It has always been about the skating, about the pure, boundless joy that would consume a young boy’s heart every second he spent on even the most obscure frozen patch of water.

Jeffrey Buttle felt it from the day his parents first put him on a pair of blades in a tiny Northern Ontario town. All these years later — after all the medals, titles and accolades — it remains the ever-flowing source of the passion that still burns fiercely inside him.

To recognize this is to truly understand Buttle. To nod approvingly at the thought that, a mere 18 months away from a chance at what might have been his greatest triumph, the reigning World men’s champion closed the door on that prospect and on everything else in a competitive career that had soared to a new peak just last March in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Several days after shocking the skating world with his retirement announcement, Buttle remained utterly content and at peace. He is moving on to the next chapter in his skating life, critics be damned. Nothing they say will make him waver in his conviction.

“I’m leaving on my terms from competition,” the 26-year-old native of Smooth Rock Falls, Ont. told IFS in an interview regarding the decision that left so many on the outside shaking their heads. “I don’t think many athletes can say they accomplished their dreams. That was a huge deal for me.”

A PASSION FOR THE SPORT

In truth, every second spent on the ice is a dream for a skater who fell in love with the sport at a young age. He now admits his parents, Lesley and Peter, first put him in skating “just to put me in it.”

The deep love he still harbors for the sport is why he stayed in it. “As long as you keep doing it because you love to do it, it never seems like that much of a burden,” he said. “You just feel kind of lucky.”

It was anything but a straight line to the top of the World podium, or to the bronze medal at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Torino, or to the three Canadian titles along the way.

While those who know him best speak with pride about Buttle’s greatest accomplishments, they always get back to the essence of it all in trying to define a uniquely talented performer.

“Just the joy of skating,” Lee Barkell said when asked what he will remember most about the skater he coached for 18 years at the Mariposa School of Skating in Barrie, Ont. (Rafael Arutunian shared those coaching duties in recent years in Lake Arrowhead, Calif.).

“When he was a little kid, you had to kick him out of the rink because he loved to skate,” Barkell added. “That was the one thing, especially when things got a little rough … he was able to come back to that. When he was on his game, just the joy of performing and the quality of everything … you could hear a pin drop.”

Buttle admitted it is the one thing he believes — and hopes — he can share with the next generation of Canadian skaters.
When asked what he hoped aspiring skaters might learn from him, Buttle answered, “Probably the true passion I had throughout my career and the enthusiasm I had for it.

“If someone is able to watch you and see how much you love what you do, it can be most inspiring for the younger generation of skaters. They see that passion, and they understand what it’s about.”

GREAT ROLE MODELS

It is the same quality he has seen in so many others before him, great champions he’s skated alongside on the show circuit — a place he hopes to occupy himself for many years to come, and with good reason.

“Sometimes, you just witness things and you get inspired by them,” said Buttle. “I’ve been touring with these great people [with Stars on Ice in Canada], and I see the passion they have. I love the way Kurt (Browning) is still happy with everything he does. He is still 100 percent into everything, and he never lets anything go.

“I look at Jamie (Salé) and David (Pelletier), and they’re so professional out there but at the same time, they’re having fun. I’ve been lucky to have had a lot of great examples that way.”

The more Buttle thought about it, the more he realized it was the life for him. While he and Barkell had first contemplated retirement shortly after his astounding victory in Gothenburg, Buttle threw himself back into training through the summer months.

Buttle and longtime choreographer David Wilson collaborated on a pair of new programs. It seemed to be business as usual.

“I thought he would skate one more year,” said four-time Canadian ladies champion Joannie Rochette, one of Buttle’s closest friends on the national team. “I saw him skate at a charity show this summer and he was skating very well, so I thought, ‘Jeff is back on.’”

DECISIVE MOMENT

The switch was about to flip in the opposite direction. Just before Labour Day it suddenly flicked off rather suddenly and innocently after a simple day of training at Mariposa.

“He got off the ice and the switch went off,” Barkell said. “We talked over the course of three days, and it became pretty apparent he was definite in his decision. The main thing I was worried about was that he’d thought it through and covered all the angles. But he said he didn’t feel he had it in him to go another 18 months.”

Added David Baden, Buttle’s agent, “Athletes need to know when it’s their time. I think that shows a great deal of maturity on Jeff’s part. He knows that he achieved what he set out to do, and he respects the sport enough to know that there are others out there and maybe it’s their time.”

Buttle knows what a lot of people are thinking. How, they all wonder, could he shut it down with another Olympic Winter Games approaching so rapidly, and right at home in Vancouver to boot?

“Of course, some people have said, ‘Why now? What odd timing,’” Buttle said. “There’s not a set route for everyone. This was a very personal decision for me. I had to follow my gut.”

Buttle simply checked off his list of accomplishments, realized he had delivered the ultimate performance in Gothenburg and asked himself one simple question: Does it get any better than this?

“I understand where he is coming from,” Wilson said. “I understand because Jeff has never been an overly competitive person. He does not have that diehard warrior-quality competitive spirit. What always drove him were his love of performing and his own sense of personal achievement.

“I think he started to realize he had accomplished everything he wanted to and [thought], ‘I don’t know if I can give it the total commitment.’ I told him that it’s fine to represent your country, but you have to represent yourself first.”

