Canada's been good to skater Eldredge

Say this much about Canadian figure skating fans: They're a savvy lot who appreciate a good performance, no matter the colour of the flag on the skater's back.

Just ask Olympic champion Alexei Yagudin of Russia, who has all but been adopted by skating lovers in this country over the past year or so.

Then there's American Todd Eldredge, who seems to find a magic touch every time he heads north across the border. The 30-year-old from Chatham, Mass., won his only world championship in Edmonton in 1996.

In 2001, after a two-year hiatus from worlds, he emerged as the bronze medallist in Vancouver, thanks to a trio of superb skates.

Maybe it's something in the water up here. Whatever it is, Eldredge savours it every time he skates in front of a Canadian crowd.

"I've had three different worlds in Canada -- Halifax (1990), Edmonton and Vancouver -- and they were all great," said Eldredge before joining the Canadian Stars On Ice tour, which opened Sunday in Halifax, played Montreal last night and hits the Corel Centre this evening.

"The audiences (in Canada) are so fantastic, and they really love their skating ... it's nice to go up there and skate in front of such a good crowd."

Though he hasn't officially retired from Olympic-eligible skating, Eldredge admits "I've basically decided to go into other areas of skating."

He's signed a multi-year deal with Stars On Ice and joined the U.S. version of the tour immediately after the Salt Lake City Olympics, where he finished sixth. It wasn't the medal finish he'd hoped for in an Olympics held in his homeland. But Eldredge left Salt Lake with one special memory -- he was one of the athletes chosen to carry the tattered World Trade Center flag into the opening ceremony.

The sombre procession left its mark on Eldredge, who was in New York the day of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He had come to the city to do a television interview, and saw the second plane hit the towers as he sat in a hotel room near Central Park.

"There were so many different emotions for me," he said of carrying the WTC flag at the Olympics. "Having been there, seeing the things that were going on and the people in the streets, the images we all saw on television ...

"And then marching in with the guys from the New York Fire Department and Police Department and hearing the stories they told ... a million different things were going through your mind."

Tonight, though, it's all about skating. And Eldredge figures it doesn't get much better than that.

"I'm doing a job I love to do," he said. "Not many people get to say that."

Ice extravaganza details:

- What: Chrysler Stars On Ice

- When/Where: Tonight, 7:30, Corel Centre

- Starring: Kurt Browning, Brian Orser, Alexei Yagudin, Kristi Yamaguchi, Todd Eldredge, Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz, Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler, Jenni Meno and Todd Sand, Lucinda Ruh