“I’m still getting outside and exercising, but also getting some inspiration from my environment.”

“At this part of my career, this is where things get really tough,” he said. He’s 27 years old. Already people are presenting him with opportunities for his post-skating career. He can’t think of them right now, but they’re there, all in a “whirlwind.”

However, he has learned to “embrace every single day that I get the chance to come in and skate and do something that I’m good at and it feels great to do.”

He has no idea if he will go on to the world championships. It hasn’t entered his mind. He said nobody at Skate Canada had discussed the world championships. However, he would be particularly useful for Skate Canada, to set up men’s berths for next season.

“I shouldn’t feel diminished,” he said. “I can offer a lot in so many other ways than just quads.”

For now, Chan feels motivated, if not inspired. “I feel a push to keep striving, whether it’s a good day or a bad day,” he said. “I always see the light at the end of the tunnel lately and I was missing that.

Patrick: Thank you.

Perry: Give me the pros, because I can’t see any, in having December 31st as your birthday. Haven’t you felt you’ve been ripped off your whole life?

Patrick: (laughs) A little bit. My gifts for Christmas and my birthday always tend to turn into one, so… Yeah, it’s not great. And you’re always the youngest in your class in high school, so… Yeah, I’m waiting for the pros to come through, but nothing yet.

Perry: No, I was trying to think of that, there’s no way. Maybe that’s why if you look at it as I’m playing psychologist, you wanted to get involved in a sport that really is about you, because you don’t have that big day to celebrate.

Patrick: Exactly. (laughs) That’s why we wear all the outfits.

Randip: Oh, that too, and look at the benefit of being younger than everybody else in that year. At least that’s the benefit, right?

Patrick: That’s true. Yeah, exactly.

Perry: You know what? I always remember in the world of social media, I think the first tweet I ever did was waiting for you and someone’s gone, “oh, you tweet him at pchiddy and that’s how it works.” So I always remember the social media, but of course in 2010 was when you were around our city a lot more…

Patrick: Yeah.

Perry: And we got to know each other. How different are you mentally preparing for next month and your third Olympic games than you can be when you are a 19-year-old getting set for 2010?

Patrick: Yeah, well… one of the things I’ve been thinking about lately is how much I wish the Vancouver games were this time around. Going into my third Olympics now, I think it would have been an even better experience, and I’d be able to take it all in even more. Because at this point in my career, I’m 27 going into my third Olympics… my mental approach is obviously very different. I find I’m very… of course, comes with age, you gain a little more perspective and that makes me feel a little calmer and be able to look around and micromanage a lot less, which I did a lot of when I was in Vancouver and Sochi. I found that, you’re so caught up in wanting to win that you end up micromanaging so much and being so looking at everything under a magnifying glass, that you don’t really get a chance to look around and take a breath and look at how… what an amazing experience the Olympics are.

Randip: So one of those changes that you made this time around was moving your camp to the West Coast to Vancouver from the East. Why did you do that and how has that been?

Patrick: The weather? (laughs)

Randip: Aside from that, of course.

Patrick: It’s been such a great change of environment. I haven’t… if I can recall, I think it’s been almost 8 years I’ve been training in the U.S. until now, and… There’s a difference. There’s honestly a difference in the people, the energy in the city and Vancouver is just so… it’s kind of up my alley when it comes to extracurricular activities. Either it’s going snowshoeing or hiking or mountain biking or skiing, which I haven’t done, but which I’m looking forward to doing, but… it’s just being in the outdoors on the weekends and like it sometimes really brings me back down and makes me realize, “okay, what is reality,” and not to get too caught up in I guess the social media and everything that surrounds Olympic sports nowadays.

Perry: Michael Phelps’ last Olympics was supposed to be 2012 in London. I spoke to him there, of course he showed up again in Rio, but he made sure, saying what you did. He was going to go there and enjoy the moment, look around, embrace it. Will you do that next month? Will you do anything differently in that sense? Now, obviously you’re prepared, but when you look around and maybe spend an extra hour here and there and leaving with the feeling that I really enjoyed this?

Patrick: Absolutely, that’s… you couldn’t have said it better. I’m really going to make an effort. Honestly, it’s part of the training as well, is to remind myself, “you know what? Go and take the time. Take the time to go to the cafeteria, enjoy good meals with some friends, have a good laugh, you know. Go to the athlete’s lounge at the Canadian Olympic House and hang out and play some ping pong or whatever and have fun. Follow the schedules, when you have free time enjoy yourself, and when you have to come and buckle down and work and practice, then you do it, but I think there is beauty in… it makes, I believe, when your heart is light and your head is in the right place, and you’re happy, you skate lighter, you skate with a lot more energy and lightness in your steps.

