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Champion figure skater Kurt Browning skates his farewell tour with Stars on Ice

The show stops at Ottawa’s Canadian Tire Centre on Sunday

Source: Ottawa Citizen
Date: April 25, 2023
Author: Lynn Saxberg
Stars on Ice

Sunday, April 30, at the Canadian Tire Centre at 4 p.m.

Tickets: $24.85-$42.10 at ticketmaster.ca

It's time for Kurt Browning to say goodbye to Stars on Ice. After 29 years as a full-cast member of the annual skating show, the Canadian phenom and champion figure skater is taking his final bow with this year's tour.

The show stops at Ottawa's Canadian Tire Centre on Sunday. While Browning is "happy and proud" to be starring on the ice with fellow skaters including Elvis Stojko and Patrick Chan, the time has come for a change.

"I'm not retiring from skating, although I don't have a clue what I'm going to do after this," Browning said in a recent interview. "I've been thinking about it for a long time. It's been a great run. I think I've had way more turns at bat than most people get in their career."

The biggest reason for the decision is his age. At 56, Browning says it's become more difficult to maintain a consistent performance, and harder to recover from injuries.

A snow-shovelling attempt earlier this year serves as an example. Browning set out to clear the snow after the last snowstorm that hit Toronto and somehow strained his left elbow. Only then did he discover it's a body part that plays a key role in getting his jumps off the ground.

"I can't seem to pull into my jumps without it," Browning said. "I've been recovering from that injury and it should be okay, but it's going to be making my job a little harder. When you're 25, you can bounce back from stuff like that. When you're 56, it's a little harder."

This year's Stars on Ice show, which begins in Halifax on April 28 and wraps up in Vancouver on May 18, stars three of Canada's greatest male figure skaters: Browning, his former rival Stojko and Chan. Also part of the fun are pairs champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates; and Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier; as well as cast members Keegan Messing, Madeline Schizas, Loena Hendrickx, Jason Brown; and Alissa Czisny, Browning's wife of eight months. They were married in a small ceremony on Aug. 11, 2022.

American skater Czisny and Browning have been a couple for seven years and are no strangers to touring together. Browning said the pandemic allowed them to spend plenty of quality time together and he decided to pop the question.

"I think when two people are happy long enough, it feels like the natural evolution of the relationship," Browning said of their decision to wed. "The institution of marriage is something we both respect, and we've been having a lot of fun being married."

Although Browning was sidelined during the pandemic when skating shows were cancelled or postponed, he spent the downtime going through boxes to organize paperwork, photographs and mementos. If there were extra copies of photos that showed other skaters, he would mail them to them. The exercise put him in the right frame of mind for the farewell tour.

"I reached out to all sorts of people I hadn't talked to in years," he said. "It was great. It was making me take stock of all the things you catalogue and then move on, and that's actually what's happening now with my retirement.

"It's not just another year of Stars on Ice, it's the last year of Stars on Ice for me so I think it's less about how well I skate and more about making sure I take it all in and share my feelings with the audience, and make sure they feel thanked and appreciated."

Browning has also been reflecting on the early years when he started skating in Caroline, Alberta, as a teenager. The town had just built a new arena, which is now named after him, and there were new programs to sign up for. One was figure skating, and his mom registered her youngest son to help him become a better hockey player.

Eventually, there was a moment when Browning had to choose between figure skating and hockey. It came when he and his father were packing the car to move to Edmonton so the young skater could train with coach Michael Jiranek.

"I went to put my hockey bag in, and Dad said, ‘What are you doing? You're not taking your hockey bag,'" Browning recalled. "I went, ‘Of course I am. What are you talking about? I'm 16, I play Midget, I'm cool'"

His dad responded: "Well, we're not paying for both. Is it the figure skates or the hockey skates?"

Browning says the choice was clear.

"I was doing very well in figure skating and forgetting to grow every summer while the other boys (in hockey) were getting bigger. We both knew what the answer was. The hockey bag stayed home."

Of course, Browning went on to make history when, in 1988, at the age of 22, he landed the first quadruple toe loop in competition at the World Championships in Budapest, a feat included in the Guinness Book of World Records. Before retiring from amateur competition, he was a four-time Canadian champion, a four-time world champion and competed in the Olympics three times.

Since he turned professional in 1994, there's been no shortage of opportunities. Browning has been a colour commentator, a skating choreographer and appeared on the popular TV show, Battle of the Blades, in addition to the annual Stars on Ice shows.

To this day, Browning considers himself fortunate that the sport he fell in love with allowed him a long career as an athlete and performer.

"The ice is a stage and I love performing," he said. "You can do all these physical, beautiful movements on the ice and move to the music. You can be an artist, you can be a dancer, you can make people laugh.

"I'm lucky. Hardly any sports have this second life. I just fluked into a sport when I was a kid that also has this extended period when you're done competing where you can still do what you love and people want to share that with you.

"It's been a great run."