Skaters finding ice shows becoming thin

The professional figure skating world usually comes to life during the Christmas rush. It's been whimpering recently, however, with a dearth of competitions and opportunities for skaters who are no longer in the Olympic stream.

But four-time world champion Kurt Browning and two-time Olympic silver medalist Brian Orser find they have no troubles keeping their schedules full, especially in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

Browning, who intended to scale down his appearances this season, will do eight Christmas shows: one at the Granite Club in Toronto, one on Dec. 10 at the new Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto and a six-show tour organized by former skater Jean-Michel Bombardier.

"That's six shows more than I usually do," Browning said.

Browning was supposed to have retired from the Stars On Ice tour through the United States, but at last blush, promoters asked him to do 18 guest appearances during the winter months. Browning signed up. Now, he's doing only about 25 fewer touring shows than last season.

He is relieved he did not have to show up for five weeks of rehearsal for Stars On Ice at Lake Placid, N.Y., which gave him more time to spend at home with his new son.

Many of the pro skaters of the past are having children at about the same time: Josef Sabovcik, a Czech known for his magnificent quad jumps, had a child within three days of Browning's. Olympic champion Kristi Yamaguchi had a baby recently and Olympic champion Scott Hamilton is a new father.

All are passing into a new phase of their lives.

But on a whole, pro skating has withered. Hamilton blames the problem on the International Skating Union, which he says worked to eliminate pro skating and encourage Olympic eligible skaters not to leave the fold.

"Pro skating is in a rebuilding stage right now," Orser said. "There are fewer opportunities. Skating took a hit last year, everywhere. But you just persevere, coming up with new stuff, better stuff, and hopefully people will start coming out again."

Browning says attendance is shrinking, but so, too, are audiences for musicians such as Bruce Springsteen and Kiss. "I don't think it's us," he said. "I think it's just the way things are right now."

Browning said his Gotta Skate show in Hamilton last year attracted 14,000 people, but this fall, only about 6,000 showed up. Other events in Hamilton at the same time may have siphoned off some of the audience. "It's not bad, but it's hurting," he said.

Browning, however, is not.

Although there are few pro competitions, he is still a part of two of them, Ice Wars and the World Team Championships, which will take place tonight in Vancouver. Even though he is 37, Browning feels the old spirit coming back and will attempt his most technically difficult program in years.

Three or four days before the recent Ice Wars, he decided to throw in a few elements he had not done in years and he was taken aback by how well it went.

As an amateur, he used to open his routines with a double Axel-half loop-triple Salchow series, and he landed it at the pro competition last month.

"It was like Paris, 1989 [world championships]," he said. "It was so perfect. I saw it on tape, and I thought, 'Hey, maybe I'm skating better than I give myself credit for.' "

In the technical program at Vancouver, he will attempt a triple toe loop and triple toe loop combination, which he didn't quite complete at Ice Wars. He'll also do a triple loop, a jump he has not attempted at a show or a competition in years.

The triple loop came off well at Ice Wars, even though he fell so hard while practising it he was laid up in the three days before the event.

"I've given it a nice slow entrance [for world team championships] and see if I can do this jump that my body doesn't want to do, but my mind does," Browning said. In all, he'll attempt five triples in his technical routine, three of them different jumps.

Browning will represent Canada along with Olympic champions Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, and Josee Chouinard, but will have to compete against youngsters such as Todd Eldredge of the U.S. team, reigning Olympic champion Alexei Yagudin of the Russian team and Steven Cousins of the European team.

"I can't compete against Yagudin technically, but that's not what it's all about," Browning said. "It's about getting into a competition and being competitive. If they make a mistake, this beefed-up program might get them."