Browning says skating fans should be patient with new judging system

TORONTO (CP) - Kurt Browning never really saw the necessity of changing the way figure skating was judged but, now that it has been radically altered, he says athletes and fans should be patient and give it a chance to work. "So far, I'm optimistic," he says.

When Browning won the 1989, 1990, 1991 and 1993 world championships, everybody could see on the scoreboard what each judge awarded each skater. That's the way it always was - until this season.

The judging fiasco in the pairs event at the 2002 Winter Olympic led the International Skating Union to drastically overhaul the system, and now skaters and fans are unable to match marks to judges because a computer eliminates some and scrambles the rest before they are displayed.

"We're changing the system not because it needed changing but because we couldn't control the people in it," says Browning. "It got corrupt within."

It was like drivers refusing to obey traffic signals, he says.

"What do we do, put a traffic cop at every intersection?"

The new system is difficult to understand - even for a former world champ.

"It's really complicated," says Browning. "Even I don't understand it and I've had a couple of people trying to explain it to me."

But he's willing to give it a chance.

Browning, an Albertan who lives in Toronto, quit the ISU competitive scene in 1994 but he remains a fan favourite in touring ice shows and gets high ratings for made-for-TV specials.

He's in Hamilton on Friday night for a one-night stand: Kurt Browning's Gotta Skate, an NBC production to be taped at Copps Coliseum.

The cast includes 2002 Olympic pairs champions Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, 1984 Olympic champion Scott Hamilton, 1993 world pairs champions Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler, 1987 world champion Brian Orser, 1995 world champion Lu Chen, Josee Chouinard and Steven Cousins.

Singer Deborah Cox and other entertainers as well as Browning's wife Sonia Rodriguez and Alex Antonijevic, both Canadian National Ballet dancers, also will be featured in the multi-faceted show.

The concept of the show is similar to the one he starred in last year in Vancouver.

"It's kind of a smorgasbord of entertainment," he said. "It's a lot of work putting it together for one night.

"The only part I don't like is how nervous I get. It's one thing being involved in a tour show or in a competitive event but having my name on Gotta Skate is something else.

"All of a sudden I've taken on the responsibility of how everyone performs."

With all the trouble in the world, Browning's aim was to make Gotta Skate a celebration of life.

"It's about celebrating how lucky we are," he says. "That's the finale - It's So Good To Be Alive."

The show airs on the W network on Nov. 30 at 9 p.m. EST and then on NBC on Dec. 1 at 4 p.m. EST.

During Browning's prime years on the ISU's top competitive circuit from 1987 through 1994, judging was accepted as it was because, well, that's the way it had always been.

"When you grow up with a system, you sort of don't question it," he explains. "The one thing I didn't like was when they changed it so that you had to be in top three after short program to win the event.

"When they brought it down to three people, it didn't seem to be as much fun to watch or participate in.

"That's one of the things I like that about the new system - there'll be more movement. The guy in seventh might win now."

He recalls that it was only rarely that skaters who deserved to win did not win, and he once watched it happen first-hand - in Sudbury at the 1990 nationals when Elvis Stojko burst upon the scene to challenge him for gold.

"I thought I'd lost to Elvis," Browning recalls. "Then the marks came up, and I didn't lose.

"I felt strange about it. If you look at the tape, Elvis probably should have won."

The judges decided to honour Browning's reputation and give him another Canadian title, despite the fact Stojko skated a better long program that night.

Under the new system, that outcome would not be possible.

"Each judge does their job but they can't influence the outcome like they could before," Browning says of the revised system.

He disagrees with the assertion that each judge should be identified with a specific mark.

"What do people have to say, 'Look what he did, he screwed our skater?' You know, we really don't need that, do we? If we need finger-pointing to make sure the sport works . . .

"Give this thing a chance. Let's let it play out a little bit, and try to learn the new system. We didn't build a Great Wall of China here. We just changed some rules."

Browning is dismayed by the public's perception of competitive figure skating today.