Figure skating's ABCs

He kicked the triple toe-loop into overdrive and landed in the Guinness Book of World Records. That was in 1988, when Canadian figure skater Kurt Browning became the first to land a quadruple jump in competition -- and his career was just getting warmed up.

Now the four-time Canadian and World champion, and three-time Olympian has added another talent to his long list of accolades: Author.

When Sleeping Bear Press approached him to write: A Is For Axel: An Ice Skating Alphabet ($23.95), Browning jumped at the chance. "I had so much to say about my sport," he says of this labour of love he spent a year crafting.

Browning is as much a pop culture icon as sports celebrity. He's gone from his Alberta-born and farm bred roots to the cover of Special K cereal boxes and Smucker's jam labels. He's even been the answer to a question on the TV quiz show, Jeopardy. Next to Wayne Gretzky, Browning was voted by Canadians as the country's all-time greatest athlete.

SHOWMANSHIP

But fast footwork, faster spins and big jumps aside, it's the Kid from Caroline's charisma and superb showmanship that make him a superstar in every young skater's eyes.

"While I was writing the book I was picturing kids that had seen figure skating on TV and wanted to learn more about it."

Each page features a letter of the alphabet worked into a cute four-line rhyme and is accompanied by a playful illustration by local artist Melanie Rose.

The full-colour book dishes pint-size panache in both technical merit and artistic impression. It works double-duty reinforcing a child's ABCs and introducing aspiring upstarts to figure skating lingo like, B is for Boot and C is for Coach. Additional sidebars on each page provide details and fascinating facts about the sport.

* Who knew that figure skating debuted as an Olympic event at the "summer" games in 1908?

Browning keeps the tone fun, factual and inspirational: "N is for needs more practice" and "Never give up." He also touches on the sports' sore spots like falling down.

"Learning a new jump can be frustrating but kicking the ice in anger, as well as rude, is dangerous," he writes on the "K is for Kick" page.

This was a hard lesson he learned. "Once I kicked the ice and then a little girl fell in the hole. My coach took me over to her so I could see her crying. I felt lower than dirt. I wanted to make sure the book talked about fair play too."

There's irony in the fact that Browning's "A is for Axel" rhyme describes how it is a big day in a skater's life when they land their first one, but he doesn't remember his first. "What I do remember though is landing my first double axel after six weeks of every day falling on my bum."

He says some rhymes came easy to him, others, like the letter Q had him stumped. He recalls sitting in a hotel lobby in St. Louis with pen and paper in hand struggling to come up with a concept. Then along came eight-time British National Champion Steven Cousins who asked him, "What letter are you working on today?" When Browning said, Q, Cousins piped: "Q is for quad, dude!"

The illustration on the quad page Rose says was inspired by Browning. So was her depiction of a red-nosed skating clown.

BIG BLUE EYES

Except for Browning, Rose chose not to illustrate famous figure skaters in the book. On the L is for Laces page the cutest little boy with big blue eyes is sitting on the edge of an outdoor rink lacing up his skates. "It's an older version of Kurt's 2 1/2-year-old son, Gabe, " she notes.

Her oil painted illustrations strike a balance between eye-catching and educational. The book's cover, for example, features three skaters who complete a subtle depiction of someone doing an axel from its take off position and flight to the landing. In the background junior skaters are struggling to stand up. "The contast is to show the book is suitable for toddlers to teens," she says.

It's a P is for Pity the only technical glitch in A Is For Axel, is an incorrect spelling of the word official (offical) -- a 1.0 deduction in the new judging system, at best.

No deductions for Browning though, who now lives in T.O. with his wife Sonia Rodriguez, a principal dancer with The National Ballet of Canada and their son.

He predicts 2006 to be one of his busiest years yet, promoting the new book, doing TV appearances (watch him on CBC for Olympic figure skating coverage) and skating professionally in Stars On Ice and Celebration On Ice.

Browning has already earned a place in Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, but his biggest career highlight comes next month at the World Figure Skating Championships in Calgary. Here he will be inducted into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame and join legends like Sonja Hennie, Dick Button, Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean.