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Mel's Editorial#24: April 12, 2006Canadians: Ferreira's Farewell Six years ago, Ben Ferreira came out of nowhere at the Canadian Championships in Calgary to take home the bronze medal. It was the event’s closest claim to a hometown triumph, since he trained in Edmonton at the Royal Glenora. Skating to a medley of Western folk songs and sporting a cowboy costume, he won over the crowd when Elvis Stojko set the lofty standard, and he won a trip to represent Canada at his first ISU Championship, the 2000 Four Continents. This year was supposed to be a fairy tale ending for Canada’s “nice guy,” as he was so often described. He was going to medal at Nationals, skate proudly in the Olympics, and finally, to cap off a career, the Calgary crowd would give him an appreciative send-off as he skated for them one final time, this time at the World Championships. It would have been perfect, but it wasn’t meant to be. Arriving in Ottawa with high hopes, he spoke about his plans to retire at the end of the season, and how he hoped the end would be coming in March. So I shrugged it off when his qualifying skate was a little shaky. It was good enough for second in his group and, after all, no one skated their best in the qualifying rounds. I sat down to watch the short program with high hopes for Ben. I expected a battle for bronze between him, Chris Mabee, and Shawn Sawyer, which left me a little conflicted. All three of them are talented skaters, and all three are really nice guys, too. I told myself that I’d be happy as long as one of them was accompanying Jeff Buttle and Emanuel Sandhu to Torino, but if I had to pick one, my heart was with Ben. How could it not be? Ben Ferreira was the guy who never gave up, who’d seen so many disappointments since he established himself on the Canadian skating scene, and somehow, he was the guy that just kept coming back. At Nationals in 2002, he found himself in a disappointing fifth place after a rough free skate, and considered quitting, but a series of unusual events occurred in the following two months, and he suddenly found himself being asked to go to his first World Championships. At 2004 Skate America, he finished a devastating eighth and actually decided to quit, right then and there. Convinced to at least go to Skate Canada the following week, he gave a complete turnaround performance and left Halifax with the silver medal. With perseverance and dedication, Ben Ferreira was a model of character, and the sentimentalist in me wanted nothing more than to see him finish on a wonderful high. However, a seventh place short program knocked him out of realistic contention for the podium, and out of the final flight of skaters. I suppose it could have been possible, but on that Saturday night in Ottawa, an uneasy hush settled over the crowd when he stepped onto the ice. I think that we all knew that we were about to say goodbye. The marks were read for the skater before him, and almost immediately, the crowd erupted as we heard the announcer introduce Ben Ferreira for the last time. Few skaters receive ovations like the one he was given at the finish of their programs. Ben brought the house down before he even took his starting position, waving farewell before he even began in response to the knowledgeable and appreciative crowd. This is why I love attending events in Canada. I love my country, but an American audience would never treat a skater to that kind of applause before they skated, expecting nothing in return but the privilege of sharing four and half minutes with them. The American audience heralds its stars, but only the stars with numerous accolades and achievements. Unless you’re a household name, you would have to land eight quads to get that kind of response from the Americans. But Canadians know their skaters. Almost everyone in that audience knew Ben Ferreira’s name before it came booming from the speakers, and they knew that this was no ordinary performance. The struggles that he had faced in the first two rounds continued in his free skate, but the crowd stayed with him every step of the way, every jump, every spin, every movement that brought the end a little bit closer. I tried taking photographs, but I couldn’t keep my hands still, nor could I see through my tears, so I sat back and let myself become absorbed in his program, going up for each jump with him, and each mistake breaking my heart a little more. When he finished, even though it wasn’t what he wanted, and it wasn’t the miracle that so many were hoping for, we all leapt to our feet as if it was. For this wasn’t just about one performance, or one week. This was the only way that we could all show our gratitude for a career filled with sacrifices and difficulties, proof that while it’s easy to share in someone’s victories with them, we were equally willing to join Ben Ferreira in his disappointments. It was a testament to the fact that Canadians are far from fickle; finishing far from the podium did not mean that he deserved any less of a farewell. Amid the deafening cheers, Chris Mabee took the ice, given the task of following that kind of ovation. Instead of letting the nerves get to him, he reminded us that while Nationals is a fierce competition, in Canada, the skating family is still just that – family. So before he began warming up, he met his training partner at the end of the ice and embraced him. The end of one thing always begins another, and while Ben left the ice and waved goodbye, Chris prepared for what was about to be one of the best skates of his career thus far. As Ben sat in the kiss and cry, the applause continued, and he came to a conclusion. “Now I know…now I know,” he decided. “It was worth it…a lot of love,” was his acknowledgement to the overwhelming acclaim that the audience had heaped upon him. Sometimes, it’s not the end result that matters, but the way you carried yourself there, and the people that you touched along the way. Ben Ferreira may not have reached every goal that he set for himself this year, but he left his mark on Canadian skating during the past four years. He consistently displayed character and values, and always presented himself as a good role model for young skaters. I’ll always be grateful that I had the opportunity to see him skate so many times, and to follow his career over the past four years. But more than anything, I think I will always be grateful to Ben Ferreira for the way that he has been an inspiration to jump into life headfirst. 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