Wow... the Canadian Chinese community is so supportive. They started with $3,000 scholarship and the last scholarship was more than $40,000. And it interesting to hear Richard Wong challenging the rest of the Chinese community from different cities to up the fund-raising ante. Phew .. $200,000 training costs and expected to rise to $250,000? Does it include accommodation? Certainly without Canadian's skating association and a helping hand from the community, it is difficult to concentrate on training leading to Sochi. Sponsorship is not easy to come and unless one's parents is super rich, assistance is definitely required. Kudos to the Chinese community for stepping up to assist. I am sure Patrick will never forget the reaching hands, and will give back some day in his own way to the community who stood behind him with pride and encouragement.
Patrick is already paying back and much more is expected of him. The biggest gift he has given to the Canadian Chinese community is pride, pride in one of their own being so prominently successful. Patrick honours the community by being the best in the world in what he does which is also in the awareness of the public, making news with his winning World Championships, in his dominance, and in being named Athlete Of The Year by all the mainstream media in Canada. He represents the community well with his achievements in a non stereotypical career and his multilingual and multicultural Canadianness. The community is also very proud of his honouring Canada and being such a good Canadian in giving back via charitable works. All these come through in the speeches at the function which celebrated Patrick Chan.
Everybody loves a winner. The WCBAC gave him the first scholarship of $3000 when he won his first major international event. They showed their pride in him and offered encouragement. Then he went on to further success beyond all realistic expectations, getting more and more attention and support. When he soars, so does the pride, expectation, and support. Then also, I believe there is a "backlash" against the backlash of his recent media snafu, when he expressed his strong identification with his roots and gratitude for his supporters, the biggest being his parents. There were so many ugly attacks on him then, with many racist comments posted online from the public. I think the Chinese community is rallying around him now, thus making a media event with the celebration of their favorite son, whom they think should be one of Canada's favorite sons, as well as with the publicity for Chinese stem cell registration with Patrick's help. Clearly realizing Patrick's financial needs and the burden he feels he is on his parents, they are determined to contribute even more towards his training, challenging all WCBAC charters to raise funds for him, just as the Vancouver charter first did in 2009 and challenged the charter of his home province of Ontario to do the same. They raised $40,000 for him last year, and are aiming to surpass that this year. Meanwhile, the scholarship funds have increased substantially since the fundraising events for Patrick began.
Of course, the biggest goal and hope they have is for Patrick to win the first Olympic Gold in Men's figure skating for Canada. It would be tremendous pride for the community and the nation. Yeah, they are investing and Patrick has to find a way not to feel the pressure so much as to obstruct himself when the Big Days of the Big Event come. Such pressure caused him to mess up during the last Olympics and again when debuting the quads. He has learned much from these experiences and lessons and seems to be in good control of his mental state during competitions these days, so I hope he grows stronger and stronger mentally just as he keeps raising the technical bar.
Speaking of mental strength and technical bar, I am happy and confident that Patrick's problems with his 3A are over. I wrote before that his 3A issue was mental, as he was able to do them beautifully before but going to Krall to learn the quad by micro-managing the technique somehow got him insecure about his 3A, as Krall commented that his 3A technique was "interesting". I knew then the over concern with the technique got into his head and cost his confidence. Recently he said he was no more preoccupied with the technique but simply going with his feelings into the 3A. His nemesis has become his go to jump. :thumbsup:
Maybe he had a 'crew cut'? hopefully ..... 
