I think the move could be a good thing for Brian. I believe he is popular in Russia, and the situation with the French Federation has become a corrosive one. I think he needs a vacation from all that. I have always loved Brian's classic, purely athletic skating, but this season, he has shown me that he has even more than that to offer, with his beautiful "Hallelujah" exhibition program.
It is no easy thing for a 6.0 skater to compete in an IJS (CoP) world, with its ever-changing rules, yet Brian won Worlds in 2007, and won the silver in Worlds 2008. He has gone through illness and injury, and come back like a lion, refusing to let problems, mistakes, and bad luck stop him. I may not always like his choices, but I always like him; I always have. I think he has an ingenuous purity of purpose, beautiful posture and line. When he hits his triple axel, it is big and beautiful, and so classic to behold. He believes in the importance of the jumps, and most of all, in the courage to attempt them honestly, not cynically just for the rotation points. Not everyone is a jump-lover, but you don't have to be a jump-lover to love Brian's skating; you just have to be a courage-lover, and I happily confess to being both.
Whatever happens, I shall always be wishing Brian well, and I hope that working in Russia, if he so chooses, will bring him good things. I think that working in Canada with Brian Orser has brought Yu-Na Kim good things. Sometimes one has to leave home for a while to find all of oneself.
