Home for the Holidays

He is the epitome of a star, a showman extraordinaire who can light up an audience with a breath-taking triple axel or a playful wink of his eye. There's still a fire in Kurt Browning's eyes - a competitive fire - and it shows little sign of flickering out. This Canadian figure skating hero is aging just wonderfully, thank you.

"I'm a totally better skater now," Browning says without hesitation when asked to compare himself to the days when he ruled the eligible skating world...four times in five years (1989 through 1991 and again in 1993).

This is the Canadian dynamo who landed the first quadruple jump ever in competition at the 1988 World Championships in Budapest, just a hint of the many good things that would follow. He was, and still is, adored and admired in his homeland and around the world.

He has done just about everything since turning professional in 1994. There was a period of adjustment that first year, but since then, he's racked up three straight World professional titles and is keen to win a fourth in December at the MCI Center in Washington, D.C.

In truth, pro skating has set Kurt Browning free to discover and become anything he ever wanted to be on the ice.

In professional skating, "you have to come up with five or six new programs every year," says Browning, now 32, en route to a practice session at the venerable Granite Club in Toronto, the city he now calls home. "You're always stretching your ability. In amateur skating, you're so restricted. But when you turn professional, you're forced to stretch your limits. Trust me, that's not easy."

"But now I'm much more in control of what I do in front of an audience." he continues. "I'm more aware of what my job is as a professional. I've been able to zero in on what I'm really good at... You perform so many times, you just know how to do it."

In the coming year, Browning won't be put to the test nearly as much. Weary after four years of almost nonstop touring with Stars On Ice in the United States and Canada - not to mention the five or six competitions he does each year - Browning has decided it's time to take more time for the people who matter most to him.

His programs may be sophisticated, but Browning is a small-town guy from the Canadian prairies, and family is, and always will be, nearest and dearest to his heart. He says growning up in tiny Caroline, Alberta, teaches you a thing or two about the importance of roots. So Browning is taking a year off from the demanding U.S. leg of the tour - more than 50 cities. He does plan to tackle the 10-show Canadian leg in the spring.

"It takes so much time, the U.S. tour," Browning explains. "There's six weeks of rehearsals, three months of touring...Traveling back and forth to the U.S. so much isn't easy."

"Stars On Ice has got Ilia Kulik and Tara Lipinski and Lu Chen coming on board this year, so if there ever was a time for me to take a break, this was a good year to do it. Halfway through last year, I started playing around with the idea of not doing the U.S. tour this year. It is rewarding, but I just wasn't sure I wanted to be away from home for eight months again.

"Right now, it's only for a year," he emphasizes. "Then we'll see how it feels next year."

His decision means time back in Alberta with his parents, Dewey and Neva. "I'll get to do some snowmobiling with my Dad for the first time in years," Browning says with enthusiasm.

He'll also be in Toronto more with his wife, ballerina Sonia Rodriguez. The two spent time in July working on their home and vacationing at a cottage in Ontario's Muskoka Lake region. But even then, work didn't stop. Browning had to jet off to Los Angeles for a short stretch to film the new "Snowden on Ice" television special.

Rodriguez performs with the Toronto-based National Ballet of Canada, and Browning relishes the idea of being able to see her on stage more often.

"It seems like I never get to see a performance.... Usually, I'm just home for rehearsals, and I go to as many of them as I can," he says, "but I'm going to be especially generous to her in attending performances."

But don't get nervous. Browning isn't putting his skates in deep freeze. His competition plate is full. He's planning to be at the new International Skating Union (ISU) versions of the World, Canadian, and U.S. pro championships.

Ask him about the new open competitions, and you can almost feel his competitive juices stirring.

"I'll see Todd Eldredge and Ilia Kulik three or four times this year, and that will be exciting," he says. "I'll probably get my butt kicked a couple of times. But we needed some new faces. I always believed ... eligible and pro would meet someday, and they are getting closer and closer."

There is at least one aspect of eligible skating he'd like to see go away - the ISU's short-program requirement. When he talks about it, he speaks as a competitor and a fan.

"The short program is restrictive, I think, and it bugs me a bit," he says. "It's not the most entertaining piece of skating I've ever seen.... I'm sorry. You make one mistake and you're out of it.

"Yes, that part of it's exciting. But for a made-for-TV competition and as entertainment...the short program sucks," he elaborates. "There's barely enough time to do the seven required elements. Maybe if they gave us the same elements and gave us 30 or 40 more seconds, we'd have a chance to do more stuff."

And in pro skating, Browning adds, entertainment counts. A lot. "It's very important," he stresses. "When people tune in to watch amateur skating, they want to see who the new stars are, who's going to win. And the guys that do win are good, no doubt about it - they're the guys who become pros. But in pro skating, people want more than that. They want to be entertained and to see who wins."

Browning has always had the winning part down pat: He's a born competitor. But it's choreographer Sandra Bezic who tapped into his personality, who helped show the skater how to bring it out on the ice and stretch his limits.

"Sandra is the biggest reason I'm successful. She gives me the tools I need to go out on the ice and just be better," says Browning. "What Sandra gave me was the idea that ...I was there competing, but I was also there to do a show for the audience."

The past few years Browning also has enjoyed working with other creative influences, including Alexander Zhulin and Christopher Dean.

Although he loves entertaining audiences, and knows the value of doing just that, the technical know-how that first brought Browning attention is still very much a part of his skating. He can pull out the triple axels he needs to win. In fact, he's playing around with the quad again - he even tried one in competition last year.

Competing is part of Kurt Browning's life. He has no plans to bow out any time soon, but he is realistic about the possibility.

"I don't see myself staying in competitions unless I can be in the top two. If I'm competitive that way, then I want to be around," he says. "I've had a really good run. I didn't expect to be World pro champion three times in a row. As long as I feel I'm competitive, then I'll be in it. When I get to the point where I'm not...well, I hope someone will tell me."