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JONES: Kurt Browning still making history with Stars on Ice

Source: Edmonton Sun
Date: May 11, 2019
Author: Terry Jones
He's 52 now, the oldest star skater still perspiring and performing in public.

The now mostly chrome-domed, four-time world figure skating champion out of Edmonton's former figure skating factory at the Royal Glenora Club, Kurt Browning knows he will establish a new record on Mother's Day, when he performs with Stars on Ice at Rogers Place in Edmonton.

A ridiculous record.

"There will never be anybody in Stars on Ice history that has done as many shows as I have done. I guarantee you that," he laughed.

He's not absolutely positive what number Sunday's 4 p.m. show might be, exactly, but he said he thinks there's a chance it might be No. 900 over a 29-year span.

With every show, it's a new record.

To most people, Browning will be remembered as being the biggest name in the sport at the point in history when it peaked. But it was a long time ago that I travelled to Paris and covered his first of his four ISU World Championship wins way back in 1990.

To anybody under 40, Browning was not the multi-time world champion but the ultimate entertainer, the show skater who, while managing to remain an athlete, transformed himself into part actor, part comedian and an absolute favourite of kids in the crowd.

The first skater to land a quad in competition at the 1988 Worlds, Browning went down in history as a three-time Olympian and Canada's flag bearer at the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer.

He won the Lou Marsh Award as Canada's top Canadian athlete, the Order of Canada, was an automatic for the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame and Canada's Sports Hall of Fame.

As a choreographer, he's produced programs for dozens of star skaters including Patrick Chan, Tara Lipinski, Takeshi Honda, Yuka Sato and Jamie Sale & David Pelletier.

NEVER RETIRED

But for most of his years on skates, he's been setting that insane Stars on Ice record that he knows will never be touched. Perhaps you'd figured Browning had retired from show skating for some time?

"I was never retired. I never made any announcement of any kind whatsoever. Nothing like that," he insisted. "I told the producers of Stars on Ice to go ahead and move on, that I was going to stay at home and be a dad and stuff. Then they came back to me and asked me if I wanted to do guesting, which was just a solo spot in a show here and there.

"Then they came to me about this tour, telling me Elvis Stojko was going to be on it. And I thought, 'Well, at least I wouldn't be alone. He's my generation.'

"I'd taken last year off. It was the Olympic year and it seemed like the perfect year to say goodbye, but again, there was no public announcement. It was just between me and the producer," said the native of Caroline, who has had a successful TV colour commentary career at major events dating back to 2006.

"So, I told him: 'Let me go to the rink for a week and give it a try.' "

And so, there he'll be, out there Sunday with Edmonton's recently retired from competitive skating world champion Kaetlyn Osmond, Canadian Olympians Stojko, Chan, Megan Duhamel & Eric Radford and two-time world champion Evgenia Medvedeva, of Russia.

Browning has ridden the wave of the sport that once took on Hockey Night In Canada for TV numbers when he was winning world championships.

People stopped loving the sport after the Salt Lake Olympic judging scandal, but they never stopped loving Browning.

He has, however, seen the crowd counts rise and fall over his three decades remaining as the star of Stars on Ice.

"The biggest change isn't in the show or the skaters, it's probably in how we were regarded by the public.

"In the days with Kristy Yamaguchi, Scott Hamilton and Katarina Witt, we were kind of bigger than skating. We were people of note. If figure skating was a glass, we were overflowing.

"Now the skaters are still superstars but they're not beyond skating the way we were, except right now in Asia, where they are as big as you can get. They are crazy big stars. It really is fun to go to Asia and do a show and feel that energy back from 1994, back from those days.

"When I go to Korea, I get an amazing response. Everyone gets an amazing response. It's really fun."

YOUTUBE MOVES

Browning spun a story to illustrate that.

"When I went to Korea for the first time to skate, I said: 'Send me three or four songs that are on the radio right now in Korea.' So they did. One of them was like a big band jazz, rap, music piece that was awesome to skate to.

"I did a little research of the band and on the side there were related videos. The first one I looked at was of some girl doing her dance in her basement. So was the next one and the next one.

"I very quickly realized this dance was related to the song. So I thought, 'Cool. This all comes with instant choreography.'

"So I get on the ice in Korea and I get this amazing response. When I skated to one corner of the rink they would cheer because I hadn't been there yet. Then I'd skate to another corner at the other end and they'd cheer because I hadn't been there yet.

"It was phenomenal. It was like Elvis Presley stuff.

"Then my music started and I got this crazy blast from the audience when they realized I'm skating to a Korean pop song. Then 30 seconds in, I started doing that dance. It went nuts. At that moment, I really thought: 'I now know what Elvis Presley felt like.'

"So the world of figure skating kind of started in Europe, then went to the United States and Canada. North America was on fire when I was world champion and how lucky was I? But now, it's migrated to Asia and the stars there right now are such great skaters and such great ambassadors."

Browning, says Canada has been surprisingly consistent with most Stars on Ice stops and it's been a good run on this one that has featured stops in Halifax, Ottawa, Laval, Toronto, Hamilton, London, Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Calgary with Vancouver and Victoria to come.

"In the United States, it's been a little rough. There were some shows where I stepped out on the ice that I couldn't help but think: 'I don't think the producer is making any money tonight.' But in the last four or five years, it's been a bit of an upswing. And Canada has stayed viable. This tour is going quite well.

"In Canada, it's doing OK. I don't think it's possible to compare it to those days back when I was fortunate to have been champion. That was like the days of The Gold Rush," he said of the Klondike.

And, yes, the money has changed.

"Oh, yeah. For sure. Are you kidding? But you don't look a gift horse in the mouth. I'm happy making a living doing what I'm doing, but there's no way I can compare what I made back in the day."

ADDING UP

While he's pushing 900 shows at age 52, Browning says he's not shooting for 1,000.

"It's not like Ice Capades or one of those kind of shows where you could do five on a weekend. Stars on Ice is one show per city. And you might only be doing, across Canada, 12 or so shows a year. It takes three decades to get that many."

At the same time, he laughs that this isn't a comeback tour, nor is it likely to be a farewell tour.

"Thirty years is an interesting idea," he said of returning next year.

He says when you're 52, it's gotta be one year at a time.

"You'll laugh at me but I've been playing in a no-hit hockey league," said the guy who took up figure skating in Rocky Mountain House to improve his skating for minor hockey.

"I changed direction really fast and had my head down and cracked the top of my head and had nerve damage back in December. I was pretty screwed up. My left arm wouldn't work very well. I couldn't pull in on jumps. My left arm shut down. I couldn't sleep for five days. It was pretty serious.

"But the recovery from that injury is why I feel great on tour right now. I'm 148 and-a-half pounds. When I was winning world championships, I was anywhere from 144 to 147. I'm wearing a pair of pants from 1998 that I wore for my Tragically Hip number.

"But the biggest thing is that I still love it. I'm still having a love affair with this sport, the audience, the music, the glide and the jumps.

"I still do two triple jumps in the show and four double Axels. I'm doing a comedy bit in this show that's more of a skit on ice. There's hardly any skating in it. I'm a Circus Solei character trying to find some popcorn. People are really responding to it, especially kids. I think kids really love that there's something in the show especially for them. It's acting. I love acting on ice.

"I'm having a blast."