A fifth-place finish in his Olympic debut was the pin to his balloon. And a day after somewhat salvaging a frustrating season with his second world championship silver medal, Chan said it was a difficult lesson learned.

"I think I was probably engulfed in the whole media attention. It's hard," the 19-year-old admitted. "It's easy to get wound up, thinking, `Maybe I am going to win a gold medal.' I would go to bed and see myself at the end of the program, pumping my fists (in victory).

"It turned out completely different to what I thought it was going to turn out this season. Especially the Olympics."

Chan made a considerable splash on the world skating stage when he captured silver last year in Los Angeles. His next stop: the Olympic podium. Or so he believed.

"For sure I was thinking of winning a medal in Vancouver, thinking `Of course I'm on the right track, I'm a medallist at worlds, so I don't see why not,' " Chan said. "That was the problem, I had that kind of mentality of seeing myself on the podium and it didn't happen. That's why it was so devastating after.

"What I would suggest to people is not to dream so far ahead. Just dream about the now and doing your elements properly and doing your program clean, instead of thinking about a gold medal."

Chan spent the rest of the Games "decompressing" in the Athletes Village, and admitted ? with his usual candour ? that the success of others wasn't so easy to swallow. But there were some upsets too that made his disappointment easier to bear, such as Chris Del Bosco's crash on the last jump in skicross that ruined a sure medal for the Canadian.

"That was worse than my situation," Chan said of Del Bosco. "It helps to see that even though it's kind of bad, but it makes you feel better.

"Then again, it sucks because you're watching other people do so great. It's great that Scott and Tessa (Canada's ice dance champions Moir and Virtue) won gold but it's tough to watch that yourself. . . you're thinking 'Oh I wish I had done better.' But that's being competitive, that's being who were are."

Chan said the medal podium was the furthest thing from his mind when he landed in Turin, and the Toronto skater went on to finish second to Olympic bronze medallist Daisuke Takahashi of Japan.

He wasn't thrilled with his performance ? he fell on his triple loop and looked off-kilter for most of his long program. But considering the frustrating season he's had, he'll take the result and move on.

Chan sat out for much of the early season with a torn calf muscle and had just two competitions under his belt when he arrived in Vancouver. Then his Florida-based coach Don Laws unexpectedly quit a month before the Games.

Chan had been working with technical specialist Christy Krall in Colorado Springs, Colo., at the time, and simply made a permanent move from West Palm Beach, where he and his mom Karen had been living in a hotel, to Colorado, where they're living in a spacious house with longtime friends of the family.

"That's the big reason I like being in Colorado is to be able to come home to a house, to a kitchen where I can sit down and eat instead of eating off a bed," Chan said. "It was terrible (in Florida).

"When I look back I don't know how I did it and I totally understand why I was considering not skating for another four years if that was going to continue being that way."

Chan heads back to Toronto next week to work with coach and choreographer Lori Nichol on a new short program for next season. The two have narrowed the music choices down to either a classical piece and a more contemporary and risky arrangement of drum beats that works well with the intricate footwork he's known for.

Continued...