North Vancouver figure skater Liam Firus finished 28th in Thursday's Olympic men's short program at the Iceberg Skating Palace in Sochi, failing to advance to Friday's free skate.
The 21-year-old, skating in his first Olympic competition, faced a tough task as the first skater to hit the ice in Sochi. Dressed in a pink shirt with a white flower tucked in the pocket, Firus performed to "Fascination" by Fermo Dante Marchetti.
He fell on his opening jump, the difficult triple Axel, before balking on the second jump of a planned combination. Needing to make up for the missed jump, he then fell on an attempted combination. His score of 55.04 left him more than five points back of the top-24 spot needed to qualify for Friday's free skate.
"Not the Olympic moment I was hoping for, (but I) had much fun and gave it my all!!" Firus wrote on his Twitter account following the competition. "Thanks for all of the support!!" Firus qualified for the Games after finishing third at the national championships in January, a result that came after an intense rehab effort from a groin injury that kept him off the ice for much of 2013. Sochi was only the third senior international competition of his career.
The individual men's competition was only slightly kinder to his teammate, North Vancouver-born Kevin Reynolds who grew up in Coquitlam and trains in Burnaby. Reynolds struggled in his short program Thursday, falling on his opening quad jump and then hitting the ice again later in the program. His 68.76 points put him into 17th place.
The high flyer rebounded in Friday's free skate, staying on his feet while landing several big jumps - Reynolds packs more quad jumps into his programs than any other skater.
His score of 153.47 was the 10th best of the day and moved him up to 15th place overall.
Reynolds, like Firus, had a tough season, struggling with a skate problem for much of the
year - he couldn't find a pair that fit his narrow heels. He sorted it out in time to put together a wonderful free skate to help Canada earn silver in the Olympic team competition last weekend. He finished fifth at last year's world championships.
Canadian Patrick Chan, the three-time defending world champion, finished second overall behind Japan's Yuzuru Hanyu to win his second silver of the Sochi Games.
