Many have tried but few have won [Men's repeat gold]

Some call it a jinx, but there's more to it that.

Canadian men have won 10 world figure skating championships - eight in the last 11 years - but have never repeated their success at the Olympics.

Each time, however, there has been a different story behind the disappointment.

Here, it was an array of injuries that prevented three-time world champion Elvis Stojko from claiming the gold, not to mention a brilliant free skate by Russia's Ilia Kulik.

Brian Orser was world champ in 1987 but runner-up at the 1988 Calgary Olympics. The medal turned on one of the closest decisions in sport history as Orser lost what was dubbed the Battle of the Brians by 1-10th of a mark on a judge's card in a 5-4 split favoring American Brian Boitano.

Orser also had been second in 1984.

At both Winter Games, he won the free-skating programs. But he was always too far behind after the compulsory figures to catch up. Compulsories have since been discarded. If they hadn't been part of the system when Orser competed, he probably would have won two gold Olympic medals.

Kurt Browning went to Albertville, France, in 1992 as the world champion and finished sixth during a season interrupted by a back injury. Stojko was seventh that year, although many said he should have won a medal. Ukrainian Viktor Petrenko won it all.

Browning was coming off a fourth world title when he showed up in Lillehammer, Norway, in 1994. He flubbed his short program and finished sixth, while Stojko won his first silver medal. Russian Alexei Urmanov earned gold, edging Stojko in a 6-3 judging split.

Petrenko, Urmanov nor Kulik had won a world title before their Olympics triumph, which is proof enough that winning at the worlds does not translate into Olympic gold.

The last man to win at the Winter Games when he's been the reigning world champion was Scott Hamilton of the United States, in 1984 in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia.

Donald Jackson was the first Canadian to win the world title, in 1962, and Donald McPherson won it in 1963. Neither competed at the subsequent Winter Games.

The fact Canadians - Orser, Browning and Stojko - have been reigning world champions going into the last three Winter Games creates the impression Canada is jinxed in men's singles at the biggest meet of them all. It's a misconception.