Where are my underpants?: Kurt Browning

Copyright 2000 Financial Post DataGroup

KURT BROWNING Skater, Stars on Ice

TRAVEL LOG: 25 days a month across North America

ON: The Travelling Body

NPB: Do you find airplane seats uncomfortable?

KB: No. I can sleep anywhere. As soon as I get on an airplane, I put ear plugs in, especially if it's a prop plane, and read a book. Then, when I get sleepy, I put on one of those masks and flake out. It looks silly, big raccoon eyes, but that's 45 minutes of extra sleep time.

NPB: Do you have trouble sleeping in hotels?

KB: I'm in probably 95 to 100 different hotel rooms a year. So I like it when a hotel room's weird, when it doesn't look like the one you were just at. In Canada, any CP hotel is fantastic. In the U.S., there are a couple of hotels I like that use train cars as rooms.

NPB: Do you get to travel with your own masseuse?

KB: Yes, we do. And it sounds great. But in three months of tour, I never get to see her for more than 15 or 20 minutes at a time. And it's just for my thigh or my calf or the one tiny spot in my back that has a spasm because she's got 12 other skaters to take care of.

NPB: How do you eat well on the road?

KB: Fast food sometimes, a nice restaurant another time. Quite often I'll forget to eat. I don't have a special diet. Generally, figure skaters are pretty relaxed. Tara Lipinsky carries around some special food with her. We're small people, figure skaters, especially the girls. We'll order off the menu.

NPB: What's the craziest thing that's ever happened to you on the road?

KB: We touched five different states trying to get to a show once. We took a plane that didn't work and we had to land in another airport, then got snowed in, and so we all rented cars. It was like Planes, Trains & Automobiles. One car had a flat, and another one got lost, and we were all separated. No one's cell phone would work. Finally all 14 skaters converged on the other side of the country. We had an 8:00 flight in the morning and a 7:30 show that night and everyone got in at 5:00.

NPB: Did you ever expect when you were a kid that this would be your life?

KB: No, I didn't want to be a figure skater. I wanted to be a draftsman, but I wasn't good enough. This came very slowly. I think by the time I was 18 or 19 I started taking it seriously. When I won the Worlds, I thought, 'Okay, I'm World Champion. Obviously, I'm going to be doing this for a while.'

NPB: Have you any regrets?

KB: I miss my family in Alberta and I never had a formal education.

NPB: What's your travel motto?