BEIJING, China – With Keegan Messing tied up in the country and his Olympic dream fading further and further, Roman Sadovsky learned on Thursday evening that the Canadian team was counting on him to compete in the team skating event. artistic at the Beijing Games.

Sadovsky, a 22-year-old Torontonian, was shaky on his short program where there was no room for error.

And the rebuilding Canadian figure skating team – they are the defending gold medalists in the team event – ​​sit sixth and face elimination.

“I was told to be ready,” said Sadovsky after experiencing uncertainty in recent days. All season, I worked towards the Olympics. I know the Games have a team event. It’s a bit of an endurance weekend after all the programs. I came here ready for anything, really. »

Sadovsky finished eighth in the men’s singles contest, missing the landing of his quadruple Salchow.

Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier in ice dancing, and pairs reps Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro weren’t perfect either, but they did enough to lift Canada to sixth place.

Madeline Schizas will make her women’s Olympic debut in the team event on Sunday, and if Canada doesn’t finish in the top five, they will be eliminated before the free skates begin.

Challenge

Messing, who lives in Girdwood, Alaska, tested positive for COVID-19 in Vancouver. He must now produce four negative tests before being allowed to travel to Beijing. He tested twice negative on Friday, and Skate Canada was hoping he would receive two more positive results to be cleared for a flight on Saturday and arrive in time for the men’s event which begins Tuesday.

“The biggest challenge? is to try to get him on a plane to get here. It’s not easy coming here,” said Skate Canada high performance director Mike Slipchuk.

Coming to Beijing was not easy for anyone.

The explosion of the Omicron variant in recent weeks has added an additional challenge on the shoulders of skaters.

“Part of it was just trying not to get COVID while we were at home training and trying to prepare,” Poirier said. (Now) we can just focus on our skating, which is good. »

Messing has been staying at a Vancouver airport hotel since receiving his positive test results. The hotel has provided him with a security guard and he is allowed to run in the stairwell to keep fit. He has been given private ice time to train for the past few days.

His absence is felt in Beijing.

“We are heartbroken,” Moore-Towers said. We hope he can come. I have been in communication with him every day. Just recently he sent me a video of his son Wyatt. I think he’s in a good mood. I think the best person to deal with this kind of crisis is Keegan Messing. »

“We definitely miss him, but he handles the situation 100 times better than any other member of Team Canada,” added Marinaro.

“More than we would,” Moore-Towers said again.

Messing and Skate Canada were hoping he would pass the tests in time to compete in the team event, but Sadovsky, who finished second to Messing at the Canadian championships last month, got the official nod on Thursday night.

“With him, it was the worst kept secret because we only had one man there,” Slipchuk said.

Sadovsky lost significant points on his missed quadruple somersault, and he totaled 71.06 points. He earned 4.3 points for his sloppy jump, while American Nathan Chen tallied 11.0.

“Honestly, a little disappointing,” Sadovsky admitted. There was just a small problem when starting my jump which did not allow me to complete it well. »

With a total of 111.71 points, Chen was just 0.11 off the short program world record held by Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu. Japan’s Shoma Uno was second (105.46), while Russia’s Mark Kondratiuk was third (95.81).

Gilles, of Toronto, and Poirier, of Unionville, Ont., gave the Canadians some much needed points after finishing fourth in the ice dance.

Ontarians Moore-Towers and Marinaro finished fifth in the pairs short program with 67.34 points. Skating to Forest Blakk’s “Hold on Tight,” Moore-Towers stumbled on their side-to-side triple toe loop.

“I’m disappointed with this little mental mistake,” she said.

The United States leads the overall standings after the first three events with 28 points out of a possible 30, followed by the Russian team (26) and China (21).