At 17, Patrick Chan became the youngest Canadian men's figure skating champion after he dethroned Jeffrey Buttle with a terrific performance two months ago. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)

As the High Performance Director for Skate Canada, Mike Slipchuk is well aware of the pressure he faces in getting Canadian figure skating back to world prominence, especially with the Vancouver Winter Olympics only two years away.

The Edmonton native, who won the 1992 Canadian men's championship, was hired last year because of the wide range of experience he brings to the position. Aside from his skating prowess, Slipchuk was a coach for 16 years and also spent time as a technical judging specialist.

Charged with the responsibility of developing the program from the ground up, Slipchuk understands — probably more than anyone — that Canadian figure skating has yet to recover from the retirement of some of the biggest names in the sport.

Since the former pairs team of Jamie Sale and David Pelletier won Olympic gold at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, Canada has struggled to find skaters who can carry on the long tradition of success on the international stage.

The task remains daunting as Sale and Pelletier followed in the footsteps of greats Brian Orser, Kurt Browning and Elvis Stojko — performers whose talents were only surpassed by their flamboyance on the ice.

However, Slipchuk says he believes the program is finally experiencing a resurgence following a solid season on the Grand Prix circuit. Canadians Jeffrey Buttle, Joannie Rochette and ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir also earned medals at the Four Continents event in South Korea last month.

With the world figure skating championships beginning Tuesday in Gothenburg, Sweden, Slipchuk took time to speak with CBCSports.ca about his objectives for the program, the emergence of teenage sensation Patrick Chan and Canada's prospects for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

CBCSports.ca: What is Skate Canada's mandate in terms of its figure skating program?

Slipchuk: Basically, we're working to create the best system for our skaters and our coaches in reaching the highest level of the sport. We want to work with them to get Canadian skating back to the top of the world, where we had been for many years before.

We have a clear understanding of the skaters that are coming up through our system. One of the things I really wanted to emphasize is to let our coaches do their jobs. We need to let them train their skaters and … provide them [with] whatever additional services we can to help them move forward.

CBCSports.ca: Coaching has always been a bone of contention with other amateur sports in Canada. Do you think the right coaches are in place now and for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics?

Slipchuk: We have some of the best coaches in the world, and a lot of the skaters in other parts of the world come to train here with our coaches. So, that's just a testament to how strong our coaches are.

CBCSports.ca: The Grand Prix events and the Four Continents competition have played a bigger role in skaters' development over the last decade. How much value do you place in these two competitions?

Slipchuk: They're all important, but it depends on the skaters. Some skaters will tend to have a good Grand Prix season and may kind of run out of steam when they get to worlds while others build up as the year goes on. So, each athlete is a little different, but what we want to see is when we get to January through March, our athletes are on the upswing and are moving forward and peaking into worlds. That's where we feel we are this year.

Past season's scores bode well for world championships

CBCSports.ca: Ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, along with Jeffrey Buttle and Joannie Rochette, took part in the Four Continents event while Patrick Chan and the pairs team of Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison decided to skip it. Does it help or hurt a skater to miss a major event before the world championships?

Many skating pundits expect Canada's Tessa Virtue, bottom, and Scott Moir to evolve into ice dancing superstars. (Ahn Young-joon/Associated Press)

Slipchuk: The important thing for the skaters is those that went to Four Continents had a plan in place. For the skaters that went, the results in how they skated couldn't have been any more positive for them leading into worlds. When we take Jessica, Bryce and Patrick, who passed on the Four Continents, the three of them did compete in the Senior Grand Prix final, so they were competing until mid-December, and 3½ weeks later we had our Canadian championships.

The Four Continents followed two weeks later, so what happens is a skater can get burned out. And for their preparations, Patrick, Jessica and Bryce at that point needed to have a little time to recharge and build back up for worlds. Every athlete's situation is a little different, and that's when we take a coach or skater's recommendation on what they feel is best for their preparation. From what we've seen from athletes either taking part or skipping Four Continents, they are all in the right position for worlds.

