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Kurt Browning makes the Games a family affair
| Source: |
Canwest News Service |
| Date: |
December 17, 2009 |
| Author: |
Daphne Bramham |
Kurt Browning will have one hand on the Olympic torch Saturday in
Mississauga and the other holding the hand of his six-year-old son,
Gabriel.
Running those 300 metres will be Gabriel's introduction to the Games
and their significance. It may also give him some sense of who his
father is.
Gabriel got a small taste of it Wednesday. He and Dad were in downtown
Toronto and when they lifted their hands in the air, they set in
motion what's being promoted as the world's longest virtual wave as
part of the Olympic buildup.
For those who don't know, Browning is a three-time Olympian,
four-time world men's figure-skating champion and the first man in
history to land a quadruple jump in competition.
Browning's other son Dillon is still too young for all this
stuff. He's only two. And Browning's wife, Sonia Rodriguez, can't be
there. She's in Vancouver performing the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy
in the National Ballet's The Nutcracker.
Browning cherishes family because long before world championships or
Olympics, his parents drove him to the rink on cold, snowy Alberta
mornings and evenings. More importantly, they always had faith in him
even when he didn't.
Like at the 1994 Games in Lillehammer, his third Olympics. He'd
carried the Canadian flag at the opening ceremonies, had an unsettling
warm-up and then blew his short program.
Instead of focusing on Lillehammer, his head was back in Albertville,
his second Olympic appearance, where he was injured.
Hobbled by doubt, Browning did a single jump instead of a double
during his short program and didn't even realize it until a few
seconds after he'd landed. He finished in 12th place.
"I had a terrible program and I was right out of the medal run," he
recalled when we spoke on Wednesday. "Somebody snuck my parents
through security. I still don't know who it was. I saw my mom and the
waterworks started and I was a blubbering mess."
His mom, Neva, grabbed him and hugged him. To this day, Browning
remembers every word she said: "You didn't need an Olympic gold
medal. You would have been so busy. . . You don't like to be too
busy."
Browning said it's what he needed because he still had to do his long
program, 41/2 minutes of performing alone on the ice.
"My mom made everything okay almost instantaneously."
And he did brilliantly, salvaging an Olympic moment, if not a
medal.
Initially, Browning rejected my suggestion that Olympic stresses are
unique.
"It had nothing to do with the Olympic rings," he said before
telling me the Lillehammer story. But midway through, Browning
admitted his moment of doubt was because the Olympics are
special.
"They only happen once every four years. The whole world is
watching. It changes everything, the way you breathe. The way you tie
your shoes. The way you eat your muffin for breakfast. It's really
the ultimate test of whether your training can shine through."
Having competed at his first Olympics in Calgary, Browning says
Canadian athletes at the 2010 Games will "either be carried on the
wave or they will be washed over by it."
He's been talking to some of them. His advice is simple, but hard to
execute.
Don't pretend that everything's okay if it's not. "If everything'
s not okay, find somebody you trust and say it out loud. By saying
things out loud, it helps things go away."
Having family here will help. That's why when Petro-Canada asked
Browning if he'd help with its Canadian Athlete Family Program, he
agreed enthusiastically.
It's a badly needed program. At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing,
some parents were forced to buy tickets illegally from scalpers and
risk arrest. Others had to take out loans to pay for tickets, airfare
and accommodation.
This time, Petro-Canada will host two members of every athlete's
immediate family, taking care of tickets, meals, four nights'
accommodation and transportation to venues. It's also outfitting
family members with jackets, toques, scarves, gloves, fleeces and
bags.
They'll even have their own reporter. Petro-Canada's family
correspondent will be on Facebook, Twitter and uploading video to
YouTube. To find the perfect person, Petro-Canada is taking 30-second
video entries up until Dec. 27 at www.facebook.com/dreambig.
Browning will be around as well. In addition to helping with the
family program, he will be blogging for Skate Canada and doing some
in-house commentary. He won't be doing any North American network
commentary because he's under contract to both CBC and ABC, neither
of which has Olympic broadcasting rights.
That's a good thing. Right after the Games, Browning will join The
View's Elisabeth Hasselback as co-host of an ABC reality skating show
that pairs professional figure skaters as ice-dance teams.
Then next fall, Browning will be back on CBC with Hockey Night in
Canada's Ron McLean hosting the amazingly popular Battle of the
Blades, which paired former NHL players with former pairs skaters and
ice dancers.
Live TV and skating in exhibitions doesn't have the excitement of
world-class competition. But at 43, Browning is happy to have a TV
career and still be able to skate and perform.
And whenever he thinks life doesn't have enough challenges, he says,
"I just look down to the end of the table to my sons. For now, that'
s a big enough challenge for me."
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