Canada's Keegan Messing caps roller-coaster Olympic journey with season-best performance | CBC Sports (2024)

Zack Smart · CBC Sports

· Posted: Feb 10, 2022 1:17 AM EST | Last Updated: February 10, 2022

Keegan Messing's roller-coaster Olympic journey ended near the top.

The Canadian men's figure skating champion capped off his second Olympics with a memorableseason-bestperformance in the free skate medal event on Thursday morning in Beijing — just three days after arriving.

The 30-year-old overcame adversity and earned a score of 172.37whilefinishing 11thin men's singles.

He missed the team event, where he was replaced byRoman Sadovsky, buthe was able tomakethe trip from Canada in time to competeafter passing the four tests required to fly to Beijing.

Messing's latetrip to Beijing, which he describedas a "whirlwind,"began in Vancouver before heading to Montreal, Frankfurt and Milan en route to the Games.

WATCH l Messing skates to 11th-place finish in men's singles:

Despite the adversity, Messing persevered andqualified for the free skate just over 24 hours later after postingthe ninth-best short program score (93.24) — giving him a shot at his first Olympic medal.

Skating to "Lullaby for an Angel" by Karl Hugo, and"Home" by Phillip Phillips, Messing looked comfortableand happyon his free skate,nailing an earlyquadruple toe-double toe combination.

He followed it up with a triple axel andtriple lutz-triple toe combination while deliveringanother solid skate against all odds as the crowd cheered.

"I was hoping for a little bit of a better skate out there," Messing said afterward."I had a very good practice this morning and I was hoping for that to carry on [during competition], but a couple bobbles here and there ... honestly, I just pushed through and really tried to live in that Olympic experience."

WATCH l Messing describes 'whirlwind' trip to Beijing after positive COVID-19 test:

'I'm so thankful'

Messing showeda picture of his infant son, Wyatt, to the cameraas the scores were announced— moving him into bronze position with eight skaters left to go.

Messing was ultimately bumped down just outside the top 10, but hisperformance on the Olympic stage was nothing short of extraordinary given the circ*mstances. He finished with a total score of 265.61.

"It wasn't in the cards, but at the same timeI can still leave here happy,"Messing said.

WATCH | New quad jumps are revolutionizing figure skating:

"This is still a program I can beproud of. I sold it, I felt great about it, and honestlyI arrivedlike two days ago. I'm here, I'm skating on Olympic ice. I got my Olympic experience, and I'm so thankful that I was able to getthis Olympic experience once more."

Messing is from Girdwood, Alaska, but represents Canada because his mother was born in Edmonton. He finished 12th in his Olympic debut at the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang, and he won his first men's national title last month in Ottawa.

After finishing first in the short program (113.97), American starNathan Chen claimed hisfirst individual Olympic medal with agold-medal performance in the free skate that earned him218.63, for a total of 332.60.The three-time world championreachedthe team event podium in Beijing and Pyeongchang.

Canada will be competing in three more figure skating events in Beijing—with the ice dance, women's singles and pairs still to come. All the action will be streamed live onCBC Gem, the CBC Sports app and CBC Sports' Beijing 2022 website.

WATCH l Messing arrives in Beijing, advances to men's free skate:

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