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Home not always sweet
Browning knows the pressure atop the world stage on Canadian soil
| Source: |
Calgary Herald |
| Date: |
March 20, 2006 |
| Author: |
George Johnson |
There is, warns Kurt Browning, no halfway here. No middle
ground.
The sky. Or the abyss.
"It can be your best friend,'' says the four-time World men's figure
skating champion. "Or it can be a real . . ."
Skating at home. Sounds homey, soothing. Ennobling, even. Very
'Goodnight John Boy'-ish. Well, think again. Reigning world champ
Elvis Stojko couldn't crack the top three in Edmonton 10 years
ago. Brian Orser finished second to Scott Hamilton in 1984 in Ottawa
and Don Jackson found himself runner-up to Frenchman Alain Giletti in
Ottawa in '60.
Home-ice 'advantage'? Maybe Game 7 of a Stanley Cup Final. But in
figure skating, in Canada, it can morph into a monster, into the
Amityville Horror house.
"It all depends,'' says a voice of experience, "on your
mindset.''
Browning won in Halifax in 1990, the middle jewel in his triple crown
of World golds, sandwiched between the more exotic locales of Paris
and Munich. Which makes him the last. The only, actually.
In seven Worlds held in Canada over the past century, he's the one
local-boy-makes-good story in a library of disappointing
literature.
Then in '96, after retiring from amateur skating and turning
professional, Browning returned to skate an exhibition at the Edmonton
Worlds.
Home. Or as damn close to it as he could get, an hour's drive from
Caroline. And, well, it was just an exhibition, right?
"Honestly, flying into Edmonton from Toronto, I didn't think it'd be
that big a deal. Boy, was I wrong.
"I'm standing there on the ice, waiting for the music, trying to calm
myself down, and they're standing. A standing ovation, before the
program! It must've blown a micro-chip in my brain. I just kind of
short-circuited.
"Because 30 seconds later, after completely messing up a triple axel
in the air, I'm on my butt.
"See, skating isn't a reactionary sport. It's a pro-actionary sport --
look, I actually made up a word. It's not like hockey, where you watch
video on how to handle another team's powerplay or the pressure they
put on the puck. It's just you. Alone. Thanks for coming. With waaay
too much time to think. And that's why it's hard. The old
paralysis-by-analysis theory.''
At the Pengrowth Saddledome this week, Jeff Buttle will be
endeavouring to become the first Canadian to match Browning's feat of
16 years ago. Even eliminating Olympic kingpin Evgeni Plushenko from
the mix, that's guaranteed to be a grind.
"I don't know Jeff real well,'' says Browning, in the middle of a
skating tour, in Val D'Or, Quebec, this day. "But he seems like a good
kid. Kid . . . Kid?! I've got to stop using that word. Makes him sound
like an infant and me like some old man.
"Anyway, he seems like a kid who, if he showed up at your door, you'd
invite inside and . . . feed.''
Buttle has admitted the requisite hunger is something he's found
difficult to summon these past two weeks. Burnout has been always a
problematical issue at a post-Olympic Worlds.
Being on home soil doesn't allow for much time to breathe.
"You've got to deal with so much more,'' says Browning. "Everybody
knows you, everybody wants to talk to you, everybody's pulling you in
this direction or that direction. It can all seem like too much. It
can all get in your head.
"If you allow that to happen, you are screwed.
"There's such a crush of emotions. You add the fact that he's one of
the favourites, and there's something else to deal with.''
In Halifax, Browning says he just relaxed and went about his
business. Being injured heading into the event actually helped him
zone in on the task at hand, and in his mind, at least, decompress the
pressure.
The rewards were unlike any other he experienced in one of this
country's authentically great skating careers.
"To stand on that podium, at the TOP of that podium, and have your
mom, your dad, your family, your roommate, your best friend and 12,000
other people all singing O Canada! . . . it's awesome. Absolutely
awesome.
"When asked about picking out a highlight of my amateur career, I
always say I have four or five. But that one, Halifax, was special. No
doubt about it.''
So, as the last, the only, if Kurt Browning could give one piece of
advice to Jeff Buttle as this week of homestanding Worlds begins to
unfold, it would be . . .?
"Allow it to happen. Sounds simple? It's not. Take what you've learned
in the Grand Prixs and the Worlds and the Olympics and put it all to
use.
"I mean, you go out and do the triple-axel, triple-toe hundreds of
times in a week. So why can't you land it at 7:45 on a particular
night?
"Jeff's worked hard to get where he is. This is a special moment for
him. He deserves this.
"So if I could tell him something, for what it's worth, it'd be this:
Don't stress. Don't overanalyze. Do your Baggar Vance -- just get out
of the way and allow it happen.''
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