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Written by Dale Woodard
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Wednesday, November 25 2009, 11:00 PM |
First and foremost, figure skating is fun. No matter what the level the athlete is competing at, that is the credo Olympic medallist Jeffrey Buttle hands down to anyone asking his advice.
On Dec. 8 at the Enmax Centre, figuring skating fans will get to see the 2008 World Champion, three-time Canadian Champion and Olympic bronze medallists put that motto to work when Buttle takes the ice as part of the Holiday Festival on Ice starting at 7 p.m.
“I have always stressed the importance of the reason I started skating, and for myself it was fun,” said Buttle Wednesday afternoon, on the phone from his home in Toronto where he was taking a break before hitting the road for the Festival on Ice’s western swing.
“I enjoyed it, no matter what point in my career. Even when I was training for the Olympics, of course there were some days that were difficult. But sometimes it’s looking back at the simplest reason of why you do it. That can be a great motivating factor to stay with it.
“I would have these stressful days training for the Games and I would go back and look at the fact that I love to skate. Despite all of the stress I focus on that and that would really help me out. I would focus on that reason.”
That outlook paid off, landing Buttle the 2008 World Championship — the first Canadian world title in 11 years — as well as the 2006 Olympic bronze medal, Canada’s first in figure skating since 1976. Now with the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver mere months away, the 27-year-old has been tagged as one of Canada’s top medal hopes.
But Buttle’s rise to the elite ranks began at the grassroots level when the then two-year-old put on skates and stepped onto the ice for the first time in his northern Ontario home of Smooth Rock Falls.
“Up there it was just something everyone learned to do and they did it recreationally to have fun and learn to skate,” said Buttle. “My parents put us in a Learn To Skate program. I took to the ice and loved it right away. I was never really competitive at it until my teens. It was really just something to get me active after school and it was something I enjoyed.”
But when he finally decided to kick it up a notch into the competitive realm Buttle quickly realized one thing, there aren’t many male figure skaters in northern Ontario.
“It was actually when I went to my first national championship in 1995 that was the first time I had seen an event of that size and with as many men in one competition,” said Buttle. “It was a really good awakening. I was able to watch Elvis Stojko compete and it really opened my eyes to the fact I could really pursue this and become competitive at it.”
That feeling proved accurate.
Buttle commanded the international spotlight in 2002 when he upset a field of favoured skaters to capture the ISU Four Continents Cup, an accomplishment he repeated again in 2004.
With the Olympics approaching, Buttle has been spending some of his time training with coach Raphael Arutunian at the Ice Castle International Training Centre in Lake Arrowhead, California.
But for now Buttle is getting ready to hit the tour trail.
“I’ve been travelling quite a lot, I’m finally home for a bit,” he said. “I’ve been doing a lot of performing and enjoying it, it’s great. Now that I’m pro I’m out a lot more times to do shows and travel.”
That and occasionally flick on the TV and catch the antics of Bart, Homer and the rest of the gang as the noted Simpsons fan takes in a episode when he can.
“I really enjoyed the episode with the grammatical robot Lisa built and the way they planned that whole episode where each individual character had their own version of the story,” said Buttle of his favorite episode.
And figure skating fans taking in the Dec. 8 show at the Enmax can likely bank on uttering the occasional “Aye Carumba!” with a who’s-who roster of talent that will include Kurt Browning, Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon, Steven Cousins, Ekaterina Gordeeva and Shawn Sawyer
“They can certainly expect some good skating,” said Buttle.
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