Rochette said it is good to leave the competitive arena when you are on top. “People will always remember him as a World champion,” she said. “Some people might continue for other reasons, but if it’s not in his heart, why do it?”

LEGENDARY WORK ETHIC

Any story about Buttle must begin and end with a work ethic that never waned, not even for a second. It is another lesson he has left with at least one fellow training mate in Barrie.

“It’s amazing what hard work can do for you,” said Christopher Mabee, the 2007 Canadian men’s silver medalist. “That’s the thing I really, really learned from him. Regardless of the obstacles, he never seemed to get sidetracked.”
Even from a young age, Mabee said, you could tell by Buttle’s work ethic he was going to do something great. “Nothing was going to stand in the way of him getting what he wanted,” Mabee explained.

There were plenty of obstacles to overcome along the way. While Buttle always had the passion to skate, he had to learn how to compete and how to win. Barkell believes that breakthrough didn’t truly happen until 2001, when Buttle won his first Grand Prix medal — a silver at NHK Trophy in Kumamoto, Japan.

“When he was younger, he certainly had a spark,” Barkell said. “When he was on the junior circuit, he wasn’t the greatest competitor. He was usually by far one of the best skaters in practice. He’d go out and compete, and you’d think he had somebody else’s skates on.

“Over the course of time, he had to learn to trust himself and rely on what he did every day because he was a very consistent practice skater.”

Three-time World champion Elvis Stojko, who shared practice ice with the 2008 World Champion during Buttle’s formative years, saw the younger athlete as a classic argument against judging a skater too soon. Outside of a junior silver medal in 1998, Buttle made barely a ripple domestically until beginning a string of seven straight podium appearances as a senior in 2002.

“That’s why you never say, ‘He’ll never do it,’ or ‘He’ll never make it.’ You never know when that button is going to be pushed on inside of them,” Stojko told the Ottawa Sun in an interview before the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Torino.

Buttle’s relentless drive to succeed was never more evident than before the 2008 World Championships in Sweden. He had surrendered his Canadian crown to rising star Patrick Chan in January in Vancouver, but that merely served as a catalyst for the ultimate performance to come two months later.

“Even when he was a junior, he could do all the tricks,” Rochette said. “It was just a matter of putting it all together. He started to have success later because it took him longer to put all his big tricks in one program like this year at Worlds.

“I think it was always possible [for him to become a World champion]. It was just a matter of putting it together when it counted.”

That he did it without the biggest trick of all — the quad — provided seemingly endless fuel for Buttle’s biggest critics. He was a master of the new judging system, they said, wringing every possible point out of each and every move on the ice. But it was anything but a smoke-and-mirrors accomplishment.

“A lot of people don’t know how hard he worked on everything,” Barkell said. “He treated his spins and basic skating on the same level as the jumps. It wasn’t like he was magically given that second mark. He likes to perform, but the amount of work he put into all those aspects of his skating, a lot of people don’t know.”

The ultimate irony, Barkell added, “is that he won both programs (in Sweden) on the technical mark. He showed he was a good technician as well.”

THE ULTIMATE PERFORMER

The performer inside Buttle never stayed hidden for long. The stronger it emerged, the more he became a force the international judges simply could not ignore.

“He is a great lover of music, dance and performance of every kind and has the desire to bring that into his skating,” said Wilson, who called their choreography sessions “a party on ice.”

Wilson added, “He plays off me and I play off him. It is always so effortless. He always said he wished it took longer because of the choreography.”

Now Buttle will take that act onto the show circuit full time. While he someday intends to resume his chemical engineering studies at the University of Toronto, Baden said, “He loves skating too much not to keep skating.”

Buttle has also chosen not to relinquish his eligible status, something Baden called sacred to a skater. It is not necessarily an open door to a future comeback.

“Brian Orser has always said: ‘Never say never,’” Baden said. “Jeff wants to maintain his eligibility, but he doesn’t want to create any illusions. He says he’s retired, and I’m sure he means it.”

TURNING THE PAGE

As he takes this new turn in his life, Buttle remains ever true to the passion inside, the real reason he comes to the rink with a smile on his face. It is something that, when all is said and done, matters so much more than World titles or Olympic medals.

“Those were moments, monumental moments when I felt intense pride and satisfaction,” Buttle said about his greatest triumphs. “But I loved the training and the day-to-day stuff. That was a huge lesson I learned before Torino.

“Somebody told me those are monumental moments, but they only last for a moment. They’re over before you know it. It’s so much more important to enjoy the process. Those are the moments that stick with you for a lifetime.”

Buttle’s words are spoken like a young man guaranteed to succeed on whatever path he chooses next. “For us, it is more important that our athletes are well-rounded individuals who go on to great things in their life, and I have no doubt that Jeffrey will succeed in life from this point forward as well as he has to date,” Skate Canada CEO William Thompson said in response to his champion’s retirement.

Buttle cannot tell you where that road will eventually lead. He never could. That has been half the fun of it all.

“For sure, it surprised me,” he said in looking back at where skating has taken him. “That’s what made [the journey] so great. If everything went exactly as you wanted it to go, you wouldn’t appreciate it all. There were moments [in my skating career] where everything worked out exactly the way I’d planned it.

There were other times when I said, ‘Wow, I didn’t see that coming.’

“I wouldn’t have wanted it to be any other way. That’s what made it so great.”

— Susan D. Russell contributed to this report.