CBCSports.ca: Do you consider these world championships as a benchmark for how the team will progress for 2010?

Slipchuk: Yes. Every world championship leading up to the Olympics each year has more emphasis placed on it. This year's worlds will go a long way into determining how many entries we have for 2009, which then determines our team for 2010. So we're hoping to improve our overall results from last year and keep that ball rolling to 2010.

CBCSports.ca: What are the expectations for the Canadian team at this year's world championships?

Slipchuk: We've had a very successfully season on the international scene and at the junior and senior levels. Every member of our world team had an improvement on their past season's score, and when you have that, it bodes well for their potential at worlds.

Like all sports, medals at the world championships or Olympics are a defining statement for the skater and organization. But basically for us, you want the skaters to go out and perform to the top of their potential right now, see where they rank with the top skaters of the world. If that's on the podium, great, if they just miss the podium, then that's still fine. It gives the skaters and us a benchmark of where we're at and where potentially we see those athletes moving through. We expect all our athletes to be up in the top half, if not top 5, and some even higher than that.

'Breakthrough season' for Chan

CBCSports.ca: When you look at a skater like Patrick Chan, who has burst onto the scene and won the Canadian championships in January, is it unfair to place pressure on him to get a medal at the world championships in his first big international competition?

Slipchuk: Yes. With the new judging system, you can see clearly where the international point totals of the top skaters are. You can only skate to your potential, and for us to expect him to go to a world championship and medal the first year is putting a lot of high expectation on him.

You never know what could happen, but with all our athletes, we just want them to aim for a personal best, and then that gives them and us a clearer picture of where they're at. In no way would we ever want to say to an athlete 'We expect you to win or medal in your first year.' That's out of our control.

This is Patrick's first worlds, and any time you go there for the first time, you kind of have to find your place. To pinpoint where he might finish is hard to predict. It's a world championship; the field is very strong. He has to get his first step into the world scene and then go from there.

CBCSports.ca: But with the Vancouver Olympics only two years away, is it safe to say you're thrilled with Patrick's development to this point?

Slipchuk: Oh, yeah. He definitely had a breakthrough season this year, and like all young skaters, they hit that point where all of a sudden they just seem to break through. To have that breakthrough season two years before the Olympics is a good thing, because you can get some valued experience during that time. If it happened in an Olympic year, then things are thrown at you too fast. But this is a good timeline for Patrick, and he still has some time to go through any peaks and valleys that may come his way.

CBCSports.ca: With former greats such as Brian Orser, Kurt Browning, Elvis Stojko, Jaime Sale and David Pelletier, Canada experienced great success from 1987 to 2002. However, there has been a big drop off since Jamie and David won Olympic gold six years ago. Why?

Slipchuk: When you're dealing with the likes of a Jaime and David or a Kurt Browning, they were competing for many years at the highest level, and they really built a following with their tremendous success. Those were some of the most flamboyant, big-name skaters in the world, and we kind of caught the newer generation during the cycle of their earlier development.

I think with our skaters now, it's our job to make the public aware of who these athletes are. For many of these current skaters, they're just at the start of their cycle. Even our veterans, like Jeffrey Buttle — who medalled at the 2005 worlds and won a bronze at the 2006 Olympics — we do have the skaters out there that have had success, but I think in the public eye, it hasn't been as big as it has been in the past.

Younger star skaters at start of their ascent

CBCSports.ca: In Chan, Virtue, Moir and Dube and Davison, Canada has a core of skaters who are leading a Canadian resurgence on the world stage. How do you envision them growing as predominant figures in the coming years?

Slipchuk: With a season like we had this year, where we had some new faces coming onto the scene, it does more to get back into the fold than anything else. We needed a situation where there were some young new skaters on the scene, but I also don't want to take away anything from our veterans, because Jeffrey and Joannie Rochette have done a lot to help keep Canadian skating up there. And having these other skaters come up behind them only makes us stronger in the country.

