Say goodbye and good luck to: World champion retiring after tour, which includes Kingston stop

Canadian figure skating champion Kurt Browning always has to say some goodbyes when his ice skating shows move on to a new city but when this current tour is over, he'll have to say a particuarly sad "so long" to a man he considers a mentor, friend and colleague.

This week, Canadian skater Brian Orser, announced that the Kleenex Celebration on Ice tour, which makes a stop in Kingston Thursday, will be his last before he retires and hangs up his skates in the spring.

Browning was caught off-guard when asked about Orser's retirement and was waiting to hear the news from the 44-year-old skater himself.

"I guess it must be true because you're the second person who's told me about it," Browning said in a telephone interview from his home in Toronto.

"Actually, I had him on the phone this morning and he was in a hurry and said, 'Go buy big fat ties for the show,' and I forgot to say, 'By the way, are you retiring?' "

Orser is a two-time Olympic silver medallist, a world champion and an eight-time Canadian champion.

He has also received the Order of Canada, the Order of Ontario and has been inducted into the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame.

"We had a legacy of strong skaters before Brian, but really it was Brian who I think took the respect that the rest of the world had for Canada to a whole different level," Browning said.

"By the time I was on the world scene, just being Canadian meant that I was taken seriously and he had so much to do with that."

Browning, 39, who is a four-time world and Canadian champion and three-time Olympian, said he will miss the man and not just the skater.

"It's great what he does on the ice, but after all these years Brian's become more important to me off the ice then he has on. That's come a long way considering the very first time I ever saw him I couldn't speak, but he's become a true friend," he said.

"A couple years ago, I was having a real string of injuries and I was jokingly saying that maybe it was a sign I should retire. He said, 'What? Shut up. You can't quit until I do.' I just don't want him to go because if he's going then it means I'm next, but I've got a little bit left in the tank."

Other featured performers in the figure skating cast include two-time Olympic silver medallist Elvis Stojko, former Canadian champion Jennifer Robinson, and Shae-Lynn Bourne, who, with partner Victor Kraatz, won the Canadian and world championships in ice dance.

"This one is special having such a Canadian lineup and the audience gets so excited by our presence in a town that we don't usually get to, so it's a lot of fun," Browning said.

Thirty-two local skaters from the city's four clubs - Kingston Skating Club, Fort Henry Heights Skating Club, Loyalist Winter Club and West Kingston Skating Club -will skate in the show.

Three skaters from Kingston, two of whom were selected by organizers, will perform solo routines.

Celebration on Ice selected Jamie Forsythe, who's training in Barrie, and Anna Krzemien, of the Fort Henry Heights club.

Tyler Cochrane, who now trains in Toronto, was chosen to perform by local organizers.

A group of 11 junior skaters, aged six to 12, from the Kingston Skating Club, will perform a Christmas-themed routine.

Ice Inspiration, the pre-novice synchronized skating team that features a mixture of 18 girls from the four skating clubs, will also perform.

Sharon Nixon, president of the Kingston Skating Club, said she's stressed to the local skaters that it's special having Olympians in Kingston.

"As I've said to the kids, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The show doesn't come to small venues very often and to have the calibre of world and Olympic medallists that we do in the lineup, it should be amazing," she said.

"They'll be backstage with them and on the ice practising with them and watching them in the dress rehearsal, so obviously it's very motivational and it can't help but do great things for the sport in Canada, but particularly here in Kingston as well."

Browning said the professionals enjoy watching the local skaters - even if they do get upstaged by them.

"We always find ourselves peeking out from around the curtain or doing whatever we can to take a look because they really are just stealing the show. You're wondering, 'How come I can't get the audience to react like that?' " he said.

"I remember when I was a kid and having a guest skater come skate at our club and how much that influenced me and little Brian Orser somewhere at some time was watching somebody come and skate in his hometown.

"We carry that responsibility with us and I think we should take it very seriously."

CELEBRATION ON ICE

What: Kleenex Celebration on Ice, an evening of figure skating

When: Thursday at 7:30 p.m.

Where: Kingston Memorial Centre, 303 York St.

Cast: Brian Orser, on his final professional figure skating tour, is joined by Kurt Browning, Elvis

Stojko, Shae-Lynn Bourne and Jennifer Robinson

Local talent: Soloists Jamie Forsythe, Anna Krzemien and Tyler Cochrane will lead 32 local skaters

Tickets: $46.75 for side bleacher seats and $39.25 for end bleacher seats. Available at the Grand

Theatre box office, 185 Sydenham St., or call 530-2050.