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Go figure: winter stars ready to shine with Stars on Ice

The cast of performers who have contributed to the recent Canadian renaissance in their sport, skate their way through Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre tonight for their annual Stars on Ice appearance.

The cast of performers who have contributed to the recent Canadian renaissance in their sport, skate their way through Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre tonight for their annual Stars on Ice appearance.

It’s all about the summer sports cycle right now — with the 2015 Toronto Pan Am Games followed by the 2016 Rio Olympics — and in that interlude, these athletes of winter are doing some serious soul searching while performing in the 25th anniversary of Stars on Ice.

Patrick Chan, the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics silver-medallist in both men’s singles and the team event, comes into Victoria having made a momentous decision after taking a year away from competition. The three-time world champion has committed to the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games.

“I’m still young and feel I have a lot to give to the sport,” said Chan, by phone.

The 24-year-old will do so with a new perspective, after taking up skydiving and back-country hiking.

“You shouldn’t live in a bubble . . . be spontaneous and don’t let fear hinder you,” he said.

“The view down to earth from skydiving showed me how insignificant we are on this planet. It brought into perspective that the Olympics are not life and death, and that I should be happy to be in my position.”

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir come to the capital uncertain about Pyeongchang 2018 after winning a memorable ice-dance gold medal in the home-country 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, followed by silver at Sochi 2014.

“We keep pushing [the decision] off, we don’t know, but more and more we’re thinking about coming back, although that’s not a commitment,” said Moir, also in a telephone interview.

He credits Stars on Ice for rekindling his passion for skating.

“It’s mind-boggling that this show has been going for 25 years, and that’s a tribute to Kurt Browning,” said Moir.

“Tessa and I are competitive people and we have re-found our love of the sport [through performing in Stars on Ice].”

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the show keeps the duo in skating trim, should they return to the crucible of competitive skating.

“We’ll give ourselves a little more time [to decide about Pyeongchang 2018]. We’re in our eighth year with this show and we take advantage of it by challenging ourselves in it,” said Virtue, by phone last week during a tour stop.

The post-Sochi year for Canadian skating was highlighted by Meagan Duhamel’s and Eric Radford’s gold medal in pairs at the 2015 world championships in Shanghai. They will be skating tonight at the Memorial Centre, where they made their debut as a pair at the 2011 Canadian championships.

“The pressure of Sochi was difficult and we considered not going on,” added Radford, who placed seventh with Duhamel.

“In hindsight, we know how much pressure we put on ourselves.”

Once they realized that, the turnabout was as startling as it was meteoric. Not only did they win Canada’s first world championship in pairs since Sale and Pelletier in 2001, but Duhamel and Radford have been undefeated in the six events since Sochi, including the Four Continents and Grand Prix final.

“We relaxed a bit and stopped focusing on winning,” said Duhamel. “When we did that, we started winning.”

Tonight’s show will also feature the legendary Browning, Olympic bronze-medallists Joannie Rochette and Jeffrey Buttle, world silver-medallists Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje, U.S. champion Ashley Wagner and high-energy Canadian silver-medallist Shawn Sawyer.

For Duhamel and Radford, and Virtue and Moir, it comes full circle tonight on Blanshard to where they made their senior debuts as duos, at the 2011 Canadian championships and 2006 Skate Canada International, respectively.

“Victoria skating crowds are amazing, always bringing so much energy to that building,” said Duhamel.

cdheensaw@timescolonist.com

Twitter.com/tc_vicsports