Girdwood’s Keegan Messing wraps up his Olympics with a 12th-place finish — and a smile

Keegan Messing will leave the Winter Olympics with a top-12 finish, a smile on his face and quite possibly a host of new fans.

Messing, a 26-year-old Girdwood man competing for Canada, wrapped up his excellent Olympic adventure Saturday in South Korea with a strong freeskate that earned him 12th place in men's figure skating.

"I put down a solid performance and I can leave the Olympics happy," he told reporters after he skated. "… I was so excited to be able to go out there and do what I've been training to do, other than the two obvious mistakes."

[Girdwood's Keegan Messing 10th after Olympic short program]

The first Alaskan to compete in Olympic figure skating, Messing landed both of his quadruple jumps and nailed a triple axel, the jump he missed in his short program Friday.

Between the jumps, he executed some of the best footwork and fastest spins of the competition. For the second straight day, he put on an engaging performance that is likely to raise his profile in the sport.

Just as he did in his "Singin' in the Rain" short program, Messing charmed the Gangneung Ice Arena audience in the freeskate by assuming a character and appropriating movements associated with it.

This time it was Charlie Chaplin in a program set to a medley of songs from Chaplin movies. Between all the quads and sit spins and Russian splits, he mimicked Chaplin's herky-jerky walk, the cane twirl and other signature moves.

Messing's first mistake came on a combination jump when he turned the opening triple axel of a combination jump into a single axel. He successfully executed the rest of the combination to salvage some points.

On his final jump, he popped a triple loop into a double loop, but he was all smiles when the performance was over. He finished with 255.43 points.

[Girdwood's Keegan Messing is ready to rock Pyeongchang]

The gold medal went to Japan's Hanyu Yuzuru, who was one of four skaters who broke the 300-point barrier, winning with a score of 317.85 to become the first man since Dick Button (1948, 1952) to repeat as Olympic champion.

Silver went to Japan's Shoma Uno (306.9 points) and bronze went to Spain's Javier Fernandez (305.24).

Nathen Chen of the United States, a disappointing 17th in the short program, skated the highest-scoring long program, landing six quads to vault into fifth place with 297.35 points.

Messing's Olympic appearance marks the pinnacle of a career that began when he learned to skate at age 3. Through the years, he has been a regular performer at Alaska ice shows like Rondy on Ice.

He's a life-long Alaskan, but his mother and both of his maternal grandparents were born in Canada, giving him dual citizenship. He was a member of the U.S. skating federation early in his career and started skating for Canada in the 2014-15 season.

By placing second at last month's Canadian national championships, Messing fulfilled his dream of earning a spot in the Olympics.

In Pyeonchang, he learned that the reality is every bit as good as the dream.

"The Olympics is everything and more I have been told about," Messing said Saturday. "It has touched me in ways that I've never thought it would. Just the camaraderie between the nations, the fact that the whole world has come together to form the greatest competition in the world.

"It's a magical feeling."