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Recovered from rec hockey injury, skater and show are in London on Sunday
After all these years, there is finally one reason to hate Kurt Browning.
| Source: |
North Bay Nugget |
| Date: |
April 29, 2019 |
| Author: |
Ryan Pyette |
After all these years, there is finally one reason to hate Kurt
Browning.
He basically fits into the same pants he wore 21 years ago. What other
52-year-old can brag about that?
You will be able to see that 30-inch waistline back where it belongs -
on the cross-country Stars on Ice tour, which stops in London Sunday
at 4 p.m. at Budweiser Gardens.
"The (Stars) choreographer said you're going to be in jeans so I went
out and bought three pairs of jeans," Browning said. "On the very last
day before it was time to leave, she changed her mind. Nope, not
jeans. I said, 'What?' So I went down in my basement before getting on
a plane and pulled out these pants I wore in the show in 1998.
"The seamstress let them out one inch and there we go."
Wardrobe wasn't the only hurdle for figure skating's most versatile
personality.
He hadn't really worn toe-picks in a year-and-a-half and had
previously said his informal farewell to Stars during the 25th
anniversary of the show in 2015. He had been synonymous with the tour
for its entire quarter-century run to that point.
"I didn't want to ever announce I was retired because you never know,"
he said. "Then the email came. Can you come back again?"
Before answering, Browning had to put a troublesome beer-league hockey
injury behind him. He ran into another player last December and
suffered nerve damage all the down his left arm.
"It wasn't working," he said, "so I was doing isometric exercises,
(working muscles) without moving. There's a company called Isophit in
Toronto and I've been doing that pretty regularly. It sounds like an
infomercial but it's really changed my body.
"It got to the point where I said, 'Holy crap, I'm thinner.' "
And suddenly, old show pants were no problem.
The old on-ice tricks, though, are pending.
"I don't practise the backflip," Browning warned. "I only do it in
shows. So if you don't see me in London, you'll know it didn't go
well."
MUSIC LEGEND
Browning doesn't have the same on-ice presence, in terms of minutes,
this time around.
"It's a smart show for me," he said. "It's designed for me to not be
stressed out physically. This year, I choreographed a comedy number
for the first time I don't fall down in."
He does have a long program-sized interpretation of If You Could Read
My Mind, the Gordon Lightfoot classic. On Saturday, he will perform it
live for the Canadian singer.
"He's coming to the Hamilton show," Browning said. "He heard I was
skating to it and invited me to a (Lightfoot concert). I got to meet
him and talk to him about the skate.
"I'm very pumped about that."
GREAT TEAM
Browning, a terrific figure skating broadcaster for CBC, calls the
recent Canadian team an almost unrealistic group to follow. He will be
performing with many of them on this tour, including Meagan Duhamel,
who announced she was pregnant this week.
"Tessa (Virtue) and Scott (Moir) and Patrick (Chan) and Meagan and
Eric (Radford) all extended their careers competitively longer than
almost anyone expected," he said. "Then they went to the Olympics and
did it when it mattered. And Kaetlyn (Osmond) coming through all the
noise of the talented women to claim a medal and winning worlds? Truly
nutty. That group is going to be really tough to emulate."
He is confident a future generation of Canadian stars is on the
horizon, though.
"There has to be waves," he said. "After a wave, there has to be a
little bit of break before the next big one comes. It's a big
challenge for this next group of skaters to climb that mountain, but
they said the same thing after Brian (Orser) and Liz (Manley), then my
generation, and then comes along Elvis (Stojko) and wins a bunch of
world titles and silver medals at the Olympics. You do the best you
can. You have (14-year-old) Stephen Gogolev, who is guesting in the
London show, he's going to push (current national champ) Nam (Nguyen)
next year. And on it goes."
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