CREDIT: NATIONAL POST
Patrick Chan is hoping to skate his way to the top at the World Figure Skating Championships here in London this week.

At just 22 years old, Patrick Chan is one of the most successful figure skaters Canada's ever had. He is the 2011 and 2012 World Champion, a two-time Grand Prix Final Champion, a two-time Four Continents Champion and a six-time Canadian Champion.

Chan will compete at the 2013 World Figure Skating Championships in London this week, and he's been hard at work preparing for the competition.

But it hasn't been an easy season for Chan, who finished third at the Grand Prix Final in Sochi Russia last month and second at Skate Canada International in September.

Chan has been working extremely hard over the past few months, and because he came in first at Worlds in 2011 and 2012, there is a lot of pressure on him to hold that title for a third year.

Chan decided to opt out of the Four Continents Championships held in Japan in February to focus on regrouping with his support team.

“I stopped in Calgary first and saw Andy (O'Brien) to kind of revamp my whole off ice program and then look at my nutrition and my supplements and tune it up a bit,” explained Chan.

After his time in Calgary, Chan travelled to Toronto and worked with choreographers Jeff Buttle and David Wilson. “(I wanted to) look at my program and once again tune my programs up, change some of the patterns, some of the order of some of the jumps, because I felt like I was struggling a bit with some of the positioning of the jumps,” he said.

Chan chose Detroit for the final leg of his training journey and was there for two weeks prior to the Worlds. “I thought that the best place for me to train would probably be the most competitive and the most friendly, and a positive environment,” said Chan.

Many of his other teammates from Canada have been training at the same rink, something Chan said has motivated him to work even harder. He also wanted to be in a city that shares the same time zone as London.

Chan finished fifth in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, but instead of dwelling on the past, he's building off that experience.

“I have a lot of experience skating in front of a home crowd thanks to Vancouver ... It's more of a motivation for me to skate in Canada (and) I'm gonna be really comfortable with the rink,” he stated.

This year's event is a big precursor to next year's Winter Olympic Games, as the results determine how many entries each country can send to participate.

“It would be really nice to win a World Championship going into the Olympics,” said Chan.

Chan is still unsure as to where he wants to live and train when preparing for the 2014 Olympics. He originally had his heart set on Colorado Springs, but is considering moving his training base to Detroit. “I want to make a decision that's going to be best for me, so I can really skate my best at the Olympics with no weight on my shoulders, and be really happy.” Chan will wait until the Worlds are over to make his decision.

You can watch Chan perform his Short Program on March 13 at 3:45 p.m., and his Free Program on March 15 at 5:45 p.m.