15.1°C Not observed 
Patrick Chan sees the world figure skating championships as only the beginning of what he hopes is a long and illustrious career, while for Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, the worlds might mark the competitive swan song for the Olympic gold medallists.
Chan heads into the upcoming event hoping to make up for a disappointing fifth-place finish at the Vancouver Games. Virtue and Moir, who earned Canada's first ever Olympic ice dance victory in Vancouver, hope to capture the one medal that has eluded them - a world gold.
And then, the ice dancers will decide what their skating future holds.
"It's so hard to say," Virtue said of the possibility of retirement. "Since we started skating together, we've taken it one year at a time. After (the 2006) Turin Olympics, we made the commitment to push on to Vancouver and the focus has been so intense on Vancouver and these world championships. So it's mentally hard to think much beyond that. I think we'll need some time."
Chan, the reigning world silver medallist, and Virtue and Moir, who captured silver in 2008 and bronze last year in Los Angeles, are Canada's top hopes for podium performances at the 100th edition of the world championships, which open Monday in Turin.
Joannie Rochette, who captured bronze in Vancouver less than a week after her mom Therese died of a heart attack, won't compete in Turin.
Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison, pairs bronze medallists at the 2008 world championships, hope to climb back onto the podium after a sixth-place showing at the Vancouver Games.
Virtue, from London, Ont., and Moir, from Ilderton, Ont., have been skating together for 13 years, but Virtue is just 20 while Moir is 22. They are the youngest Olympic ice dance champions in history, and Skate Canada officials said in Vancouver the duo could dominate the discipline for the next decade.
But Virtue and Moir admit the training and travelling is a grind.
"We're not in the right mental state to make decisions beyond this point. We need to let the dust settle," Virtue said.
The ice dancers' main competition in Turin will come from friends and training partners Meryl Davis and Charlie White of the U.S., who won silver in Vancouver. Bronze medallists Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin of Russia aren't competing.
Chan, meanwhile, said he's skating with a sense of lightness that he didn't have heading into his Olympic debut in Vancouver, which he described as scaling Mount Everest. Clambering down the other side, the 19-year-old said he's finally breathing easy with the pressure-cooker of competing in an Olympic Games on home ice behind him.
"What the Olympics does to you, it numbs you, it numbs your sense of excitement for the rest of the year or even next season, but I think it's a good thing, I really haven't dwelled on going to worlds," Chan said on a conference call this week. "I'm just enjoying myself on the ice and off the ice. . . I'm just letting things flow and not really thinking very much.
"After preparing for four years ahead of the Games, now I'm going to just let everything unravel. I'm enjoying this, I feel like I can do anything and it's a lot less stressful. After the Games were over, this huge weight came off my shoulders, people just left me alone and I really got to do what I wanted to do."
Chan, who arrived late on the conference call - he later apologized to reporters in an email - said he believes a victory in Turin is within reach.
"Gold medal, for sure," he said of his goal. "After winning silver last year, there's no question why I shouldn't be striving for a gold medal."
Chan hopes a decent performance at the worlds will be the first step to dominating the men's singles field over the next four years, leading to the 2014 Games in Sochi, Russia. To help ensure that happens, he plans to add a quad jump to his repertoire next season.
American Evan Lysacek proved you don't need one to win, capturing gold in Vancouver without the four-revolution jump that has polarized men's skating. But Chan, who like Lysacek earns high marks with his exquisite spins and overall skating skills, said in keeping with his quest to be one of the best skaters Canada has ever produced, would rather have the full package.
"I want to go out with a real bang and show people I am capable of doing (a quad), and show the people who've been doubting me that I could, and that I'm not just sitting around and relying on my skating skills to help me," Chan said. "I really want to be the best, and who knows, there might be someone coming up the next couple years with just as good skating skills as me, so I can't really rest on my laurels, I have to keep pushing myself.
"Plus, it would be boring to just practise every day and just do the same thing and not try to do something that challenges you and makes you fall down a couple of times."
Lysacek, the reigning world champion, isn't competing in Turin. After Vancouver, he joined the cast of the reality TV show "Dancing With the Stars," which airs its first episode of the new season next week.
Chan said he's inspired by the American skater, and not simply because the two athletes are similar in style. The Canadian hopes he ends up writing a similar Olympic story - Lysacek finished fourth four years ago at the Turin Games, and moved up to gold in Vancouver.
"I think Evan is a perfect image of me except earlier, it definitely helped me get through the disappointment of not doing my best in Vancouver, it helped to look back at Evan and how he did and it helped me get over the fact that I didn't come home with a medal," Chan said. "It just showed that it's very, very rare that someone wins a gold medal or any medal at their first Games, so Evan is a big, big help, helping me move on and look forward to the future."
Chan said the one big lessons he learned in Vancouver is that confidence is everything. The Toronto skater fretted before he took the ice for the long program, and then had a shaky performance, falling on his second triple Axel.
"I still had a bit of a doubt, that I couldn't be the best, or couldn't be on the podium, I didn't trust the training as much as I should have," he said. "Before the long (program), I was nervous, I was wasting my time thinking, 'Oh my gosh, am I even going to make it through this program because I'm going to be so tired.' Just wasting my time thinking about stuff I shouldn't have been worried about, because at the end of the long program I was like, heck, I can do another one, I didn't feel that bad.
"So that's one thing I was really upset about myself was I let myself lose my concentration and not trust the training. Now it's going to be going out and really enjoying what I do, and performing the program one last time this season."
Chan won't have to worry about Russian Evgeni Plushenko in Turin. The Olympic silver medallist and three-time world champion withdrew Friday on the advice of doctors. But world bronze medallist Daisuke Takahashi, U.S. champion Jeremy Abbott and 2009 world bronze medallist Brian Joubert of France are also in the tough men's field.
Kim Yu-Na of South Korea, who lives and trains in Toronto with Canadian coach Brian Orser, is the runaway favourite for women's gold, after her stunning victory at the Vancouver Games. In Rochette's absence, Mao Asada of Japan will be the favourite to claim silver.
Dube, from St-Cyrille-de-Wendover, Que., and Davison, from Huntsville, Ont., will battle two-time world champions Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany, who won bronze in Vancouver. Olympic silver medallists Pang Qing and Tong Jian of China are also competing. The one notable absence is that of Olympic champions Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo of China.
There are 210 entries from 53 countries competing at the world championships, which begin Tuesday at the Palavela, the figure skating venue for the 2006 Olympics.
The International Skating Union offers a total US$710,000 in prize money. Gold medallists in men's and women's singles earn US$45,000 with pairs and ice dancers sharing $67,500.
A silver medal is worth US$27,000 (US$40,500 per couple for pairs and dance), while a bronze is worth US$18,000 (US$27,000).
