barely trained since suffering a serious ankle injury in November, skated like he hadn't missed a day, landing two quads en route to 111.68 points.

"I just wanted to show everyone I'm back, I'm here," Hanyu said.

Hundreds of Japanese fans waved flags when he took the ice, then showered him with Winnie The Pooh dolls afterward (he collects them). The couple dozen tiny South Korean flower girls, dressed in identical sequinned purple skating dresses, scurried about the ice to collect the stuffed dolls.

Spain's Javier Fernandez scored 107.58 for second, while Japan's Shoma Uno was third (104.17). Keegan Messing of Sherwood Park, Alta., was 10th.

Both Hanyu and Fernandez live in Toronto and train with Canadian coach Brian Orser, who had to switch team jackets between skaters.

Chan insists there are no psychological demons tripping him up on the triple Axel, named for Norweigan Axel Paulsen, who first landed a single Axel in 1882. For Chan, it's all technical.

"If you look at the first two jumps and the spins and the footwork, everything had quality, and confidence in everything I was doing," he said. "So, if I was mentally weak I wouldn't be able to pull off let's say the combo on the second jump."

Nathan Chen had a far more disastrous day than Chan. The American teen phenom had been a favourite to win here, but fell twice and didn't complete a jump combination — death in the short program — to finish with just 82.27 points, and way back in 17th place.

"I've never been in this spot before," a puzzled Chen said.

As for Chan, this surely wasn't the way he envisioned closing his career when he launched a comeback in 2015 after taking a year off. After utterly dominating the sport for the better part of three years, Chan finished a heartbreaking runner-up to Hanyu at the Sochi Olympics.

He returned with hopes of making up for that disappointment, but the sport changed in his absence. The focus is all about the big jumps. The six final skaters on Friday attempted 11 quads between them, and that number will grow exponentially on Saturday.

Chen has five quads listed for Saturday's long program, while Hanyu usually attempts three or four. Chan has just two.

The 10-time Canadian champion said he's not the same person who was gutted after Sochi.

"No, no, I hope I can pick myself up after bad days," Chan said. "I love being out there, I love landing that quad-toe, landing the triple-triple, getting myself up and doing the footwork and having that little sense of hope, and being like 'You know what? I'm gonna milk the crap out of this, I'm gonna try and make up those points.

"That's quite a feeling and that's what I think what makes us competitive and makes us the best in the world."

Chan said he's learned to put skating in perspective. He's going out on his terms. After a disastrous fifth-place finish at Skate Canada International in October, he scrapped the rest of the Grand Prix season, left his coach Marina Zoueva and Canton, Mich., and went in search of a happier environment in Vancouver, where he hopes to open a skating school some day.

"Look, skating is just a small part of my life now, and the Olympic Games too," he said. "We forget that just because of five rings it's going to determine the rest of our lives and we have amazing skates we have bad skates . . . It's sometimes a little ridiculous, we're dressed up in really, fancy clothes (he tugged at his skintight black-and-white top), and then going out there and one mistake and you're like 'Oh, you're not a champion.

"It's a really harsh environment, so to counter that, I just have to be like 'You know what? It is what it is, I have 40 to 50 years to prove I'm better at something else. I think I've done quite well so far, and tomorrow is another day to just prove that I am one of the best."

Canada’s Olympic figure skating team includes several veterans set to retire after Pyeongchang. Patrick Chan, Eric Radford and Scott Moir spoke after the team was announced Sunday about their emotions heading into their final Games.

The Canadian Press

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