SShaste
12-30-2002, 09:10 PM
****CONTINUED*****
T.L. – So you’re looking at yourself, the body that had never let you down is starting to let you down, the will that had never let you down is starting to let you down. Where are you at this point? How do you salvage this?
E.S. – I laid it out and said you know what, this must be a journey for me so it’s not like why me, poor me, I looked at it and said okay this is another challenge I’m gonna have to deal with. Regardless of the way I feel I’ve set a goal for myself and I’ll do everything I can to make it happen because I’ve only got one more shot at it. I can’t look back 10 years from now and go maybe I should’ve tried. I don’t want to have any regrets that I didn’t try. So I just kept that in mind and I did it day by day. I got myself up, went to the rink, trained as much as I could, did things that need to be done in order to get to where I want to go.
T.L. – You got to Salt Lake and when we come back we’re gonna talk about Salt Lake, the impact on the sport and where the sport today is, state of the union if you will, in your sport as we continue on Game Faces.
(Commercial)
T.L. – As we continue our conversation. Elvis, Canadian men, multiple world championships to their credit and yet Canadian men go to the Olympic games unable to win the gold. Why?
E.S. – That’s a very good question (laughs). I know that as far as I can remember back, watching Brian in the 80’s, 7th after figures. Figures were a way to, in some ways to control the sport in another way politically. Some of the good free skaters if they, I guess if they didn’t want them up there they’d have them in the mid-pack and Brian was one of them. He was 7th after figures, won the short, won the long, pulled himself up to second, and then again the controversy of uh in ’88 it was very close between the battle of the Brians where you know you had Orser who was amazing, awesome skater, and I think the quality of the skating was better than Boitano’s and both of them are my friends, I’ve skated with both of them, I’ve trained with Brian. Boitano had the better skate that day, the quality of the skating on Orser’s part was better but it ended up silver. Kurt trying to do the Olympic games as well, had a back injury you know the second time also coming off a difficult season. ’92, when I went, skated clean both performances and dropped a placing, that was a huge controversy. In ’94 again another controversy with the different style, in ’98 with the injury.
T.L. – So if you were to isolate it you really looked at it sequentially but if you were to isolate it is there a reason? Is it a staked situation against Canada? Is it circumstance?
E.S. – You know I said to Jamie Sale before we were on our way to Olympics, we were going to the training camp in Calgary before we left for Salt Lake and they were asking me you know, having been to Olympics and so forth what can we expect and I said to them, I said you know what expect anything, I said the weirdest things happen at the Olympic games. That’s what I said to her, the whole fiasco ended, Jamie comes to me and says Elvis I can’t believe you said that to me, I said Jamie I told you the weirdest things happen at the Olympic games (Jamie told the same story during her interview for Game Faces). Because of the magnitude of the sport a lot of things go on, unfortunately we saw what goes on behind the scenes. I don’t think that that happens all the time. I thought it would happen maybe at the Olympic games because of the, the nature of the beast, because of how important it is and how money is involved and so forth in the sport and how it rules everything unfortunately.
T.L. – Well let me ask you this, what do you think of the people that run the International Skating Union?
E.S. – I think they need to make some changes. I think they should be taking some people out and putting some new, fresher people in.
T.L. – But are there specific people?
E.S. – Um, there are a few specific people involved but, and it’s tough over the years because there’s people that…
T.L. – And who are they?
E.S. – Well those names I can’t say because I’ve had people come to me behind the scenes, quietly, and say we love what you’re doing but I can’t say it openly.
T.L. – How do you reconcile being in a sport like that?
E.S. – You push all that aside, you don’t get involved and you just skate and that’s, that’s what I’ve done. I love to skate, I love to be on the ice in its purest form, the passion of it, and that’s why I endured through all that.
T.L. – But what do you think of the new judging? The expanded panel, the fact that judges don’t know which of the scores will be used and when they are used it will be anonymous. What do you think of that?
E.S. – How do we know that nothings going on? Because we don’t know anything now, watching it, we just see marks, we don’t see judges, we don’t see anything. From the case, what happened at Olympics how do we trust that? It’s a step maybe in the right direction because they want to make some changes but I don’t know what will be better. I don’t have the answer.
T.L. – Let me go back to the national scene and the men’s team and the women’s team in this country apparently is lacking in star power. Now with all due respect to Jennifer Robinson and Emmanuel Sandhu, outstanding skaters and yet there seems to be a void in the star power. Why?
E.S. – Well I know throughout the history in Canada we’ve had voids but we always had maybe one person coming through. When a number of them retired after ’88 and Kurt came in the next year and won in ’89, won the world championships and had, we had him there and then we had an amazing team in ’93 you know we had a very strong team that year and…
T.L. – But why now? Are you saying it’s a void?
