Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Figure skating's Slipchuk headed to Alberta Sports Hall of Fame ...

By Brian Swane, Examiner Sports

Posted 22 hours ago

1980s Edmonton.

A blue collar city still young enough to be finding its place in the world, the provincial capital defined itself through its sport heroes. So much so, Edmonton adapted the moniker 'City of Champions?.

The Eskimos owned the turf in the first half of the decade, the Oilers ruled the ice in the second half , and there was something brewing in Edmonton?s river valley, where a group of precocious figure skaters at the Royal Glenora Club sat verging on the spectacular.

?It just was a unique time to be in Edmonton and with all the success that was happening around Edmonton, you wanted to be a part of it,? says Michael Slipchuk.

An Edmonton native and proud product of the Glenora?s figure skating heydays, Slipchuk will take his place alongside the club?s most celebrated member, Kurt Browning, as a member of the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame during the hall?s 2012 induction ceremony in Red Deer on Friday (May 25).

?Kurt and I grew up together, trained together and competed together, so to be acknowledged in the same hall as Kurt is awesome,? says Slipchuk, who was nicknamed ?Slipper..?

The Glenora?s reputation for nurturing figure skaters was so great that athletes from around the world, including American Kristi Yamaguchi, moved to Edmonton to train. In 1991, the club boasted both the world and men?s and women?s singles champions, in Browning. And Yamaguchi.

Slupchuk wasn?t quite on that level, but at the same time, there were very few in his class. Between 1987 and 1992, he competed at five world championships, placing in the top 10 twice. In 1992 he won his only Canadian title and went on finish ninth at Olympic Games in Albertville, France.

?At the time, getting to the next level was just part of the process, but looking back at it over the years you realize that you were able to compete amongst the best,? says Slipchuk.

Slipchuk is being inducted into the hall as both an athlete and a builder ? his efforts in the latter category include several years coaching in Edmonton and Calgary, and now his current position as the director of high performance of Skate Canada.

It took Slipchuk a while to find his passion. Like most Edmonton kids growing up in that time, Slipchuk?s first love was hockey, but when he was in Pee Wee he tried figure skating.

Eventually, he made the switch full-time after deciding he just wasn?t built for hockey.

?I was about 13 or 14 and at that point I was just realizing I was very small, so it didn?t matter how fast you could skate ?You were in trouble,? he recalls with a laugh.

Slipchuk?s first big win was in 1983, when he became Canada Games men?s figure skating champion. Four years later, he made his World Championship debut, and from that point on, it was all glory all the time at the Glenora: The club was on a yearly basis cranking out elite skaters, including three Olympians in 1992 (Browning, Slipchuk, and Yamaguchi) and four more in 1994 (Susan Humphries. Lisa Sargent, and pairs duo Jamie Sale and Jason Turner).

?The skating we had here was at a high level every day, and that atmosphere really propelled the Royal Glenora Club right into the 90s as the place that people wanted to be in because they were producing a lot of young skaters,? says Slipchuk.

From his current post, which he took in 1996, Slipchuk has overseen a renaissance in Canadian figure skating. This year, for the first time since 1993, the Great White North can claim two world champions, in Patrick Chan and ice dance pair Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue.

Not only does he relish helping this generation of young skaters reach their potential, but Slipchuk says he particularly enjoys working with his peers whom he grew up skating with that are now also working with Skate Canada.

?I couldn?t ask for a better occupation than I have now.?

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