Scott Hamilton ready to skate last hurrah
Source: |
Winnipeg Free Press |
Date: |
April 19, 2001 |
Author: |
Laurie Nealin |
TOTING 16 years of Stars on Ice memories in his skate bag, figure
skating legend Scott Hamilton is back-flipping his way across Canada
one last time.
When Hamilton lands in Winnipeg next week for the April 25 ice
gala, he will be just five curtain calls away from taking his final
bow with the ensemble show he founded in 1986.
"I'm not retiring. I'm not going to stop skating. I'm cutting
back," says the 1984 Olympic champion, whose last show is May 1 in
Vancouver. "There's so much else I want to accomplish ... like doing a
theatre show on Broadway. The tour needs to develop more beyond me
with the next generation.
"It's tough to move on, but I have to," adds the 42-year-old.
At the opposite end of the experience spectrum is new recruit and
legend-in-the-making Alexei Yagudin. His tenure with the Stars on Ice
troupe will total just 16 days when he entertains Winnipeg fans next
week.
Yagudin reported for rehearsals fresh from battle at last month's
World Championships where he had hoped to replicate Hamilton's four
consecutive world wins. A foot injury dashed those hopes. He settled
for silver and headed to New York for treatment.
The Russian sensation, who was just a year old when Hamilton won
his first world title, feels fortunate to have joined the Stars cast
before the consummate showman skated his last hurrah.
"It's a chance to learn a lot and to train with Scott Hamilton,
Brian Orser, Kurt Browning. I look at how they work and their
presentation to the audience," says Yagudin, who will be gunning for
gold at the 2002 Olympic Games where Hamilton will be in the broadcast
booth.
Watching the veteran buzz around the ice at top speed, Yagudin
finds it hard to believe that Hamilton is twice his age.
"I'm not sure what I'll be doing in 21 years but I think I'll still
be skating. Why not? Brian Orser is 40 and he's still doing triple
Axels sometimes," notes Yagudin, who is performing a variation of his
competitive Gladiator program on tour.
Hamilton founded Stars on Ice as an alternative and more rewarding
career option for elite figure skaters who would have previously gone
the Ice Capades route on retirement from competition.
"Scott single-handedly gave us those options," says Orser, the 1987
world champion who headlines the Canadian tour along with Browning, a
four-time titleholder.
Orser, who joined Stars after winning Olympic silver in 1988, has
toured with Hamilton every year since. "I've always looked up to Scott
and learned a lot from him about the entertainment business," says
Orser, who has no plans of his own to skate off into the sunset.
As Stars on Ice came into its own as a top-notch entertainment
spectacle, Hamilton, too, evolved into a polished performer whose
comic irreverence proved a hit with audiences. He was not above
plopping an overgrown mop of hair on his balding head and slipping
into some wild '60s garb for his rendition of Hair.
Hamilton's finale number this tour is a medley of his greatest hits
interwoven into Paul Anka's My Way. The routine begins with a
deceivingly serious tone but quickly dissolves into a study in
self-deprecation.
The only time the Stars on Ice show went on without its founder was
in 1997 when Hamilton was diagnosed with testicular cancer. He
underwent chemotherapy and surgery and was back on the ice before the
year was out. Hamilton is now cancer-free.
This year's Canadian tour, featuring Josee Chouinard, Steven
Cousins, and Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz, plays 11 cities from
Halifax to Vancouver.
Absent this time around are Stars' regulars Isabelle Brasseur and
Lloyd Eisler. Brasseur, married to former pair skater Rocky Marval,
gave birth to a daughter last fall. Orser reports that the popular
pair are expected back next year.
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