Just when it looked like the field was reeling him in, Patrick Chan has raised his game and distanced himself from the pack. Jurickson Profar Jersey . Breaking three of his own world records on his way to winning in Paris, Chan silenced the critics and left the audiences standing in appreciation and awe. Of course with the Olympics still over two months away, the questions are being asked; Is he ready too soon? Has he peaked too early? I personally believe there is nothing better for building confidence than knowing what perfect feels like, especially in back-to-back skates. This is something that has eluded Chan in the past. He has had a history of building a lead in the short and hanging on in the long, and of moments of brilliance followed by untimely baubles and stumbles. Now he knows what clean feels like and that he has the mind for it. What we saw in Paris from Chan was consistency and that, combined with his explosive power, was in a word - impressive. Impressive to watch. Intimidating for his competition, who now know that the game has just changed and they need to step up. In this seasons scores, Chans total in Paris has out-pointed the field by almost 30. Heading into the Grand Prix Final next week in Japan, all eyes are on Chan. He takes on the seasons top finishers and the phenomenal Japanese men; three of whom have qualified in the spots behind Chan and are hoping to gain some help with some home field advantage. A similar situation is unfolding in the pairs this season with the Russian team of Tatiana Volososhar and Maxim Trankov. What Chan did in Paris, they did in both of their competitions. They literally did not put a foot wrong in any program in either competition. The nine judges give a score for each element in the program (jumps, spins, steps, lifts) based on the quality of the element. The scores they give range from minus- 3 to plus- 3. Ninteen elements in two programs and they did not receive one minus, on any element, from any judge. All plus- 2 and plus- 3 with a sprinkling of ones. That just doesnt happen early in the season in the pairs event, where the programs are filled with high risk elements, the margin of error is great, and it takes a season for the teams to fully meld with the nuances of the choreography, the hidden technical difficulties and with each other. This season the Russians set and now own the three world records for highest short, free and total scores. This is a team with a clear focus. Until the Vancouver Olympics, Russia held the longest unbroken gold medal streak in the Winter Games. Russia had won every Pairs gold medal since 1964, until 2010 when Russian pairs not only didnt win gold, they failed to reach the podium. We did an interview with Tatiana and Max on TSN following those Vancouver games when they were a newly formed pair. Max spoke about Vancouver, but not about plans of redemption in the pairs event. He talked about how inspired and emotional he was watching Canadians Virtue and Moir in the ice dance event. He spoke about being in the Olympic arena when Scott and Tessa won gold and the whole country celebrated with them and he said "we want the same." It is a mission that seems inevitable. The chance of competing at a home games has also brought out inspired performances from the Russian women, and so the Grand Prix final will look a lot like the Russian nationals in the ladies event. Four teenagers aged 17, two 15 year olds and a 14 year old have qualified for the final. We have watched Russia produce a series of young talented superstars but they tend to come and go and have not been able to translate early season success into success at the big events. In the ladies qualifying, the competition entered and the depth of the field, played into who made the final. Olympic silver medalist Mao Asada and American champion Ashley Wagner have qualified, while great skaters like Akiko Suzuki and Carolina Kostner are left out of the final. I believe that the podium in Sochi will look very different from the one at the final, as a number of the worlds best and brightest will not be at the ladies event in Japan. As always at this time of year, the rivalry intensifies in the dance event where we will see this seasons first head-to-head match-up of Olympic Champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir and World Champions Meryl Davis and Charlie White. Meryl and Charlie have the advantage in the points early in the season, but it is a game of inches with both teams capable on any given day. Unique this season in the ice dance event is the hotly contested battle for bronze. Canadians Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje are among the four teams in the hunt. What is intriguing is how much these teams have improved, and while ice dance has been sensational at the top for a number of years, the teams chasing the champions are bringing the sport of Ice Dance to a new level as a whole. Yu Darvish Authentic Jersey .ca presents the first of our five part season preview, taking a look at the American based teams in the Eastern Conference. Chicago Fire It was a tough 2013 for the Toyota Park faithful, as the Fire followed-up their first playoff season in three years with their lowest-ever finish