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Injury forces Elvis to miss show
Shortly after the "welcome back Elvis" touring show was to have begun, Stojko announced he could not perform.
Close to tears and his voice breaking, Stojko told the Copps Coliseum crowd of 12,000 that he had been advised not to skate.
Stojko apparently felt pain in the pre-show warmup.
"He was told a long time ago by doctors that there are certain warning signs," said Ed Futerman, Stojko's lawyer and manager.
"If he feels any of those signs, he should stop skating for a while, or he takes a genuine chance of reinjuring the groin."
Standing by the boards in his street clothes, Stojko told the audience that if he were to skate, he would be threatening his career.
He was unavailable for interviews afterward, but witnesses backstage saw him in tears.
It was on the Copps ice during the Canadian championships in January that Stojko first realized he had suffered a groin injury that would jeopardize his participation in the Nagano Games in February.
The injury was kept secret, and when Stojko contracted the flu in Nagano, the injury was compromised and Stojko was barely able to make it through his free-skate program. The gold medal went to Russian Ilia Kulik, with Stojko getting silver.
Last night's show -- the final stop on a successful eight-city cross-Canada trek -- proceeded without Stojko. Other cast members, including Germany's Katarina Witt and France's Philippe Candeloro, took over some of the parts designed for Stojko.
Audience members were given half an hour to get full refunds. Officials said only 26 did so.