CBCSports.ca: In talking with CBC figure skating analysts Tracy Wilson and Kurt Browning, the feeling is that the sky is the limit for Chan, Virtue and Moir. Do you agree with their assessment?

Slipchuk: I do. All three skaters are young and are just at the start of their ascent …. It's exciting because you know there's still a lot they can do and give, so they're nowhere near a point where they've maxed out on their abilities.

CBCSports.ca: Jeffrey Buttle seems to be going through an inconsistent season, and some of the experts are saying he peaked with the bronze medal at the Torino Olympics. Have we really seen Butttle's best days as a competitor?

Slipchuk: I don't think we should ever discount a skater of his calibre. Jeff didn't have a good 2007 season due to injuries and missed the majority of the season. So he really didn't get back into competition until January of last year. When you've missed a portion of the year, it takes some time to get back and into a competitive mode.

Jeffrey Buttle, left, earned a silver medal at the 2006 Torinto Olympics. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)

With Jeffrey's season, it started at the 2007 Canadian championships, continued at the worlds and he has just kept building. He skated [to a silver medal] at the 2008 Canadian championships and his [second-place] performance at the Four Continents was a step up from that. When you've been a world and Olympic medallist, I don't think you can ever be counted out. There is still a lot in Jeff's skating that makes him appealing, and it does give him a chance to compete against the best.

Women's team must develop depth, Sliphcuk says

CBCSports.ca: On the women's side, the ladies appear to have taken a backseat because of the emergence of the other skaters. Why have the women struggled so much to keep up?

Slipchuk: With women's skating, we've always struggled to develop depth. We tend to get a few strong skaters, but the depth always seems to lag behind. With the men, you can go to a Canadian championship and go down to 10th place, yet the field is strong. But with the ladies, you get a handful of strong women and then the level tends to not be as strong below them.

This is something that we're looking at as an organization for development. Like all sports in Canada, we're looking at putting together a long-term athlete development model, which will be a benchmark for our sport to follow. One area we are looking at is how our female skaters develop, so they can keep up and be at a level to compete against the rest of the world.

CBCSports.ca: Having said that, Joannie Rochette has really stepped up her game this season. To what do you attribute her success?

Slipchuk: Joannie has been our strongest woman for probably the last five years. She keeps improving and gets stronger. She is putting herself in a position to challenge the best skaters in the world.

Joannie Rochette stepped up her game after a second-place showing at the Four Continents event in February. (Ahn Young-joon/Associated Press)

Joannie has had a season similar to Jeff where she's building with every event. And for her to go to the Four Continents and earn a silver medal and have one of the top three scores in the world, you couldn't ask for a better way for her to set up for the world championships. She has quietly gone about her business this year, and with the other skaters drawing interest, she's just flown under the radar, which isn't a bad thing because she's been able to focus on her job.

CBCSports.ca: It's no secret that Canada as a whole wants to not only surpass its successful medal haul in Turin, Italy, but to win the Olympic medal count in Vancouver. From your perspective, what do you expect from your skaters in 2010?

Slipchuk: We've been fortunate to medal at every Olympics since 1984. In going into an Olympics, we would always — based on how our results were going — hope that we would have at least two or three athletes with a possibility of winning a medal at the Olympics. We're definitely not going into Vancouver to not get on the podium, but we feel that our athletes are putting themselves in a position that the realism of winning a medal is there.

CBCSports.ca: Is there added pressure to win one or even two gold medals because the Olympic Games are in Canada?

Slipchuk: The pressure is going to be on every Canadian involved with the Olympics. I think when you lead into an Olympics on home soil, the opportunity for these athletes to compete and have the chance to walk off with a medal is a remarkable thing. So athletes are going to put the pressure on themselves that they need to strive to get there. We know we're going to have some of our skaters where their goal is going to be on the podium, if not the top.