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Elvis Stojko has nothing to worry about. Sure, Canadian men have entered the last three Olympic Games as the reigning world champions ... and come a cropper. So what if Stojko is in the dubious position of making it four-for-four? Big deal. Pressure? What pressure? "It's a heavy load, but I want that when I go in," says the three-time world champion. "I've been the underdog and skated well. I've faced the pressure of coming back, the pressure of defending, I've done the rounds. I wanted to go in as world champion, to have that pressure as another challenge." Bold pronouncements, to be sure, but then, this is a guy who seems to enjoy a good fight. After a shaky short program at the 1996 world championship left him in seventh place -- after which one Canadian newspaper screamed "The King is Dead" -- Stojko skated a superb long program and clawed his way to fourth. "Even though I didn't get a medal," he says, "that was probably the most important part of my career. I learned so much from that, where my strength comes from. And I am much stronger than I was before." Stojko's intestinal fortitude and his affinity for fighting comes naturally -- he's a black belt in karate and a practitioner of Chinese kung-fu. Since winning the silver at the 1994 Olympics, the 25-year-old has helped redefine men's skating by placing a premium on jumping. In 1997, Stojko became the first man to land a quadruple toe loop, triple toe loop in competition. Stojko pushes the edge of the envelope because he wants to, not because he has to. "If there is no challenge," he says, "what is the point?" By raising the bar for his competitors, Stojko has spawned intense debate as to the direction he's taking his sport. Purists decry his emphasis on athleticism, claiming that he and his furious leaps come at the expense of the sport's artistry. For his part, Stojko can only wonder. "I've always taken the ridicule of 'He's only a jumper,'" he says. "Or 'He will never become an artistic skater because of his body type.' I've had to push beyond that." While he has overcome people's perceptions, it hasn't been easy: At the 1997 World Championships, Stojko was one of four skaters to skate a clean short program -- and he was the one in fourth place. "Ever since I came on the [world] scene," he says, "I always found that I had to do a little bit more than the next guy. And I always had to push." But perhaps it's precisely because he's had to push for so long that he has the confidence in himself to push further than any male skater before him has. "Jesse Owens pushed his sport beyond all limits," he says. "For 25 years I think, nobody broke his [long jump] record. I really admire people like that -- the Muhammad Alis, the Bruce Lees and the Wayne Gretzkys. I love striving for that. That's what makes it so enjoyable." And a gold medal would make it that much more so. Each day during the Olympics, CNN/SI will bring you TNT's Athlete of the Day, a detailed look at the personalities that spice up the Games. Check back every day for a new athlete, and be sure to catch TNT's daily in-depth coverage of the Winter Olympics.
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