Player's Own Voice podcast: Kurt Browning on figure skating, then and now

Here's the thing that Patrick Chan wants to understand about his fellow figure skater, Kurt Browning. After 45 years on ice, how has Browning managed to stay in love with his sport?  Not just stay active in it — because hey, a job's a job — but stay enamoured with it all?  Browning has a one-word answer to that question: Curiosity.

Browning can't help himself, he's still curious about the next solo, the potential to make an audience feel something, the process of getting tuned up for performances. That, and the pure, simple glide of skating, keep him hooked.

With the Skate Canada event taking place this week, Player's Own Voice podcast host Anastasia Bucsis asked Browning for his assessment of skating now, and looking ahead. The way he sees it, the scoring system rewards skaters for giving the judges what they want, more or less on a silver platter.

The downside is, that can make one skater look too much like another. If anyone deviates too far from the formula, there's no way they can succeed. Which puts more creative routines on the endangered list. But the system also encourages very strong technical skating, and the performance aspect has not gone away, so that's all to the good.

Browning loves the ever-increasing global popularity of the sport. He is a big fan of what he sees in the skaters from Asia, in particular.

Looking a little bit ahead, Browning predicts some necessary growing pains. Like many sports, figure skating needs to come to terms with some abusive situations in  the past. And he says the sport still needs to tackle cheating — both varieties,  pharmaceutical and judging. That's all part of the maturation process, and he welcomes it.

Like the CBC Sports' Player's Own Voice essay series, POV podcast lets athletes speak to Canadians about issues from a personal perspective.

We have transcripts for our hard-of-hearing audience. To listen to Kurt Browning, Bianca Farella, Summer McIntosh, Beckie Sauerbrunn or any of the guests from earlier seasons,  go to CBC Listen or wherever else you get your podcasts.