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Much ado about Stojko
That is, they gathered the camera crowd together to end speculation regarding Stojko's sore groin. The three-time world figure skating champion aggravated his groin on Saturday, forcing him to withdraw from a show at Hamilton's Copps Coliseum. The resulting media frenzy caught Team Stojko a little off-guard.
"I thought we we're going to announce some cure for cancer today," said a slightly exasperated Doug Leigh, Stojko's coach. "I read the papers and it looked like somebody got winged into the pavement and everybody's looking for a funeral.
"I'm just a little ticked off that this thing had gotten out of proportion," added Leigh, who was informed of Stojko's aggravated groin on Sunday by a journalist.
Stojko's manager Ed Futerman said Sunday the skater would be back on the ice sometime early this week, but that he probably wouldn't be practising any jumps for two or three weeks.
As it is, Stojko did resume training Monday and while he has practised most of his triples, the Richmond Hill skater admitted the groin, which he severely aggravated at the 1998 Nagano Olympics, is still tender.
What Stojko wanted to stress, however, was that he's still on target to compete at the Canadian championships, Jan. 27-31 in Ottawa, and expects to be fully recovered in time for the world championships, March 21-28 in Helsinki, Finland.
'JUST ANOTHER HURDLE'
"It's just another hurdle and another challenge we have to deal with," Stojko said at the Mariposa club in Barrie.
Stojko, 26, said his leg became "very, very tired, very sore and over-strained" during the last part of his recent Canon Tour of Champions. Prior to the last show of the tour, this past Saturday in Hamilton, the injury worsened and Stojko decided to pull out of the event.
"It was an emotional decision, I wanted to be out there," he said. "But if I take that chance and tear it, I ruin the year and I can also ruin my career.
"I'm not going to risk it like I did at the Olympics," added Stojko, who skated a gutsy silver-medal winning performance in Nagano despite the torn groin. "This is not the Olympics.
"I'm tough when I need to be but often times you have to be smart and (pulling out of Hamilton) was smart."
Stojko has stepped up his acupuncture treatments to two a day and will have an MRI done next week.