Toronto — World figure skating champion Jeffrey Buttle shocked the skating world on Wednesday when he announced his retirement from competition, with only 17 months to go until the Vancouver/Whistler Olympics.
Skate Canada found out only two days ago that the 26-year-old skater had decided he didn't have a heart left for competition and that he thought it would be better to allow another Canadian to take his spot in Vancouver.
Buttle's retirement puts into question the number of spots for men that Canada may earn for the 2010 Winter Olympics. With Buttle's win and Patrick Chan's ninth-place finish at the world championships last year, Canada may send three men to the world championships this season in Los Angeles.
But the worlds determine the number of skaters each country may send to the Vancouver Olympics. And if Buttle's successors cannot deliver in Los Angeles, Canada may lose a spot - or maybe even two - for the Games.
Canada's Jeffrey Buttle from Smooth Rock Falls, Ont. shown here performing his free program to win the gold medal in the men's competition at the World Figure Skating Champiomships in Goteborg, Sweden last year. (Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press)
"It's obviously a very difficult day for us at Skate Canada," William Thompson, the association's chief executive officer, said Wednesday during a news conference at a downtown hotel. "However, I admire his decision, and we fully support Jeff in whatever he chooses to do. For us, it is more important that our athletes are well-rounded individuals who go on to great things in their lives, and I have no doubt that Jeffrey will succeed in life from this point forward.
"But you've got to be sad when you lose your world champion."
Thompson said Canada still has depth in men's skating and it will be their job to step out and fill "Jeff's rather large skates.
"I know they can do it and they will rise to this challenge," he said. "But each day is going to be a turning point for all of their training as well."
The announcement comes on the eve of a national training camp in Vancouver and will immediately change the focus of their work.
Thompson said that in the weeks following Buttle's dominating victory at the world championships in Gothenburg, Sweden, last March, he wondered if the athlete would consider retirement. But by last month, when he saw that Buttle had been working on two new routines and that he had been working diligently on the elusive quadruple jump, he figured Buttle was here to stay.
Buttle wasn't so sure. He said after he recovered from the high of winning the world championships, he began to struggle with thoughts about his future. He felt he was satisfied and proud of what he had done, but he didn't want to make the decision in a week, so he decided that he'd go through a summer of training before he made up his mind.
Buttle said the only thing that stopped him from retiring on the spot was the lure of an Olympics in his home country.
"I just came to the conclusion that I wasn't continuing on for all the right reasons," he said. "The city that the Olympics is in shouldn't be the motivating factor. I have to feel it inside. That was the breaking point."
He felt it would be a greater shame to take away the opportunities from a strong field of upcoming male skaters in Canada. He felt he had nothing left to prove. He has already won a bronze medal at the Turin Olympics.
"The Vancouver Olympics is important to me, but winning them isn't." he said.
He said he talked it over with some pro skaters, like Kurt Browning, Brian Orser and Jennifer Robinson. Thompson said that although it would have been possible for Buttle to equal his effort in Gothenburg, it would have been difficult. Buttle won by about 14 points in capturing both the short and long programs.
About 10 days ago, his mother, Lesley, got a call from Buttle, who had been training in California. She heard a certain tone in his voice that told her something momentous was about to happen.
"You know what, mom?" he told her. "I don't want to do this."
"You mean you don't want to skate?" his mother said.
"I want to skate, but I don't want to compete," Buttle said. "My heart isn't in this. The closer I get to competition, the less passionate I am about being there."
Buttle was to have competed first at Skate Canada in Ottawa in November.
"Jeffrey always skated with passion," Lesley Buttle said. "If that's missing, it could be a very flat performance and I would hate that. A flat performance is one thing you never got from him, even when the program wasn't technically sound."
Lesley suggested he come home. When she picked him up at the airport, Buttle told her that he hadn't changed his mind about retiring. "Are you disappointed?" he asked her.
"Totally not," she said. "I was the one whose jaw dropped when he finished high school and he said he wanted to continue skating."
Lesley said she would never live her life the way her son did to eventually win the world title.
"He was so obsessive with his lifestyle," she said. "He went to bed every night and he woke up at the same time every morning. He ate the same thing every day. He ate at the same time every day. New Year's Eve? He'd spend it with his mother and go to bed at 11 o'clock. Who does that when they're 25? He was very dedicated to the lifestyle.
"In some ways, it will be hard for him this season to watch skating and not be there. And that was his concern about Vancouver, to sit and watch the opening ceremonies. But he said, the location doesn't matter."
Buttle said he will not focus on what opportunities pop up for him in the show and touring world. That's first on his list, while he's still young and fit. Eventually, he'll go back to the University of Toronto to finish his chemical engineering degree. He started taking courses part time in 2002, but still has three years left to finish.
Buttle may also have a career in choreography. He's known as a musical performer who did intricate, difficult technical footwork, spins and transitional moves, if not quads.
"Technical advancement is not simply about jumps," said Thompson, a former international judge. "I think what he brought to the sport was unique and beautiful and artistic and athletic. And I will miss that."
"There are many, many champions, but there are very few great ones," said former skater Debbi Wilkes, director of marketing and communications for Skate Canada. "I believe that the greatest champions are those that change the sport in some very significant way. Jeffrey is definitely one of those."
What will spectators miss this season? Buttle's new long program, called Eclogue (a short pastoral poem), may have been the best of his career - but they won't see it at Skate Canada or the Canadian championships. Buttle heard the music on his iPod while driving his car.
"I immediately thought of John Curry and Brian Orser and I thought, 'Oh my god, this music is so pure and clean and it's everything I believe about in skating'," he said.
Buttle said he won't let go of it. It may show up at a pro-am competition or a show.