Kurt Browning gets candid about his greatest achievement and biggest fear

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Kurt Browning just got home from rehearsal and walked right into life’s rich chaos – “there’s a dog and there’s kids,” he quips, over the phone – and he’d better get used to it, because soon he’ll be spending even more time with his loved ones. On April 28, more than 30 years after his first Stars on Ice appearance, the four-time world champion will begin his final stint with the show, a 12-city tour from Halifax to Vancouver. But how do you prepare to say farewell? If you’re Browning, you do it by answering our questions the way you’ve always performed: With your heart on your sleeve.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Well, I know a lot of people say their children. Let me think.

I’m sure your kids are great. You don’t have to say your children.

I was thinking about my longevity. It’s something that baffles me, that I’ve been able to do almost 1,000 Stars on Ice shows and not miss one solo, not miss anything. So my greatest achievement might be I’m still doing for a living, as an adult, what I did as a kid for fun.

When and where were you happiest?

Diving into a nice cool lake is one of my happiest moments of my life. It just sort of smooths out all the wrinkles of my life, and I can only be in that place in that moment when I’m doing that.

What trait do you think most defines you?

Sense of presence. Being able to enjoy the moment.

What is the trait that you most dislike in yourself?

Oh, there’s a lot. My forehead? I don’t even mind that, because it’s actually come in handy, to be funny a bunch of times. Um … that I don’t have a good memory. It really bugs me. That so many adventures have been lost to time. That, I wish I could change. I really do.

Maybe that’s why you love to be in the present?

Haha, probably! I’m like a goldfish!

Do you have a hobby?

I do leather work. Like, tooling leather. I grew up in Caroline, Alta. – and like, shop class, all of the kids did it, and I just didn’t stop. Recently, my brother-in-law made my brother a box, to put all his watches in, and I made the leather inset that’s got his name on it. It’s probably something that people are like, “What is that, even?” You know when you see the fancy stuff on a saddle? That’s it.

Which historical figure do you most identify with?

Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. I want to be that kind of a performer, where – as my father would say – you’ve carved time out of your life, to come to an arena to watch me skate, and you see something that is honest and pure and as recklessly abandoned control as you can get.

Do you have a fictional hero?

I’m a Trekkie, and as I’ve aged I just love the way the character of Spock has gone from 1966 to recent times, and has kept showing up in movies, cool as ever, and has just sort of stayed true. I was always a Captain Kirk guy, but, you know, eventually I became a Spock guy.

I don’t want to get you in trouble here, but: What or who is the greatest love of your life?

It’s hard, because I’m newly remarried [to skater Alissa Czisny, last August], and I can’t begin to tell you how much I like myself in this life that I’m in right now. So I truly found, I think, the love of my life. But you know, when you married your first wife [ballet dancer Sonia Rodriguez] that was also the love of your life, and she’s still a huge part of my life. But I am fully reformed due to this new relationship.

Which talent would you like to have?

To play a musical instrument. I keep toying with it and thinking that I will – and I pick up the harmonica and I buy a book, and then I lose the book and I lose the harmonica. But someday.

And would it be the harmonica?

I think so. I think there’s just something about it that’s loose and free, like skating, kind of the way where you can manipulate the music with your skating and the tempo of the ice. And I think harmonica is like that, it’s not so rigid. There’s a slurring and a blending that’s forgiving. And I’m curious about it. So, someday, if I find a good teacher, I would love to do that.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

Ah, so let’s play – because I watch too much time travel – when do I get to make this change?

Oh! Let’s say any time in your life.

I mean, it’s tempting to go back to the [1994 Lillehammer] Olympics at the five-minute warmup, and not try the last double flip. [Browning fell on that warmup jump, undercutting his confidence in the short program: he earned a low score, putting him out of contention for a medal.] Like, literally go back to that moment, get rid of that stupid mistake, and find out what my Olympic career would have been without that. But you know, unfortunately my personality comes along with doing things like that. So I would have had to change the whole person.

Was that your greatest regret?

No. No, I’ve hurt a couple of people in my life, and that would obviously be my greatest regret. Bigger than the Olympics. [Pause] But – right up there with the Olympics! [Laughs]

What is your most treasured possession?

Well, in conjunction with my other answer, it’s definitely memories. I keep most things in my life. So, I have all my dad’s old tools. I have some toys from when I was a little kid. I just keep things and I use them in weird ways, or I display them, and then that little time capsule kind of pops up over and over again in my life.

How do you think it will feel to step away from Stars on Ice?

Is ‘bittersweet’ too on the nose? I’m looking forward to it. The weird thing about this job is, you wake up in the morning in Norfolk, Va., and you have to wait until 8:45 that night to even get a chance to be good at your job. That’s your self-worth and identity as a professional figure skater. You wait all day, and then you’ve got a few moments to be worthy – and you’re either on or off. And then you have to wait for the next city to get another chance at it. It can be super rewarding or it can be really hard on your ego. So I’m not going to miss that.

What’s your greatest fear?

To be wasteful – of time, of love, of opportunities. I’ve had some really big moments in my life. You know, harkening back to those two Olympics when I was a world champion and – one with injury, and one with stupidity – they got away from me. But I feel that I’m a much better father, I’m a much better skater, performer, everything, because I did lose. So I don’t know what I would have been if I had won the Olympics. I don’t know if I would have tried so hard to have a long career. I’ll never know. But I don’t like that idea, that feeling that I didn’t make the day count.

Thank you for this, and for your evident honesty.

The honest answer with most of them is, “I really don’t know. That’s a really interesting question.” You know, this would have been better over beers.

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