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Most importantly, he bumped Olympic Athlete from Russia Mikhail Kolyada into second spot.

“I will say that Patrick proved something to himself today,” Moir said. “I don’t want to rub it in everyone’s face but I called that yesterday.”

Chan proved that his long program can put him in the conversation in his individual event here; with two caveats. He needs two clean quads in the long and he can’t bomb the short, which means he absolutely must get that triple Axel to behave.

“I think I’ve been in the conversation for awhile,” he said. “I’m there always. The one common denominator is the triple Axel. I’ll be honest, it’s been a challenge for me my entire life. Looking back at when I grew up, maybe it was the wrong technique I just grew up with, or the body type I have.

Photo by Leah Hennel / Postmedia

“But I’m so determined to really, really achieve this last kind of challenge and smoke a great triple Axel at the Olympics.”

Chan was asked if a gold in the team event feels less of an accomplishment for a three-time world champ who never made it to the top of the podium in an individual event at the Games. He gave a heartfelt, team-guy, Canadian, we-are-in-this-together answer. And good for him.

“At the end of the day a medal is a medal. I’m going to hold this medal tight to me and it’s going to be as good as the individual. I’m sorry, that’s how I’m going to see it, how I’m going to enjoy it, and that’s for me to decide. I worked really hard for this. We all worked really hard. We are a very tight-knit group here in Canada as figure skaters and to me that means more than winning a medal in individuals. We can now embrace each other and know that we collectively did something amazing.”

Photo by Leah Hennel / Postmedia

He didn’t know what colour that medal was going to be at that time. But gold was a pretty good bet, and gold it was. And this Canadian team is full value for it.

Chan came back from retirement for this, so did Virtue and Moir. They got the band back together and decided that the team event was worth their commitment. That’s why the only substitution for Canada was Daleman in for Osmond.

“We felt we owed it to them to do it,” Slipchuk said of the vets who went wire-to-wire, “and every one of them contributed to this win, which is fabulous.”

• Email: dbarnes@postmedia.com | Twitter: @sportsdanbarnes