Canadian figure skater Gogolev still discovering full potential after breakout season

Stephen Gogolev still can’t quite believe the heights he reached last season.

His coach, Benoît Richaud, foresees even higher peaks for Canada’s top men’s figure skater.

“The season was fantastic last year because he was one of the most stable skaters, but it's still very far from his capacity,” the renowned French choreographer said. “For now, I'm still discovering. I feel like I'm cruising and I discover every day some stuff he can do.”

Gogolev delivered on his promise as a junior prodigy last season, finishing fifth at the Milan Cortina Olympics and fourth at the world championships in a cathartic breakthrough after years of injury setbacks.

“Whenever I look back at my season, I am still quite surprised by what I was able to do,” he said of what became known as the "Gogolevaissance" in figure skating circles.

Now the 21-year-old from Toronto is trying to expand his boundaries, both technically and artistically.

Gogolev was scheduled to skate the short program at Skate Ontario sectionals Thursday night before making his international season debut at Skate Canada International, Oct. 30 to Nov. 1 in Kelowna, B.C. The event is the second stop on the Grand Prix circuit, figure skating’s top international series.

Gogolev spent 10 weeks working with Richaud in Italy and France this past summer, developing two new programs while adding more quadruple jumps to his arsenal.

From a technical standpoint, he is gifted, once the youngest skater to land several quad jumps.

Years of back problems held him back, limiting him to two quads - a salchow and a toe loop - in his free skate last season. But this summer he practised the quad flip, loop and lutz, the last of which he expects to introduce in Kelowna.

Even the quad