Kurt's handlers reshaping image for '92 Olympics

The cheering barely had subsided, the celebration had not started but talk of four championships had.

Kurt Browning's third consecutive world figure skating championship gold medal was swinging on his neck when the Olympics were mentioned. The 1992 Games are a year away in Albertville, France, and Kevin Albrecht looked not 12 months down the road but six.

"We have some heavy public relations work to do over here before Albertville," Albrecht said.

Albrecht is Browning's man at Corpsport, the agency that handles the world champ's off-ice business (Wayne Gretzky is another prominent client) and "over here" is Europe. The greening of Kurt Browning is being conducted slowly, no saturation of the endorsement marketplace, but with a few select clients such as the socko commercials for a soft drink.

Of course, an Olympic gold medal coupled with three world titles would produce a Browning bonanza - look what Calgary silver did for Liz Manley - but that can't be left simply to chance, despite Browning's splendid talent.

Thus, Europe will hear a large amount about Browning this summer.

"What we have to change is the idea that it's the kid from the wild west against the poor young boy from Odessa," Albrecht said.

Browning is from a ranch/farm in Caroline, Alta. His main rival in France will be Soviet Victor Petrenko, from Odessa in the Ukraine.

The people Albrecht feels who must learn more about Browning are the judges who will give out the numbers in Albertville.

"Olympic judging is a prized assignment, which means the most experienced judges will apply for and get that job," Albrecht said. "That means an older, more traditional panel to impress, judges who want little that's revolutionary in the sport. If they know more about Kurt personally, it might help.

"That's why we're getting his video distributed in Europe and we're hoping that his TV variety special, which was seen by a big audience in Canada the other night, will be shown over here. Kurt's autobiography, which will be out in the fall, will be translated immediately and published in Germany, Italy and France."

The video, titled Jump, is a dandy look at an engaging young man. His parents, Dewey and Neva, are featured, and if people more real exist on the earth, they're hidden away.

That means, too, a change in both Browning's short and long programs, especially the short. This season, it had a theme - ancient spirits doing something or other - and a safe bet is that Browning returns to something very traditional next season to impress the traditionalists, who might be more swept away by straightforward skating than attemping to decipher the thought patterns of the old spirits.

Assorted concerns were expressed, especially in the British and European press, that the absence of compulsory figures had turned the championship into a jumping contest. Leading that parade, of course, was Browning, who had a quadruple and seven triple jumps in his free skate, six in combinations.

Petrenko had seven triples, five of them in the first minute and 20 seconds of his 4:30 program, and only one triple-triple combo. That would seem to make Browning's program, if both were executed well, far superior to the Soviet's. But Petrenko won the short program and was very close in the freeskate.

Because skating still combines athletics and artistry, if triple jump combos are preceded by sloppy style, the impact is reduced.

While Browning often is sloppy between the difficult tricks, i.e., carelessly dropping his hands to his sides, Petrenko's style never falters, hands held crisply high, the mark of a chap who has Bolshoi ballet training in his background. That's why the Browning-to-Petrenko gap is a small crevice, never the wide chasm it seems to be.

If Albrecht's concern with the way his client is viewed was strong immediately post-podium, what was written in reflections on the men's competition "over here" undoubtedly increased its intensity.

The Sunday Times of London, not the average dirtbag newspaper, included a mention of Christopher Bowman, the U.S. skater who was fifth, and Petrenko, "both of whom are resisting the rush to combinations started by the Canadian lumberjacks."

That an Englishman could not tell a cowboy from a lumberjack is no surprise but it does indicate the attitude Browning's advisers are trying to overcome.

Browning wants to pick up the artistic side of his program aiming for the Olympics, figuring the technical side is strong enough, maybe too strong.

"Any more technical stuff and it won't be much fun to skate," he said. "In fact, it was getting that way this year."