Perry: So Patrick, in saying that, did you not do any of that really in Sochi? Was it just more focus back to your room? What am I skating? What’s going down? You didn’t take part in much of that in the last two games?

Patrick: Exactly. Or, even if I did, there were the few times when I would hang out with some of the other Canadian athletes and we’d shoot it offside in the lounge and, either sit on the couch, watch some other sports on TV or play ping pong. I would always have a lingering thought in my mind, like kind of a dark cloud over my head reminding me to be like, “okay, you gotta focus, and you gotta lock down and not have too much fun because you’re here to do a job. But I think that’s where the difference is going to be this time around, is I’m gonna really just take my time and look at what’s around me and remember this might be the last time and… The Olympics is about the experience as much as the result.

Randip: Patrick, these Olympics will be a little different as well for the casual figure skating fans out there. In Sochi, no lyrics were allowed in the music. Now in 2018, there will be lyrics allowed in music. What’s Patrick Chan’s theory on that? Do you go with the classical or do you mix it up?

Patrick: Well, I’ve mixed it up. This year, both my short program and long program music are with lyrics. The long program is by Jeff Buckley, and then the short program will hopefully be a rock classic favorite, “Dust in the Wind” by Kansas. They’re both great songs that I love to skate to and the lyrics really do, I think, reach across a further range of people and makes them understand what you’re trying to emote when you’re on the ice.

Perry: Patrick, you’re only 27! I mean, that’s my era, Kansas “Dust in the Wind”! That’s the only good song they ever had! How long was that process to decide? I can only imagine how difficult it would be, to come up with a piece of music and the lyrics! How long did that take?

Patrick: Luckily we… I have a good group of people around me who know me well and know my personality and the style I skate with, and my choreographer and my previous coach actually picked it two years ago. We set…

Perry: Really?

Patrick: Yeah, yeah, we set it aside knowing that it was… If you really read the lyrics and you listen to it, it goes along the lines of what I believe in now. The whole mental perspective of reminding myself that skating and the Olympics is a bit of a fleeting moment. Enjoy it, but also don’t put too much weight into it. We’re all made of bones and we all come from the earth and whatnot and we all go back to the earth and we’re all dust in the wind kind of situation, so… It can get really philosophical if you want, but it made so much sense, and it kind of came off, it was a really easy piece, surprisingly, to even edit and choreograph, too.

Perry: Yeah, now when you think about it, it probably would work. We’ll give you one more question. I mean, it was 30 years ago I think Kurt Browning hit the first quadruple. There could be some people throwing six and sevens in the Olympic program. You’re not going to go there. Will it be your artistry and to realize it’s not a jumping competition. You’ll just skate what Patrick Chan feels comfortable with?

Patrick: Absolutely. And we can’t forget either, I’m still going in doing two quads in the long program and one quad in the short. So yeah, I’m sticking to my strategy of being a strong skater while all around skater. I think that represents Canadian athletes the best, is that we’re well-rounded athletes and well-rounded people, and also that’s why I really want to take advantage of the experience, above all. So yeah, I’ll let these guys go out and throw themselves in the air and do as many quads as they want. I’m going to stick to my plan and stick to the quads that I know I can do successfully.

Perry: And your plan eventually will have you opening up a skating center here in Vancouver, is that correct?

Patrick: Yeah, that’s the dream. We’re still working on it. Of course, with those types of developments it’s a long process and it has to be done very methodically. So my dream is to have a center that’s without the pressures of meeting financial goals every year, just having the freedom to really create a center for Canadian athletes, where they can all go to one place for the best type of training specific to skating.

Perry: Do you have to be perfect next week here at the Nationals in Vancouver at UBC? Or is this just the step to go “hey, everything feels really good for Korea”?

Patrick: Exactly. I think it’s more of a step towards Korea. I’ve had a bit of a funny season this year. I’ve really taken time for myself and taken more time to train and take time for myself away from competition, so Nationals is of course, a stepping stone and… I still want to perform close to perfect at every competition, but the focus of course is Korea.

Perry: Patrick, thank you for your time. Belated happy birthday, belated happy new Year. Good luck, we hope to see you next week here in Vancouver and I will be finding my old Kansas album playing the whole album this week, because now you’ve reminded me of it.