Stephen Gogolev contemplated hanging up his skates.

He was once the next big Canadian hope in men's figure skating, a prodigy landing triple axels at age 10, until a massive growth spurt and recurring back injuries threw his trajectory off course.

Gogolev spent the last several years struggling just to stay on competitive ice, nowhere near the international podiums he had seemed destined. When his season was cut short for a second consecutive year in December, he wasn't sure he would return.

"I definitely had those thoughts," said Gogolev, now 20. "It was really frustrating ... I wasn't really sure whether these issues were going to keep continuing.

"It was more of a thing that, I was going to give it one last try … it was definitely harder to make that decision to keep skating."

It's

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