It's a busy morning when 18-year-old Andrei Rogozine threads his way among 19 other skaters at the Richmond Training Centre here and then flies up into a perfect triple Axel. Rogozine lands it with a flourish.
Rogozine of nearby Newmarket is intent on preparing for Skate Canada International, a Grand Prix series event which starts Thursday in Mississauga and represents his first global meet as a senior skater. But he comes into it with one major confidence booster: The last time that he competed, last March as a junior, he became Canada's first junior world men's champion in 33 years.
Canada now harbours both the senior and junior men's world figure skating champions, but even Patrick Chan, the current senior champ, didn't win a world junior title. He placed second in 2007.
This week, Rogozine will face skaters such as Chan, former world champion Daisuke Takahashi of Japan, Kazakhstan wunderkind Denis Ten, Spanish quadmeister Javier Fernandez and Adam Rippon, the American who won two world junior championships before Rogozine came along.
Rogozine said he can hardly wait for Skate Canada to begin.
The Russian-born skater straddles two worlds with ease. His parents emigrated to Canada when he was just 5, looking for better employment opportunities. Rogozine had started neither school nor figure skating before he left Russia, a country of which he has only dim memories.
He remembers winters in Moscow being bone-chilling. The summers were a different story. His grandparents would take him to the family cottage and he'd hike through the woods with them. Since he left Moscow, he has never returned to the country of his birth, although his grandparents have visited Canada.
Next month, Rogozine is also assigned to the Cup of Russia in Moscow. For a Russian-born kid with a Canadian accent, it's a dream come true. He has no memory of the streets or the look of the place. His grandparents are thrilled.
Louis Stong, a skating development consultant for Skate Canada, has watched Rogozine grow from a tousle-headed young boy into a world beater. "I think he has the Russian passion," Stong said. "The music comes on and suddenly there's more tilt to the head. They know how to sell. They know how to pose.
"I don't know if it's taught or it's just in there," he said. "I have a feeling that it's just in there."
Stong's first memory of Rogozine wasn't flattering, but he quickly found that appearances can be deceiving. He was at a training camp at which Russian-born Igor Tchinaev, who coaches in Montreal, was giving seminars on the artistry of skating to youngsters.
"Here was this kid standing in the corner in jeans, with snot running out of his nose and his hair all mussed up," Stong said.
But as soon as the music came on, "All of a sudden this creature emerged and was doing all this stuff," Stong said.
It was a very young Rogozine.
Tchinaev couldn't help but notice. "Oh my god, my god, my god," he exclaimed. "Look!"
"It's okay, Igor," Stong told him. "He's Russian."
Rogozine has two Russian coaches who both live in Canada. He still works with his first coach, Inga Zusev, but four years ago, he also began to work with Andrei Berezintsev, who also moved to Canada to live. For a while, he coached former world champion Brian Joubert in France.
He's a tough coach, Rogozine said, but he expects nothing else. Berezintsev has pushed him to do what he's done. With that being said, Rogozine has also turned to a Canadian ice dancing icon, Shae-Lynn Bourne, who has choreographed his short program and taught him power stroking.
Rogozine said he feels both Russian and Canadian. It seems as if he has the best of both worlds.