With Keegan Messing in COVID jail, Roman Sadovsky up next for Canada in Olympic figure skating team event

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Messing’s viral levels must be dropping, however, as the team leadership is “hopeful” he will be able to join the other 12 athletes here at some point.

BEIJING — To borrow a timely cliché from another team sport, Roman Sadovsky is next man up.

Or rather, he will be whenever Mike Slipchuk, the de facto GM/head coach of the Canadian figure skating squad at these Olympics, reaches way, way up and taps the big, tall kid on the shoulder, sending him into the fray.

Though it was not official as late as Thursday afternoon, Sadovsky will skate the men’s short program on Friday morning as a team event replacement for poor Keegan Messing , the newly minted Canadian champion who would normally have been the leadership’s first choice. The 30-year-old remains in an unfortunate version of COVID-19 hell, also known as Vancouver, feeling perfectly healthy but unable to produce the requisite pair of negative PCR tests 24 hours apart that would serve as his boarding pass for a flight to the Games.

Messing’s viral levels must be dropping, however, as the team leadership is “hopeful” he will be able to join the other 12 athletes here at some point. Trouble is, it won’t be in time for the team event. Enter Sadovsky.

“So I haven’t been, like, officially told,” the 22-year-old from Toronto said after practice on Thursday. “I’ve just been told to you know, be ready, and they told me that a long time ago. And so I’ve been kind of sticking to that strategy in practice and making sure that if I’m told ‘you’re doing the short program,’ I’m ready to go.”

1. Time running out for Keegan Messing: Olympic figure skater waiting on negative COVID test
2. Canada needs to watch out for Russia, U.S. at Olympic figure skating team event

For Canada to advance past the team event short program phase and have a shot at the medals, the total ranking points earned by skaters in the four disciplines must leave them in the top half of the 10-country event. The other teams there will almost certainly be Russia, the United States, and Japan.

The goal then, is for each of the four Canadian entries to finish no worse than top five in their respective short programs. If Sadovsky performs as well as he did at the Rostelecom Cup, where he was fourth, rather than at Skate Canada where he was 12 th , the Canadians could be in good shape. And for now, he’s so focused on his own performance that he didn’t have much to offer in the way of empathy for Messing, when asked if he feels badly for him.

“It’s definitely a really tough time, and (there are) a lot of different obstacles at this OIympics than other Olympics. But, yeah, at the end of the day I’m really focused on my training and really focused on my skating.”

The two haven’t been in touch.

“Not really. I haven’t actually talked to him that much. Nothing against Keegan, it’s just we’re not as close I guess. I don’t know.”

Czech skater Michal Brezina, a 31-year-old who has competed with Messing since both were juniors on the world circuit, wished his old friend the best.

“I hope this week he can finally get on the plane. It would be very unfortunate if he had to miss his second Olympics because of a stupid thing. Let’s be honest, it is a stupid thing. It’s basically what just happened to (former skater and current coach) Stephane Lambiel. He’s stuck in Switzerland and has to wait until he gets two negative tests in a row,” said Brezina.

“It’s weird, especially given the fact that we’re all 100 per cent vaccinated, we’re all taking all the precautions we can. We’ve basically been in a bubble for the past month and a half. You cannot avoid the travel part of this because you have to get here somehow. Even if you test negative in your bubble right before your flight, some people have to get on a commercial flight to get here, and it’s almost unavoidable, you know. So I don’t know what can be done about it but it just sucks.”

That’s how Scott Moir feels too. The retired Canadian ice dancer, now a coach and soon to be offering commentary on the Olympics for CBC, said he feels terrible for Messing, a gritty competitor who always presents a smiling face for Skate Canada and has always been a great teammate.

“It is a shame, there is no other way to put it, but it’s the reality of today,” said Moir. “We knew going into these Games there were going to be some storylines, we knew it was going to be painful to see some athletes weren’t going to be able to compete after all of the work they put in, and that is too bad.”

dbarnes@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/sportsdanbarnes

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