A three month old Reuters interview has put Canadian figure skater Patrick Chan in hot water with a lot of Canadians. In the interview Chan, born in Ottawa, Ontario as the child of Chinese immigrants, talks about how unappreciated he feels in his country of birth and how he is "slowly feeling more Chinese." Compared to Canada, Chan believes that China has "more respect" for what he does as a figure skater and how "involved" and "extremely proud" they are of their figure skaters. In comparison, Chan remarked on the perils of the life of a non-hockey athlete in Canada. For Chan, representing both China and Canada in competition "would be the ideal situation... in a perfect world." Furthermore, Chan feels that he has better recognition in South Korea than he has in Canada.
“You see it on TV all the time. You see these hockey players or these baseball players who sign $200-million contracts. It is kind of hard to look at yourself and be like, ‘Geez I wish I had that much money.’ ” --Patrick Chan
I get that Chan feels like he deserves more recognition but what I do not understand is how he blames a country for his lack of recognition when maybe he should be blaming his sport. I agree with Chan that if he represented China instead of Canada he probably would receive a little more recognition but beyond geography, I am pretty sure there are other factors at play here that might help explain his lack of recognition. Let's be blunt, figure skating is no longer relevant. Nobody really cares about the "sport" other than two weeks every four years at the Winter Olympics. Figure skating used to be more than just an Olympic sport as the interest has faded since its peak in the 80s and 90s. Personally, I believe interest has waned over the years because of the corruption that has happened in the recent past (judging scandals where Canadian figure skaters were cheated out of medals which might explain our new jaded view of the sport) and because of the new point system. Remember when it was easy to follow figure skating back when a perfect skate would be a 6.0? If you read Chan's Wikipedia page you can find out that "On April 27, 2011, Chan set a new world record of 93.02 points for the short program. Chan then set a new world record for his free skate, receiving an overall score of 280.98." Does the casual sport fan know that a 280.98 is a great score? Does the casual sport fan know how the judges got to 280.98? Nowadays, even though Chan has two world records with the new accumulative scoring format, nobody cares because the new scoring format is just a number that does not hold any meaning with the general public.
(side note: Seriously, what is your most recent male figure skating memory? Aren't we all just thinking about scenes from that Will Ferrell and Jon Heder movie Blades of Glory? Maybe the scene where the guy holds a hot dog bun with two hot dogs in it and says "Let me ask you something. Does that look right to you?")
Isn't this a classic case of somebody speculating that the grass is greener on the other side? Isn't it easy for Chan to remark that his parents would have made fewer sacrifices had they stayed in China instead of coming to Canada? There's no way of completely disproving his comments because they are just Chan's opinion and it is hard for me to hate on somebody's opinion but to many people Chan does come across as somebody who is a tad ungrateful for what has happened in his life. On the other hand, I can sort of understand how Chan feels because just like him, there are some frustrating days at work when I do more than I am required yet I do not receive any special recognition for my extra effort. Even though nobody notices me doing that little bit extra at work, in the end unlike Chan, it really does not bother me too much because I kind of take pride in my job even if I do not feel like I am getting the amount of recognition and appreciation that I deserve. I don't work harder to get recognized; I work harder to get more work done. I don't stay 10 minutes late after work for my manager's appreciation; I stay late because that was necessary to get the job done that day. The article seems to imply (perhaps unfairly) that part of Chan's motivation for skating are recognition and appreciation which makes him look like he's skating for the "wrong" reasons and although truthful does still tend to rub people the wrong way.
(side note: in the interview Chan seems to contradict himself when he says, “I skate just to satisfy my own desire and not care about other people’s desire for me to do well.")
Yes Canadians love their hockey players and Chan had the misfortune of being born in Canada instead of a figure skating loving country like China but whether we are talking about Canadians, Chinese or Americans every country has the same flaw in that we only seem to care about winners. Chan is probably right when he implies that it might be wrong for Canadians to treat hockey players like rock stars but life is not fair and no offense to Chan but he dances on ice for a living so there are probably many other people more deserving to complain about being unrecognized. Chan's inability to even medal (he finished 5th) at the 2010 Winter Olympics which were held in Vancouver, Canada, probably hurt his chances for recognition and appreciation in his home country more than anything else. Some people can accomplish nothing and get fame and fortune (see Kim Kardashian) but for almost everybody else, you need to do something (and in this case with an athlete that "something" is to win in your sport) to earn recognition and appreciation. Sure Chan is a World Champion and world record holder and in the 80s or 90s when the general public cared about figure skating that would have probably been enough (see Kurt Browning) but since nobody seems to care about figure skating these days other than in the Winter Olympics, Chan really needed to be an Olympic gold medalist when his home country hosted the games back in 2010 for him to have a realistic chance at the recognition and appreciation that he apparently dearly covets.
its called capitalism son