Figure skating finals big deal for JLC
By MORRIS DALLA COSTA -- London Free Press
The first sports gem has been placed on the crown of what is becoming London's sparkling jewel.
The John Labatt Centre will be the site of the 2005 Canadian figure skating championships.
While the JLC has been the site of hockey games, major concerts and theatre productions, and while it may eventually be the facility that will hold a world junior hockey championship and the Memorial Cup, these championships are the first national sporting competition it has held.
Without doubt, it won't be the last, erasing many doubts that existed several years ago when the city announced it would construct the downtown facility amid criticism and concern.
"London had it in 1976, but it hasn't been back" because the facilities were "too small," said Bill Boland of London, Skate Canada's finance and planning chair and a member of its executive committee. (Skate Canada is the new name of the Canadian Figure Skating Association.)
The 1976 event was held at Western's Thompson arena.
"We always wanted to come back and have been trying to set it up ever since we heard the John Labatt Centre was being built. We wanted to get it here for the first year it was opened."
The figure skating association brought its Skate Canada international event to the London Gardens/Ice House in 1991 and that was the last major competitive skating event in the city. For good reason.
Now there's good reason to return.
"We feel London will be a great fit for this event and the venue is a state-of-the-art facility," said Pam Coburn, CEO of skating's governing body.
It's an ongoing theme. When an event goes to Hamilton or Edmonton or Halifax, the comments are usually about the support the event is going to get, the tradition of previous ventures into that city.
Now, when an event comes to London, it's inevitable that organizers focus on the "state-of-the-art facility."
This is a national event. This is the event the likes of Brian Orser, Kurt Browning, Elvis Stojko, Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz, David Pelletier and Jamie Sale and many other internationally recognized skaters have competed in.
Toller Cranston won when it was last held in London in 1976. Lynn Nightingale won in the women's division.
Due to a number of recent retirements from amateur skating, it's a quiet time for a nation that usually has one dominant skater or team.
But who knows what a year will bring?
The enigmatic Emanuel Sandhu is Canada's best- known male skater, while Jennifer Robinson of Windsor is the best-known female.
Somewhere in the corps of Canadian singles, pairs or ice dancers, there may more international champions in waiting.
Perhaps 2005 might be a breakthrough year for Christopher Mabee of Tillsonburg, who is considered one of the hot prospects in men's singles skating. He qualified Tuesday in Edmonton for the men's final on Saturday.
From Jan. 17-23 next year, he may get to skate in a national championship a half-hour from his hometown. Who would have thought that possible a few years ago?
While the coming of this event is big for figure skating aficionados, it's even bigger for the reputation of this city.
It means the JLC has elevated London's reputation in the eyes of high-profile organizations who gave up on the city in the '80s and '90s.
That statement yells to other high-powered organizations that it's OK to bring big-time events to London.
This event wasn't something the city had to bid on to obtain. There was no begging involved in an effort to make it happen. This time, the nation wanted to come to London because of its market and facility.
It's a significant statement that gives greater significance to what the JLC means for this city now -- and what it will mean in the future.
