Browning can't wait to skate at home

Turn up the lights. Kurt Browning is at home.

The 34-year-old Canadian figure skating star is making a rare appearance in Canada this week at the Sears Open in Hamilton. But these days, home is where the heart is.

Browning has survived an emotional year, after the death of his mother, Neva, in June, and he knew what he had to do: cut back on competitions, stay home and spend time with his family, including his wife, Sonia Rodriguez, now a principal dancer with the National Ballet of Canada.

His father, Dewey, and former coach Michael Jiranek and his wife are coming from Alberta to spend 10 days with Browning.

"It's just a quieter year," Browning said. "I'm healthy and skating fine, and we'll see what happens."

Browning had a list of eight events he could have competed in. He chose to do only three. He has a contract to do the Ice Wars competition in the United States for the next three years. He has done every Ice Wars since the made-for-television professional competition started. "I'm emotionally attached to it," he said.

The others he chose because they were close to home: the Sears Open and the Hershey's Kisses Figure Skating Challenge, another open event, in Auburn Hills, Mich., on Dec. 10. He's not doing the world professional championships in Landover, Md. He's already won three of those.

That doesn't mean that Browning has turned into a couch potato. He's still a major player in the Stars on Ice tour and delights fans in 66 U.S. cities. "You can kill yourself," he realized.

For four years in a row, Browning did a Stars on Ice tour that included 78 to 85 cities without a break, both in the United States and back and forth across Canada.

That wasn't counting all of the competitions he did, as well. Sometimes, Browning would have to juggle eight routines because competition organizers and broadcasters demanded new material. It wasn't easy to stay on top of it all.

On top of living out of a suitcase and in a different hotel every night, Browning would have to attend three rehearsal periods for the tours - one for a month and two others for a week each.

"Just do the math," he said, thinking of the tiring schedule. "I learned so much in four years, having to do it, four months straight, 85 times, injured or not, tired or not.

"But my goodness gracious. I'm just trying to get my tires retread a little bit, here."

Browning has just finished a month-long rehearsal in Lake Placid, N.Y. He drove home to Toronto in the wee hours of Monday. But now he's taking time to kick back a little. "With what happened with my family this year, it just sort of changed my priorities," he said.

Browning said he and his father received hundreds of letters from his mother's friends after her death. They were friends she had met through skating and they had memories.

"Mom had a lot of skating fans," Browning said. "She was very vocal on a personal level with skating fans. She wasn't prominent on television. People knew her, but it was always on a personal level. It was never because she got her face on TV.

"She kept in touch [with her fans.] She wrote personal letters. I think a lot of people were Kurt Browning fans, and then kept in touch with Neva. That's the kind of lady she was.

"Mom was always very straightforward with what she had to say. People kind of laughed at that. There was no fluff when you met her. She didn't know any other way. We realized that she had touched a lot of people, but we didn't realize how much."