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Figure skater Patrick Chan ends Olympic career with ninth-place finish

Canadian figure skater Patrick Chan said he went into the final competition of his career with 鈥渘o fear.鈥 Skating to Jeff Buckley鈥檚 haunting 鈥淗allelujah鈥 at the Pyeongchang Olympics on Saturday, the three-time world champion from Toronto scored 173.
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Patrick Chan of sa国际传媒 performs during the men's free figure skating final in the Gangneung Ice Arena at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Gangneung, South Korea, Saturday, Feb. 17, 2018.

Canadian figure skater Patrick Chan said he went into the final competition of his career with 鈥渘o fear.鈥

Skating to Jeff Buckley鈥檚 haunting 鈥淗allelujah鈥 at the Pyeongchang Olympics on Saturday, the three-time world champion from Toronto scored 173.42 points for an overall score of 263.43, putting him ninth in the men鈥檚 event.

He opened with a beautiful quadruple toe loop, but tripled his second quad jump in a shaky skate.

Chan was sixth in Friday鈥檚 short program after he fell on his triple Axel.

The Canadian, who is retiring, ends his career with an Olympic silver in the men鈥檚 event from the 2014 Games and a team gold won earlier in Pyeongchang.

鈥淭his is the best Olympic experience out of the three, because I was in control,鈥 he said. 鈥淚 was not dying out of breath.鈥

It was a 1-2 finish for Japan, with two-time world champion Yuzuru Hanyu earning 206.17 points in the free skate for a total of 317.85 and the gold medal.

Shoma Uno took silver with a total score of 306.90, while Spain鈥檚 Javier Fernandez was third with 305.24.

The 27-year-old Chan took a season off after his heartbreaking silver medal at the Sochi Olympics, but his comeback hasn鈥檛 been what he envisioned.

鈥淢y career has had a lot of challenges like this and I think I can learn a lot more from having a lot of ups and downs,鈥 he said. 鈥淏ut today my goal was to land both Axels and get them solid. I am happy I landed on my feet on both of those.鈥

Chan was responsible for launching the quad brigade as one of the first skaters to include two quads in his long program. But once so dominant, he returned from his year off to find his competition had left him eating their high-flying dust.

Keegan Messing of Sherwood Park, Alta., was 12th, finishing with a total score of 255.43.