London Calling Us Next

What a scene it was late on this Prairie evening.
A hardy group of skating folk — coaches, fans, parents and such — sat in the terminal at John Diefenbaker Airport weary after an often frenzied week in Saskatoon. And what were we gathered around a flat screen television watching as we waited for late-night flights to take us home to destination points from coast to coast?
CBC's coverage of tonight's men's free skate, of course. Wasn't enough that we'd already seen it live. We just had to hear what Kurt Browning and Tracy Wilson had to say about it all and had to know how the people at home saw it unfold.
Yeah, it's tough to shake the Canadian figure skating championships out of your blood (for the record, your faithful blogger noted it was also available for viewing on the first of three Westjet flights that will eventually get him back to Ottawa).
More precisely, at least from this corner, there is always a touch of sadness when this little family reunion of sorts ends every year. Sure, I'm exhausted and can't wait to relax in my own bed again sometime soon.
But admittedly, there will be a few days of withdrawal ahead.
We may well see grander performances in Los Angeles at the world championships two months from now. There is a Winter Olympics moving closer into view, this one right in our own backyard in Vancouver.
And yet, I can help thinking I won't soon forget the magic that Patrick Chan and Joannie Rochette weaved before our eyes. But they're real people to me, too (lucky person that I am to say that), and it's always a treat to be reminded of that.
They did a rather neat thing today at the Credit Union Centre on the last day of the championships. Before the men's free skate final, the junior medals were presented before the Saskatoon audience. Hanging the hardware around the juniors' necks were the winners of the senior events — the very skaters the young ones certainly admire and may well even idolize. Talk about bringing it all full circle.
But that's the kind of thing you see at this event every year. Everyone who comes to nationals is a member of the Canadian skating family. It's the grandest of reunions when we gather each and every year. It is also a spirit you won't find at any other figure skating competition and it brings me back every year for more.
We head eastward next year to the John Labatt Centre in London, Ont., where not only will national champions be crowned but Olympic dreams will also come true. It should be an exciting time, indeed, and the blog surely intends to be there to chronicle it all one more time.
Thanks again to those who chose to follow this "alternative" path along with me, and especially those who took the time to share your thoughts.
Let's do it all over again in London in 2010, shall we?