E.S. – I think there is a little bit of a void. I mean a lot of, I was in it for a long time I’ve moved on, Jamie and David were in for a brief time and they’ve moved on. To allow it to develop underneath it takes time. Sometimes it happens right away and sometimes it doesn’t and you, we always try to look for patterns so that we can predict the future, that’s human nature because we want to find and be comfortable with the future because if we know what happens, we’re comfortable. We don’t like the unknown that’s in our nature that’s why we like to know what’s happening in front of us. But it’s never the same, there’s never a pattern, it always changes, that’s how life is you have to deal with what comes, right now we have a void, not taking away from Jennifer, not taking away from Emmanuel and the younger skaters that are there. But they’re gonna be developing still, they’re gonna get the experience they need to move on and fit those positions and become the star power that’s gonna be the next generation.
T.L. – When we continue our conversation there’s still lots more to talk about especially about your future. Where Hollywood may be in the stars as we continue with Elvis.
(Commercial)
T.L. – As we continue our conversation on Game Face with Elvis Stojko, Elvis, figure skating to auto racing, what is that all about?
E.S. – Well I’m a huge fan of motor racing sports, motor-cross, super bike, car racing, and had taken my car to the track and done laps and I guess someone was there, saw that I had a little bit of talent and thought I might be interested in maybe doing some racing later on in my life which I would love to do. Because I feel great in a car, I enjoy being on the track, I’ve done a number of courses and had been offered a couple of spots to maybe race. Could be anywhere, Cascar or wherever, and I’d really, for me that’s a personal thing, that’s something that I want to do because I’ve been in a sport that’s subjective, where I’d really love to do a sport where it’s the first one that crosses the finish line, no matter how you look, as long as you cross that finish line first you got it and to me it’s just another challenge that I’d like to do in my life. Later on, as it comes, because I have many years to do that.
T.L. – And yet a very good friend of yours almost lost his life.
E.S. – Yes
T.L. – And you know who I’m talking about.
E.S. – Yeah, Jason Priestly
(Shows pictures of Jason at the track before and after his accident)
E.S. – I had spoken with Jason because we had just finished doing a Christmas special that’ll be coming out actually pretty soon with Dave Foley. We talked about it; two weeks later he had that accident. However he’s racing a series that’s a little more intense, the infinity series is running a very similar car to an Indy car, very fast, the safety features are good but compared to say a car that’s completely closed like a LeMan’s car, which I’d like to race. Porsche in the class of you know racing Corvettes and Vipers and so forth.
T.L. – You’ve been known to take that Porsche on the highway (laughs).
E.S. – Have some fun, yeah (laughs).
T.L. – With the same kind of speed as LeMan’s.
E.S. – Well I enjoy the speed, I enjoy that, and doing it on the track is awesome. I just love the feeling of a road course instead of just an oval, to me, it’s challenging to me, I really get into it. I have a passion for it; we talked about passion earlier.
****CONTINUED IN PART 3 THREAD****
T.L. – So you’re looking at yourself, the body that had never let you down is starting to let you down, the will that had never let you down is starting to let you down. Where are you at this point? How do you salvage this?
E.S. – I laid it out and said you know what, this must be a journey for me so it’s not like why me, poor me, I looked at it and said okay this is another challenge I’m gonna have to deal with. Regardless of the way I feel I’ve set a goal for myself and I’ll do everything I can to make it happen because I’ve only got one more shot at it. I can’t look back 10 years from now and go maybe I should’ve tried. I don’t want to have any regrets that I didn’t try. So I just kept that in mind and I did it day by day. I got myself up, went to the rink, trained as much as I could, did things that need to be done in order to get to where I want to go.
T.L. – You got to Salt Lake and when we come back we’re gonna talk about Salt Lake, the impact on the sport and where the sport today is, state of the union if you will, in your sport as we continue on Game Faces.
(Commercial)
T.L. – As we continue our conversation. Elvis, Canadian men, multiple world championships to their credit and yet Canadian men go to the Olympic games unable to win the gold. Why?
E.S. – That’s a very good question (laughs). I know that as far as I can remember back, watching Brian in the 80’s, 7th after figures. Figures were a way to, in some ways to control the sport in another way politically. Some of the good free skaters if they, I guess if they didn’t want them up there they’d have them in the mid-pack and Brian was one of them. He was 7th after figures, won the short, won the long, pulled himself up to second, and then again the controversy of uh in ’88 it was very close between the battle of the Brians where you know you had Orser who was amazing, awesome skater, and I think the quality of the skating was better than Boitano’s and both of them are my friends, I’ve skated with both of them, I’ve trained with Brian. Boitano had the better skate that day, the quality of the skating on Orser’s part was better but it ended up silver. Kurt trying to do the Olympic games as well, had a back injury you know the second time also coming off a difficult season. ’92, when I went, skated clean both performances and dropped a placing, that was a huge controversy. In ’94 again another controversy with the different style, in ’98 with the injury.
T.L. – So if you were to isolate it you really looked at it sequentially but if you were to isolate it is there a reason? Is it a staked situation against Canada? Is it circumstance?
