Again a Star

TORONTO - Kurt Browning is eager to take on the U.S. Stars On Ice tour again ... well, the skating part at least.

After skipping the 1999 tour, to spend time at the family farm in Alberta, Browning figures his batteries have been recharged enough to handle the demands of the U.S. tour once again.

"I'm skating too well not to do it," said Browning, 33. "I just didn't want to be the type of person to do 10 years of touring without taking a year off. At one point, I wasn't sure I would go back. But the schedule has been shifted so that I can come back home (to Toronto) more often. Before, I was never left with time to go home."

Browning says he'll also cut back on his competition schedule, to focus more on Stars, a show he says he still enjoys doing immensely.

"The show was what I missed, that would be about it," he said. "Everything you do is for the sole purpose of getting on the ice in front of a crowd. All the travel and time away from home was not that pleasant. But it's the actual execution of the show that I like. It's choreographed from top to bottom - you're in a real production, not just a skating show. It feels good that way. It was tough to let that part of it go."

Stars On Ice rehearsed in Simsbury, Conn., from mid-September to early October.

"There's a lot of fun and pain involved in it," he said of the process. "Some days you really get a lot accomplished. On other days, you spend seven hours on the ice and nothing happens."

August, by comparison, was a month of total relaxation for the skater. He and wife Sonia Rodriguez spent the month finishing work on their home and entertaining friends. There was also time for Browning to work on getting his golf game back up to par. "August was very summery and very nice," he said.