New spin for Browning: Skater settles into life on the professional circuit

Copyright 1997 Southam Inc.

For newlywed Kurt Browning and his legion of fans, the honeymoon is far from over.

Ten years after leaping to prominence on the national figure-skating scene and four years after the last of his four world titles, the cowboy's son from Caroline, Alta., remains one of the sport's major draws in North America.

He'll be 31 in June, and while he's shed some hair, he's lost none of the energy, style, spontaneity and humor that made him such a popular champion.

Browning returns to Montreal Tuesday as the top-billed skater in a Stars on Ice lineup that includes celebrated British ice-dancers Torvill and Dean, longtime Canadian pairs champions Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler, and Rosalynn Sumners, women's silver medalist at the 1984 Olympics in Sarajevo.

Montreal is where Browning won his first national title - novice men's - in 1983. It was also the scene of his first international competition in 1985; he finished fifth behind American Christopher Bowman.

In Stars on Ice, Browning performs two of the numbers he's had success with this winter on the professional circuit.

One is skated to the jazzy strains of Summertime by Al Jarreau. "It's all about movement," he said in a telephone interview. "I get attacked by a snake halfway through."

The other is a Nat King Cole medley. "It's my gift to my wife" - dancer Sonia Rodriguez of the National Ballet of Canada, to whom he proposed publicly during a Stars on Ice show in Toronto about a year ago and married in June.

For Browning, just back from the 63-date U.S. Stars on Ice tour, life is as good as it gets these days. He's making a very comfortable living from the professional circuit (he was world pro champ in 1995 and 1996) and ice shows.

"It's incredible to think something I did for fun as a kid is now my livelihood, and a good one, too. Any job where you go to work, and at the end people clap, has got to be a good job."

But he's sobered by what's recently befallen some friends in the sport. In Lake Placid 17 months ago, Sergei Grinkov, partner in sport and life of Russian pairs skater Ekaterina Gordeeva, who is also in the show, collapsed and died of heart failure at age 28. And buddy Scott Hamilton, 38, a skating perennial who was U.S. and world champion from 1981 through 1984, was diagnosed last month with testicular cancer and had to leave the Stars on Ice tour.

Browning recently appeared as a guest on Hamilton's TV special for Disney, Up Side Down. They did a Stomp-like number together with a group of hockey players.

"He felt for weeks something was wrong," Browning said. "We'll miss him a lot. He's a leader figure for our group. Hopefully, he'll be back with us next year."

Stars on Ice was touring the U.S. when the 1997 world figure-skating championships took place in Switzerland. Browning, the first skater to successfully complete a quadruple jump in competition (at Budapest in 1988), watched on TV as the man who shadowed him for much of his senior career in Canada, Elvis Stojko, captured his third world title.

"The whole cast was watching (the men's final) and you couldn't hear the commentary at all; everyone was screaming and yelling," Browning said. "What an amazing battle of jumps, and what fun to watch."

As an amateur, Browning excelled in pressure situations (with the notable exception of the Olympics, where he failed to get a medal in three tries). He said the hardest adjustment after going pro in 1994 was learning to keep something in the tank for the next night.

"At first, I didn't really know how to do it as a pro. You'd travel all day, go the rink, do interviews, meet a Make-a-Wish child, do a show, and then have to do it all over again. It took me a year of watching Scott and Kristi (Yamaguchi) to get a feel for it."

To stay on top, and also reconnect with his past, Browning returned to Edmonton for five days last November to train with his original coach, Michael Jiranek. They'd ended a long association when Browning was 24.

"It felt really good to be back in the place that was my office for 11 years. It was like having an old friend in my corner. He told me 'I didn't know you'd ever be able to work this hard or perform as consistently.'

"I have become a more consistent performer, and that's something I didn't know I had in me."

Browning's success and personality have made him a much-sought celebrity. He's presented NHL, Gemini and Canadian Country Music awards and hosted Canada Day celebrations.

His TV specials get healthy ratings. He's currently working on a concept to follow up the acclaimed You Must Remember This, in which he played a Marlowe-esque detective, rock star, classically trained dancer and vaudeville entertainer.