Last updated: Tuesday, November 15, 2016

The end of October is almost upon us, and soon we will see Patrick at his first ISU Grand Prix event of the season in Mississauga, Ontario! Patrick plans to do his new quadruple jump and go head to head with longtime rival Yuzuru Hanyu.

Where to Watch

The Skate Canada website will be live streaming the practice sessions. See their live stream schedule here!

See the Canadian broadcasting schedule of the event here.

See Icenetwork’s streaming schedule here.

The Timezones

For those of you watching the event live, the Mens’ short program event will begin on Friday, October 28 at 9:08 PM local time, according to the ISU’s competition timetable. Here are the global time zones:

Convert more time zones here.

The Mens’ free skate will begin on Saturday, October 29 at 6:57 PM local time, and the Exhibition Gala will begin on Sunday, October 30 at 2:00 PM local time.

The City

Most of you may already be familiar with this Canadian city, but in case you aren’t, here are some facts.

Located in Southern Ontario on the shores of Lake Ontario, the name Mississauga means “[Those at the] Great River-mouth”. The sixth largest city in Canada, it borders Toronto to the east and is home to the largest Canadian airport – Toronto Pearson International. Here, Patrick will be comfortable competing near his hometown and in the same timezone as his training location of Canton, Michigan.

The Competition Event

The Skate Canada International competition belongs to the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating series of competitions. The annual event began in 1973, with Toller Cranston winning the first gold in the mens’ competition. Other Canadian winners included Ron Shaver, Brian Orser, Kurt Browning, Elvis Stojko, and Emanuel Sandhu. Patrick won his first Skate Canada International competition in Ottawa in 2008. He then went on to win the 2010, 2011, 2013, and 2015 competitions for a total of five gold medals.

This year’s competition will be at the Hershey Centre on October 27-30, 2016. See the detailed practice and competition schedule here.

An interesting fact about the history of the Skate Canada International competition is that for two years (1989-1990) it included a rarely-competed Four Skating event. Canadians won the fours competition both years.

The Entourage

Besides Patrick’s coach Marina Zoueva and Skate Canada’s High Performance Director, Mike Slipchuk, the following people will be present at the competition (source): Carolyn Allwright of Kitchener, Ont., and Manon Perron of Boucherville, Que., will be the Canadian team leaders at the event. Dr. Julia Alleyne of Toronto, Ont., and physiotherapist Agnes Makowski of Toronto, Ont., will be the Canadian medical staff onsite. Karen Howard of Regina, Sask., Sylvain Guibord of Brossard, Que., Lynne Dey of Edmonton, Alta., and Andrea Derby of Windsor, Ont., will be the Canadian officials at the event.

The Competitors

Patrick will compete against 11 other men listed here. Of these, following are some of the top-ranked skaters according to ISU’s World Standings:

#1: Yuzuru Hanyu
#11: Michal Brezina
#12: Takahito Mura
#13: Alexander Petrov
#15: Daniel Samohin

There will be no lack of excitement at this competition. All eyes will be on Patrick as he debuts his quad salchow, and hopefully also a new free program costume! Competing against the world’s number one ranked skater is no easy challenge, but this setup is exactly what will make the competition so intriguing and perhaps nerve-wracking for all alike. I can’t wait to watch it, but I wish Patrick a cool head and calm nerves as he heads into the fray. Good luck, Patrick! We are all behind you!

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