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K-W skater shines on world stage
16-year-old Blair Smith aiming for the top after success against European juniors
The medallion Blair Smith wears around his neck wouldn't rust if he got it wet.
All the same, the 16-year-old from Brantford removes it before he showers. The rest of the time, it's around his neck, even when he's sleeping.
The part of it that's 18 karat yellow gold makes the letter 'G.' That's 'G' for Gardenia, Italy. On the 'G,' set in white gold, is the figure of a skater. That skater is any skater, or perhaps Blair himself, since it represents his victory in the junior class in Gardenia, Italy, in April, when he won for the first time in international competition.
He wears it like a talisman at practices and when he comes down from a jump it taps him lightly on the chin, letting him know it's still there.
These days, Blair is in Grade 11 at Brantford North Park collegiate. He represents the Brantford Figure Skating Club, but trains six days a week with coach Bob Mackowski with the K-W Skating Club at Waterloo's Rink in the Park during the fall, winter and spring. In the summer, he divides nine weeks of training between Mackowski in Waterloo and Doug Leigh in Barrie.
He's been working on adding the triple axel, the difficult three-and-a-half jump, to his reportoire, which includes five other jumps -- the triple lutz, triple fling, triple toe loop, triple loop and triple salchow. Every time he tries the axel, the same thing happens.
"I fall," he said.
Five times each practice session, he falls. In six practice sessions a week, with five attempts at the triple axel, he falls 30 times. But that's the dues skaters pay to break into the upper echelon of a sport where the skate blades have picks, the costumes are colourful and everyone knows Elvis is alive.
"We want to work on the triple axel," Mackowski said, "so that when he's senior he'll make an impact immediately. We started in April, but he had a groin injury, so it set us back a bit, but by the Nationals (in Ottawa in January) we have to be doing them."
Mackowski compares landing the first triple axel to arriving at a place you've never been before. And once you know how to get there, you know how to go back again.
It's rare to see a triple axel at the junior level, but Blair remembers that Jason Denomme of Quebec landed one.
How many times, as Blair falls in practice while trying the triple axel, has that medallion whacked him in the chin, reminding him of what he's achieved so far? He was eighth in a junior Grand Prix event in October in Slovakia and ninth in September in Bulgaria.
In 1997, he was sixth at the Junior Nationals in Vancouver.
Blair's short program has a Spanish theme and he wears a matador costume made by his mother Libby.
His long program is choreographed to a selection from Rossini's William Tell Overture and he wears a costume that is classical in style, with a velvet, burgundy vest, also made by his mother.
Blair plays floor hockey once a week, and although he is a fan of Mats Sundin he has never taken up ice hockey. "When I was younger," he said, "I really progressed quickly, so it was fun."
He learned to skate at age four and soon joined the club in Brantford.
He's been competing nationally since 1994 when he was in the novice age group in Edmonton and the Canadian Figure Skating Association sends him overseas for international competition a couple times a year.
"You get the experience," Blair said, "and understand the different things the Europeans are doing and what their programs are like."
Smith and Mackowski have seen the good, the bad and the ugly in Europe, from the beauty of Gardenia and Slovenia to the ugliness of Sofia, Bulgaria, a city that is so run down it's impossible to buy a souvenir of the place.
"You wouldn't see anything close to it in Canada," Blair said. "It's not anywhere you'd go to on vacation. Gardenia was the nicest place I've ever been in Europe. It's right in the mountains."
Blair has found that the competition's good and the judging's fair in Europe, but nobody comes to watch, although admission's free. The seats are empty, unless a teacher brings a captive audience of students to the rink.
That's a far cry from North America, where people open their wallets when the world's best skaters, the ones who've been to the World Championships and the Olympics, come to town.
Blair hopes some day to be among the world's best.
"I think Blair has the potential to be a medalist at the Worlds," Mackowski said. "His potential is endless. He can make a career out of skating."