Tough guy Elvis Stojko, Canada's three-time world figure skating champion, has mentally scripted a dream ending to his nightmare season.

In it, he sees himself climbing on to the world championship podium on March 22, his 29th birthday.

"I have a shot at doing it," said Stojko, who will be making his first competitive appearance of the season at the world championships in Vancouver after a succession of injuries.

	Elvis Stojko captured the silver medal at the 2000 World Figure Skating Championships in Nice, France.

"It's just a matter of if I skate well and do my thing. I'm very much focused on doing my best, not on the fact of winning. With those components combined together, I think I have a good shot at it," Stojko said via telephone from Aston, Pennsylvania, where he trains with coach Uschi Keszler.

Should the on-ice drama play out the way Stojko intends, it would be a major coup for the 2000 world silver medallist, who has been out of competition all season with injuries to his heel, groin, shin and knee.

Just when it seemed Stojko was back on track after missing three ISU Grand Prix events last autumn, the six-time national champion scratched from the Canadian Championships in mid-January due to a torn knee tendon.

Recuperating from injuries has cost him between 30 and 40 per cent of his total training time during the season, he estimates.

Still, Stojko vows he will be ready to commence battle next Monday on home-country ice as 46 men lead off the week-long 2001 championships with their qualifying round, worth 20 percent of the final score.

"Everything seems to be pretty much on track. The knee's at about 85 to 90 per cent right now. Things feel good and I have another week to go," said Stojko, the 1994, 1995 and 1997 world titleholder, who intends to unleash a total of five quadruple jumps during the three-part competition.

WINNING AGAINST THE ODDS
Stojko's uncanny recuperative powers, not to mention his renowned competitive toughness, mean that the Terminator, as he has been aptly tagged, should never be counted out of any championships equation even when the odds are stacked against him.

	Canadian skater Elvis Stojko has always used his passion and charisma to entertain the crowds.

His performances at the 1995 Worlds and the 1998 Nagano Olympics are good examples.

After pulling out of the 1995 Canadians with a torn ankle ligament and pulled hamstring, Stojko rebounded to win the world title two months later.

At the 1998 Olympic Games, he overcame mind-numbing pain from a groin injury to skate to a silver-medal finish.

"What I've done my whole life is fighting all the way, never giving up. This year has been another one where I've had to be careful deciding if I should compete or not, to not risk further injury. I guess my reputation has just built up over the years," he said.

Tatiana Tarasova, coach of Russia's reigning world champion Alexei Yagudin, is one of Stojko's most ardent admirers.

"Elvis has been (among the) best skaters in the world for many, many years. He is an outstanding sportsman. For me he is a very important person, not only for now but for all time in figure skating," Tarasova said.

"I understand his style. I know he is tough, very strong inside. I hope he's ready for the worlds. I want to see again Elvis's wonderful skating," she said.

Like Yagudin, Stojko has set his freeskate programme to music from the Academy Award-nominated film Gladiator.

Stojko feels the film reflects his clashes with injury and his struggle for respect from figure skating's establishment, which frowned on his counter-culture approach to the sport.

BETTER LUCK THIS TIME
Three-times champion Yagudin, 21, and his countryman and nemesis Yevgeny Plushenko, 18, are the gold medal favourites going into Vancouver.

Apart from Stojko, at least four other men will challenge for a spot on the podium including 1996 world champion Todd Eldredge, 29, his U.S. team mate Timothy Goebel, 20, China's Li Chengjiang, 21, and Japan's Takeshi Honda, 20.

After months of bad luck, Stojko's fortunes took a turn for the better when he was drawn in the less daunting of the men's two qualifying sessions.

Yagudin and Plushenko will pack a one-two punch in one group, which also includes Honda, while Stojko faces the artistically weaker Li and Goebel in the other.

Eldredge, unranked after sitting out the previous two competitive seasons, is still to be assigned to a group.

"I guess it's positive that I don't have them (the Russians) to contend with. They can beat on each other in the other group," Stojko chuckled.

"I always focus on my own thing but that eases it a little bit," he conceded.

Stojko scoffs at suggestions that his age is a handicap in competition against much younger rivals. He has never been stronger, he insists, and has his sights firmly set on the 2002 Olympic podium in Salt Lake City.

"I'm so far beyond trying to worry about what people think," Stojko said. "I'm not really thinking about being the older guy. I'm just ready to do my thing and compete."

In addition to medals next week Stojko and the rest will be vying for 2002 Olympic berths. The results posted at these world championships will determine how many entries each country is allowed for next year's Winter Games.