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A rebuilt Browning aims for top again
| Source: |
The Hamilton Spectator |
| Date: |
January 29, 1993 |
| Author: |
Steve Milton |
TO MOST of us, 'the only constant is change' is just a proverb. To
Kurt Browning, it's a lifestyle.
If he was a tailor, his specialty would be alterations.
There is little in his skating life that the three-time world champion
has not radically tuned -- except what he has outright torn down and
reconstructed.
'It's a rebuilding year for me, ' Browning allowed yesterday as he
acclimatized himself to Copps Coliseum's ice surface for next week's
national championships here.
'I use the word rebuild because everything around me is different. The
drive to the rink is different, the friends I have waiting for me
there are different.'
And, as one observer astutely noted yesterday, Browning even looks a
little different. Weight training, bike work and sessions with ballet
master Tomas Schramek have given him a leaner line.
He has moved a couple of thousand miles from his long-time Edmonton
training base to Toronto, from where he will mount his bid to regain
his Canadian and world titles over the next five weeks. The
long-range, and far more important, target is the '94 Olympic
gold.
Louis Stong, the urbane Granite Club coach who took Barbara Underhill
and Paul Martini to the '84 world pairs title, now oversees the
training program. Browning's departure from Edmonton and his stoic,
long-time mentor Michael Jiranek was amicable but sudden.
'I had no high expectations of Toronto, ' he explained, sounding like
a true westerner. 'I just sort of needed a change. I didn't even know
I'd be skating with Louis. And things have turned out great.'
Browning has found that his time with the professional touring show
Stars on Ice -- including a performance last night in Buffalo -- has
shaded his approach to amateur skating. Now he seems less concerned
about the physical elements in his skating program than how those
programs will be accepted.
Those apprehensions were allayed by a thunderous reception at the
divisional championships, his first competition since last March's
world silver medal.
The recent changes in his life are reflected in on-ice themes. His two
programs -- the innovative Led Zeppelin drum piece in the technical;
the Humphrey Bogart study from Casablanca in the freeskate -- are as
diverse as can be style and structure. 'One of my big strengths, I
think, is to be able to play different characters, ' he says.
It has been the lure of two different characters, Browning and
determined challenger Elvis Stojko, which will make this event the
biggest draw in Canadian championship history.
'It's been a long time since we've had a real battle in the men's, '
Browning points out. 'Since, what? Brian Pockar and Brian Orser
(1981)?'
No matter who wins next weekend, Canada sends a strong contingent to
the men's event at worlds. The introduction of the qualifying round at
worlds -- a pre-competition seeding in which the competitors must
skate their long program -- adds another worrisome wrinkle to an
already tense week at worlds.
'It's another transition for me, ' Browning sighs. 'Figures are gone;
I have to do my long program before my short; pros are skating with
the amateurs.
'What else could change?'~
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