Patrick Chan left Skate sa国际传媒 International earlier this season a little red-faced but all-the-more determined.
The two-time world figure skating champion said that, looking back now, suffering his first major international defeat in a year-and-a-half was a blessing in disguise and put him back on track.
He'll have a chance to test his theory against the best in the world this week at the ISU Grand Prix Final.
"It was a huge shock," Chan said. "I haven't lost in front of a home crowd in a long time, and it was definitely a wakeup call. I think that was the turning point in the season.
"I got embarrassed, I was disappointed in myself."
The 21-year-old Chan, the two-time defending Grand Prix Final champion, finished runner-up to Spain's Javier Fernandez at Skate sa国际传媒 back in late October, but rebounded to win the Rostelecom Cup in Russia a couple of weeks later.
"You know what, sometimes it takes losing a competition to get you back on track, because you can't win every competition there is for a long period of time. I needed Javier to beat me. I said 'Hey, I'm better than this, I can do better than this,' " Chan said.
The Grand Prix Final is the culmination of the Grand Prix series that includes six stops. Skaters compete in two stops each, and the top six entries in each of the four disciplines based on points face off in the final.
Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir - sa国际传媒's Olympic gold medallists and two-time defending world champions - look for ice dance redemption after finishing second behind American rivals Meryl Davis and Charlie White last year in Quebec City.
sa国际传媒 also qualified two pairs teams - defending Canadian champions Meagan Duhamel of Lively, Ont., and Eric Radford of Balmertown, Ont., and Kirsten Moore-Towers of St. Catharines, Ont., and Dylan Moscovitch of Toronto.