in 15 MLS seasons. Fielder Jersey . The dull draw is likely to be Ryan Giggs last match in charge of United as interim coach. With Southampton guaranteed an eighth-place finish and United heading into the game with only the slightest possibility of European qualifying, this game had long lost any meaningful intrigue.QUEBEC CITY, Que. - Used to battling tight corners at speeds well in excess of 100 km/h, Olympic bobsled champion Kaillie Humphries tried her hand at handling a pair of top UFC fighters Sunday. Welterweight Rory (Ares) MacDonald and middleweight Francois Carmont were on their best behaviour, serving as benign training partners as top coach Firas Zahabi gave Humphries an introduction to mixed martial arts paces before a small crowd at a Quebec City mall. It was all part of the UFC Experience, a public workout ahead of Wednesdays Ultimate Fighter Nations Finale UFC card. Under the tutelage of Zahabi, Humphries worked on a double-leg takedown, armbar and kimura submissions as well as punching and kicking. At the end of the session, he had her put all the moves together in taking the pro fighters to the ground and then going after a submission. The 28-year-old from Calgary clearly enjoyed the lesson, enthusiastically throwing a tattooed tree-trunk of a leg over the six-foot-three Carmont in a bid to subdue him as he lay on his back. MacDonald is ranked the No. 2 contender in the world at 170 pounds by the UFC while Carmont is No. 9 at 185 pounds. Zahabi trains both in Montreal as well as former welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre. The bobsled champ signed autographs and, holding her two Olympic gold medals, posed with fans before changing into workout gear to get some tips from Zahabi, along with a local youngster. "One more," Zahabi yelled as Humphries kicked the training pad he was holding. "Harder." As he urged her on to kick again and again and again, the coach mischievously asked if she was competing in the next Olympics. When she said yes, he told her: "Youve got to do more," referring to the kicks. "Come on, youve got four years. Go. Again. Again. Four years of this." The inspiration worked. Humphries kept kicking, with the audible thuds becoming louder. "Didnt want it to end," she tweeted later. Humphries is a longtime fan of MMA — so much so that she planned to fly back to Calgary on Sunday night to honour a previous commitment before returning to the Quebec capital to take in the fights. "Its so cool for me to be able to see and get to meet the fighters and be a part of something so spectacular," she said in an interview. "Its an opportunity you cant miss, so you make travel work." The UFC treated her like royalty, producing a real championship belt that she put on while holding her medals with an Olympic-sized grin. Rangers Fielder Jersey. Humphries says the UFC is literally part of her family. Her parents named their cats Rampage and Tito after former light-heavyweight champions Quinton (Rampage) Jackson and Tito (The Peoples Champion) Ortiz. But combat sports are new to the bobsled champion, who only has one boxing class under her belt. She is, however, contemplating adding MMA training as part of her general fitness regimen. While not bobsled specific, the explosive nature of MMA could be beneficial, she said. So what about getting punched, she was asked? "I think its something I can handle. Bobsleighs not exactly the most princecessy of sports," she replied. "Im used to rough and tough a little bit and I can take a punch." Then she paused. "Ive never actually been hit so I cant actually say that," she said with a giggle. Humphries cited Jackson and current womens bantamweight champion (Rowdy) Ronda Rousey as her favourite fighters. Rousey, the UFCs first female title-holder, is a former Olympic bronze medallist in judo. "Nowadays women can do anything the men can do," said Humphries, who won her Olympic gold in Sochi, Russia with Heather Moyse, who also competes in cycling and rugby. "At the end of the day, women are inspirational in completely different ways than men," she added. "And to know there are women out there that are as rough and as tough, and can dedicate their lives and work just as hard, it (the UFC) allows us to show that off to the rest of the world. "Im super-proud of all the women that do sports across the board, especially at such a high and extreme level. Its an inspiration for me and I know many young girls out there." Dont look to Humphries to start fighting for real, however. The UFC womens competition is restricted to bantamweight (135 pounds), although a new strawweight division (115 pounds) is being formed. "Im far away from that," she laughed. "As of right now I would definitely be one of the heavyweights, for sure. "I usually compete at around 170, Im about 165 right about now. So Im a long way off from a 115 or a 135. But at the same time, our training and the way we train with our sport, we need to be at that weight so I do what I can to maintain my weight up there." Wednesday will be Humphries first live UFC show. "Its one of those experiences that Ive never had that Im very, very excited to see." wholesale jerseys wholesale jerseys cheap soccer jerseys cheap nhl jerseys cheap jerseys ' ' '