The elder statesman on, off ice
Kurt Browning feels fortunate to continue doing what he so enjoys
REGINA — A biography of Kurt Browning on the Stars On Ice website refers to him as “the Wayne Gretzky of figure skating.”
The good name of Gordie Howe would also apply. After all, Browning has emulated Mr. Hockey by remaining active in his favourite sport into his 50s.
“Good genes — really stretchy jeans,” Browning joked of his longevity. “There is a glide to my sport,” he said. “It’s kind of like golf. When you do it right, you don’t feel the ball leave the club. You think, ‘That was the sweet spot.’ So when you’re gliding, it’s not like running. It doesn’t pound. It’s actually quite smooth. You try to not fall too often because those really set you back at my age.”
The four-time world champion, who is part of the Stars On Ice troupe that makes its final stop on its cross-country tour Thursday at Rogers Arena, turns 51 in June. He said jumps are the biggest challenge.
“It’s the quickness of the jumps,” he said. “That’s why a lot of skaters can’t do it at a certain age, because they lose that super-fast snap that you need to rotate fast enough and then to quickly come out and land it. That seems to be where I’ve been lucky. I have my quick movement, still, and I don’t know why. But I do work hard. I have a trainer and I eat right and I take care of myself. It’s my job. It’s what I do for a living.”
And the crowds still love him. What’s not to like? He is as personable as he is accomplished.
While skating or being interviewed, Browning is quick to infuse some humour. Consider his response when asked whether, as a 20-something world champion, he could have imagined skating for this long?
“Back to the Future was 2015, right?” he said with a chuckle. “That was so far in the future that it was not realistic. I remember when Prince was singing about 1999 and that was not realistic. That was never going to happen. Now I’m skating around as Michael J. Fox in the future. I can have a bad show, but I can never alter my career now because it has been so long. If age gets the best of me and the hamstrings hurt that night, I know I still have other things to draw on to produce the effect that I want for my audience and for the show.”
An enduring rapport with the audiences is an essential ingredient.
“I watched a younger version of myself, Scott Hamilton, who had that in spades. What I didn’t realize as a young man was that he had been working the room for 15 years already. To be able to cash your chips in on trust with your audience, that takes decades, and that was my goal,” he said. “When I watched Scott, I said, ‘Some day, I want to be the elder statesman of the sport and to be the one who the audience can rely on,’ so I hope I am one of those guys. Elvis (Stojko) is still bringing it, and there’s a few of us statesmen out there, but I was hoping to be one of them and I’ve tried to prove that every night.”
Stojko, 45, is also on the Stars On Ice tour. To this point, neither Browning nor Stojko can rival Donald Jackson. A bronze medallist for Canada at the 1960 Winter Olympics, Jackson performed well into his 70s.
“People like me and Don and even Elvis, I call us lifers. This sport has us by the heart and we can’t find anything else we want to do,” Browning said.
“Elvis is doing all sorts of competitive, high-level stuff with martial arts and his race-car driving and his motorcycle riding and his acting and singing. I don’t know how he does it. I have my two kids and I do a lot of choreography for people and speaking engagements and hosting and commentating for figure skating. It’s not just skating, but somehow the glide is still with it and we still love it and we have these opportunities, so here we are — like it or not.”
Fans typically like Browning for, among other things, his down-toearth nature. He carries himself without the airs associated with some sporting legends.
“If you saw how I grew up, it was old-school stuff from the farm,” said Browning, who is from Caroline, Alta.
“I think there’s something about being a skater because tonight ... I might step on the ice and fall four times. Patrick Chan could fall four times. We get off the ice and look at each other and go, ‘Well, that happened.’ It’s not like a singer or an actor. We’re just not protected. The ice is slippery and the ice can chip out and you can be off and the lights can hit you in the eye. My point is that we humble ourselves quite often, so not too many skaters really get the chance to think that we walk on water and that we’re better than other people.”
Browning is also humbled by the manner in which he is treated and regarded by fans, with whom he has been phenomenally popular since becoming the first skater to land a quadruple jump in competition in 1988 and winning his first world title a year later.
“It was at a time when the sport really spoke volumes to people, before Twitter and cellphones and before 15 minutes of fame,” Browning said. “When you did something for the country, it resonated with the country border to border. That’s why Darryl Sittler still is known. It was that kind of era where they held on to us longer, where I think even humans are disposable nowadays, not just our water bottles. I think it’s harder nowadays for people and for sports figures to really crawl into the fabric of the community and last, so I’m lucky. I’m lucky I was in a wonderful era to be the person I was in the sport I was in.”