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The plug might have been pulled for good with Skate Canada's announcement Friday that Sandhu has withdrawn from the Jan. 16-20 Canadian championships in Vancouver.
"Emanuel has taken this year away from competitive skating to assess his goals moving forward,'' Mike Slipchuk, Skate Canada's high performance director, said in a news release. "He has not ruled out resuming competitive training for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, and we support his decision"
He had previously withdrawn his name from Skate Canada consideration for international assignments last autumn as he pursued singing and acting opportunities.
Although he had not competed this year, Sandhu had a bye to the nationals because of his third-place finish last year in Halifax.
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Sandhu will always be known as one of the most gifted skaters in the world, but he has never lived up to the lofty expectations of those who follow the sport.
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Internationally, Sandhu has represented Canada at eight world championships. He didn't get out of the qualifying round in his 1998 debut in Minneapolis but, after finishing 18th in 1999 in Helsinki, he climbed the rankings ladder: ninth in 2001 in Vancouver; eighth in 2003 in Washington and in 2004 in Dortmund, Germany; seventh in 2005 in Moscow; and fifth in 2006 in Calgary.
He was named to two Winter Olympic teams. He had to withdraw due to a knee injury in 2002 in Salt Lake City and he was 13th in 2006 in Turin. It was a terrible result, but he redeemed himself by going to Calgary and excelling.
The highlight of his career is the 2003-2004 Grand Prix Final in Colorado Springs, Colo., that he won by outskating world champion Evgeni Plushenko of Russia. Between 1998 and 2005, Sandhu was the only skater other than Alexei Yagudin or Plushenko to win the GP Final.
Boy has talent oozing out of him, if only he had had the work ethic to go with it. 