E.S. – You know I said to Jamie Sale before we were on our way to Olympics, we were going to the training camp in Calgary before we left for Salt Lake and they were asking me you know, having been to Olympics and so forth what can we expect and I said to them, I said you know what expect anything, I said the weirdest things happen at the Olympic games. That’s what I said to her, the whole fiasco ended, Jamie comes to me and says Elvis I can’t believe you said that to me, I said Jamie I told you the weirdest things happen at the Olympic games (Jamie told the same story during her interview for Game Faces). Because of the magnitude of the sport a lot of things go on, unfortunately we saw what goes on behind the scenes. I don’t think that that happens all the time. I thought it would happen maybe at the Olympic games because of the, the nature of the beast, because of how important it is and how money is involved and so forth in the sport and how it rules everything unfortunately.
T.L. – Well let me ask you this, what do you think of the people that run the International Skating Union?
E.S. – I think they need to make some changes. I think they should be taking some people out and putting some new, fresher people in.
T.L. – But are there specific people?
E.S. – Um, there are a few specific people involved but, and it’s tough over the years because there’s people that…
T.L. – And who are they?
E.S. – Well those names I can’t say because I’ve had people come to me behind the scenes, quietly, and say we love what you’re doing but I can’t say it openly.
T.L. – How do you reconcile being in a sport like that?
E.S. – You push all that aside, you don’t get involved and you just skate and that’s, that’s what I’ve done. I love to skate, I love to be on the ice in its purest form, the passion of it, and that’s why I endured through all that.
T.L. – But what do you think of the new judging? The expanded panel, the fact that judges don’t know which of the scores will be used and when they are used it will be anonymous. What do you think of that?
E.S. – How do we know that nothings going on? Because we don’t know anything now, watching it, we just see marks, we don’t see judges, we don’t see anything. From the case, what happened at Olympics how do we trust that? It’s a step maybe in the right direction because they want to make some changes but I don’t know what will be better. I don’t have the answer.
T.L. – Let me go back to the national scene and the men’s team and the women’s team in this country apparently is lacking in star power. Now with all due respect to Jennifer Robinson and Emmanuel Sandhu, outstanding skaters and yet there seems to be a void in the star power. Why?
E.S. – Well I know throughout the history in Canada we’ve had voids but we always had maybe one person coming through. When a number of them retired after ’88 and Kurt came in the next year and won in ’89, won the world championships and had, we had him there and then we had an amazing team in ’93 you know we had a very strong team that year and…
T.L. – But why now? Are you saying it’s a void?
E.S. – I think there is a little bit of a void. I mean a lot of, I was in it for a long time I’ve moved on, Jamie and David were in for a brief time and they’ve moved on. To allow it to develop underneath it takes time. Sometimes it happens right away and sometimes it doesn’t and you, we always try to look for patterns so that we can predict the future, that’s human nature because we want to find and be comfortable with the future because if we know what happens, we’re comfortable. We don’t like the unknown that’s in our nature that’s why we like to know what’s happening in front of us. But it’s never the same, there’s never a pattern, it always changes, that’s how life is you have to deal with what comes, right now we have a void, not taking away from Jennifer, not taking away from Emmanuel and the younger skaters that are there. But they’re gonna be developing still, they’re gonna get the experience they need to move on and fit those positions and become the star power that’s gonna be the next generation.
T.L. – When we continue our conversation there’s still lots more to talk about especially about your future. Where Hollywood may be in the stars as we continue with Elvis.
(Commercial)
T.L. – As we continue our conversation on Game Face with Elvis Stojko, Elvis, figure skating to auto racing, what is that all about?
E.S. – Well I’m a huge fan of motor racing sports, motor-cross, super bike, car racing, and had taken my car to the track and done laps and I guess someone was there, saw that I had a little bit of talent and thought I might be interested in maybe doing some racing later on in my life which I would love to do. Because I feel great in a car, I enjoy being on the track, I’ve done a number of courses and had been offered a couple of spots to maybe race. Could be anywhere, Cascar or wherever, and I’d really, for me that’s a personal thing, that’s something that I want to do because I’ve been in a sport that’s subjective, where I’d really love to do a sport where it’s the first one that crosses the finish line, no matter how you look, as long as you cross that finish line first you got it and to me it’s just another challenge that I’d like to do in my life. Later on, as it comes, because I have many years to do that.
T.L. – And yet a very good friend of yours almost lost his life.
E.S. – Yes
T.L. – And you know who I’m talking about.
E.S. – Yeah, Jason Priestly
(Shows pictures of Jason at the track before and after his accident)
E.S. – I had spoken with Jason because we had just finished doing a Christmas special that’ll be coming out actually pretty soon with Dave Foley. We talked about it; two weeks later he had that accident. However he’s racing a series that’s a little more intense, the infinity series is running a very similar car to an Indy car, very fast, the safety features are good but compared to say a car that’s completely closed like a LeMan’s car, which I’d like to race. Porsche in the class of you know racing Corvettes and Vipers and so forth.
T.L. – You’ve been known to take that Porsche on the highway (laughs).
E.S. – Have some fun, yeah (laughs).
T.L. – With the same kind of speed as LeMan’s.
E.S. – Well I enjoy the speed, I enjoy that, and doing it on the track is awesome. I just love the feeling of a road course instead of just an oval, to me, it’s challenging to me, I really get into it. I have a passion for it; we talked about passion earlier.
****CONTINUED IN PART 3 THREAD****