March 29, 2003
Gold at Last
Since 1993, I've been a big fan of figure skating. I always watched before then, but that was the year that made me as big a fan as I am now. I used to watch skating with my grandmother when I was a kid. In January of 1993 Canadian Nationals came to Hamilton, and mom got us tickets. She told me later that she had planned to get tickets for my grandmother to come with us too, but she died in October of 1992, and therefore couldn't quite make it. So, the two of us went. There were a couple of days that she couldn't go so my aunt Carol came with me. And it was fun.
It was a post Olympic year, which usually means it's going to be dull. Everyone will have gone professional since they'd already had their shot at the Olympics, but for some reason the IOC decided that instead of holding both the winter and summer Olympics in the same year they were going to stagger them, which meant it was going to be only two more years till the next ones, which was tempting for a lot of skaters. So they stuck around. Which meant instead of having nobody to watch, there was the big showdown between Kurt Browning and Elvis Stojko. There was a showdown between Karen Preston and Josee Chouinard, and there was Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler in the pairs. The dance competition was the only one that seemed like it might be boring. Really, there were no jumps, there were no spins...what on earth would be interesting about it? Plus, there wasn't anyone that was good enough to win medals anywhere, so I was least interested in that.
As expected the mens competition was absolutely fantastic. During the short program, both Elvis and Kurt made the same mistake. It was bizarre actually, both of them in the same spot on the ice doing the same element had exactly the same mistake. So, nobody was too far ahead to be caught. The long program was fantastic, Kurt had his best program ever and skated it brilliantly, he even did a quad which at the time seemed like a huge deal. And he won. And I was thrilled. I've always loved Kurt Browning, ever since I saw him skate at the Olympics in Calgary and he used the Pee Wee Herman music for his short program. Anyway, I was thrilled, and later that year Kurt and Elvis went off to worlds and won the gold and silver medals respectively. The ladies were a bit crap, but then...that's to be expected with Canadian women. Then Josee came to the ice to skate, and she landed 7 triple jumps and was absolutely amazing. The crowd was on it's feet ages before she was finished and afterwards she promptly burst into tears and collapsed into her mothers arms. It was wonderful. Pairs...well, I don't remember much about the pairs, though Isabelle & Lloyd had this gorgeous program that was a complete departure for them. And they also went on to win gold at worlds that year.
I don't remember much about the Original Dance at Candians that year. I remember that I really liked Jacqueline Petr & Mark Janoschak, mostly because they'd been working with Toller Cranston and were the strangest things I'd ever seen. It was all about the voids even then. ;) But then these kids came on the ice and skated their Free Dance...and they won. It seemed like nobody had ever heard of them before, Shae-Lynn was only 16 years old. But that year they won the first of their 10 Canadian National titles.
Since then there has been a lot of controversy about them. And I feel bad because of that. To start with there was the rumour that they'd told the CFSA that they would leave Canada and skate for a different country. That was a sore spot then becuase they'd already lost one team to France. So the rumours were that they'd basically bullied their way into a National Title. I don't think that's what happened at all, the rumour has been denied by all parties involved on several occasions, but still people bring it up even now 10 years later. Then, somehow they became the poster children for a judging scandal which supposedly happened in 1998 at the Olympics in Nagano, Japan. The rumour is that they were told ahead of time that they'd finish 4th there, which ultimately they did. The media got wind of this and blew everything out of proportion and they ended up looking like the bad guys. They did complain, but they did not want it to go on for nearly as long as it has. Even now it's still mentioned, and we're told how they were robbed at the Olympics in 1998. When I look at the Olympics now that I know more about skating, and without the commentators planting ideas in my head I can see quite clearly that they didn't deserve a medal that year. Their program was good, but the others were better. That's all there is to it.
They were also going through a bad time with their coach. It wasn't exactly obvious to people, but she let them go to the Olympics skating a compulsary dance (which is sort of like a figure in singles skating), with the wrong steps. As far as I'm concerned, if you're an elite level coach, you should know damn well what the steps are to compulsary dances and you should make sure your skaters are skating them they way they're supposed to be. After all, that's why they get paid thousands of dollars a year, isn't it?
Then there were injury problems in 1999 and 2000. They had a crappy year in 99 and were extremely lucky that they weren't dropped down below the team that was nipping at their heels. It came out at the end of that season that Shae-Lynn needed to have knee surgery. Which she did in the off season, the next year was equally terrible and they actually stopped skating mid-season so Shae could have the other knee looked after. Basically they've had a tough time of it.
As a skating fan it's sort of tough to be a Bourne & Kraatz fan. I know that sounds absolutely ridiculous if you don't follow figure skating, but it's true. They are hated in Europe, they're actually one of those teams that people say "I almost hate them because their fans are so annoying.". It's bizarre. There are a few rational fans out there. I consider myself to be one of them, and have been told by people that it's true. But generally the fans are absolutely blind to the fact that there could possibly be a problem with their skating, and that anyone is actually better than them. All of this stuff I've mentioned is the reason why I thought they'd never, ever win a gold medal at the World Championships.
Last night, they did just that. It was amazing. They've gone past the coaching problems by changing coaches...twice since 1998. And the new coaches have been absolutely fantastic for them. Their current coach was actually an associate of their coach from last season, but he broke out on his own this year and they went with him and it seems to be the best thing they've ever done. They were brilliant this year. Personally, I didn't really like their free dance, but I thought the original dance was fantastic. But they won. Finally. When I saw that last night, I was an absolute wreck. I know, it sounds silly, but it's like they're actually people I know. I've been watching them for so long it's like they're friends. I don't know them, I've met them a handful of times, but that's about it. But last night I was sitting in front of the TV with tears streaming down my face because I was so thrilled for them. It's made even more sweet by the fact that they'd announced that this would be it for them. They're done, its now time to join the professional tours, and say goodbye to judges forever. I can't imagine a nicer way to make an exit.