Finally healthy, Canada's Stephen Gogolev finds 'new energy and love' for skating

Stephen Gogolev contemplated hanging up his skates.

He was once the next big Canadian hope in men's figure skating, a prodigy landing triple axels at age 10, until a massive growth spurt and recurring back injuries threw his trajectory off course.

Gogolev spent the last several years struggling just to stay on competitive ice, nowhere near the international podiums he had seemed destined. When his season was cut short for a second consecutive year in December, he wasn't sure he would return.

"I definitely had those thoughts," said Gogolev, now 20. "It was really frustrating … I wasn't really sure whether these issues were going to keep continuing.

"It was more of a thing that, I was going to give it one last try; it was definitely harder to make that decision to keep skating."

It's a decision he doesn't regret.

Gogolev is finally pain-free, and it's showing. He topped the Nebelhorn Trophy podium on the Challenger Series in Oberstdorf, Germany, on Sept. 26 to capture his first senior gold medal.

The Toronto skater won both the short and long programs with personal bests to finish with 255.06 points, a score that would have placed 11th at last season's world championships. The milestone built on a bronze medal at the Cranberry Cup in Boston this summer.

A similar performance would have been unthinkable just a few months ago.

"I don't think it's really fully sunken in yet," Gogolev said by phone from Toronto. "A very special moment, coming back from injuries and being healthy again, and being able to perform at a much higher level than what I was capable of in the past three years."

Following his December shutdown, Gogolev spent three months off the ice, starting with little more than walking before transitioning to