Chan plans an amazing program at Vancouver Olympics

Forget about the expectations and the pressures of performing on home soil.

Or that no other Canadian male before him has won an Olympic gold medal in figure skating.

Or the burden of being fresh off a calf injury that had him side-lined for the Grand Prix season.

Disregard the fact he's adopted a new coach, Lori Nichols, to replace Don Laws mere weeks before Olympic kick off.

Or that he and Nichols opted to drop the quadruple jump from his long program - a jump he's been trying to land to perfection for a year.

And there's at least one more element of distraction for Patrick Chan, 20, leading into these Olympic Games: Yevgeny Plushenko.

Russian skater Plushenko won gold in Turin in 2006 and silver in Salt Lake City in 2002 and has reemerged from retirement.

The odds look stacked against the Ecole secondaire Etienne-Brule graduate, who performs at the Olympics Feb. 16 and 18, but you wouldn't know it to hear the three-time Canadian champ talk to reporters during a Skate Canada teleconference Jan. 28 - 11 days removed from a golden performance at the national championships in London, Ont.

"The obvious answer is I'm super excited. The day is coming close," Chan told reporters. "I'm kind of in a dream right now. I feel like I'm in a non-reality and it's sometimes hard to stay focused... but in another way (the pressure) is motivating me. It provides me with a lot of energy and motivation. I think it'll only help."

The North York native started skating at age seven with the world-renowned Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling Club, at 141 Wilson Ave., under the tutelage of legendary coach Osbourne Colson.

Colson, who died in 2006 at 90, was the kind of instructor who "could make a silk purse out of a sow's ear," says Doug Haw, a longtime friend of both Chan and Colson.

"He would embellish (his students) about all the intricacies of fine movement and he was a good teacher: how to turn, how to edge properly," he recalled.

It was evident very early on that there was something truly special about Chan.

"You just knew he was a super talent right from the beginning," said Haw, the director of skating for Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling Club from 1989 to 20002 and the current head of figure skating at the Granite Club, 2350 Bayview Ave., which is Chan's home club.

"There's nobody on this planet that can skate better than Patrick. Some have quads that are more consistent, but Patrick is the best skater, I believe, in the world right now," he said, noting, quad or no quad, Chan will not disappoint in Vancouver.

"If I was a betting man, I'd guarantee he won't do his quad," he said, on the prospect of Chan unleashing the difficult jump, if required.

"But, what he will do is the very technically competent with a triple axel and all his combinations and high level spins. And where he will gain points is his component scores - the choreography, the skating skills, his interpretation, the performance."

Chan admitted to reporters he hasn't entirely eliminated the possibility of re-introducing the quad into his routine, but he's not planning on making any changes for now.

"I don't want to risk making any changes and risk putting a quad on probably the most important competition of my life, so, we went the way of two triple axels and a good solid program."

His short program will remain virtually the same as last year's, but he expects to dazzle with his Phantom of the Opera number.

"Last year, I had a concerto, which really had no story to it. There's a story to this," he said. "I think the audience and the judges will connect with it."

"This program gives me goosebumps and chills," he said. "I think that's a good sign that this program's going to be amazing."