Prompt medical attention has kept Bryce Davison on the ice for the most important season of his figure skating career.

The 23-year-old pairs skater, who represents the Hamilton Figure Skating Club, had a scare in early June when he developed an ankle infection.

Most figure skaters have soft tissue buildups on their ankles from the chafing of their boots, but the ones Davison has had for the past eight years are bigger than most.

When he and his 22 year-old partner Jessica Dube resumed training in Edmonton in early June after three weeks' holiday, he had trouble getting his boots on. He had developed cellulitis, after a skate lace had cut into the outsized bump.

David Pelletier, the 2002 Olympic gold medalist who helps coach the reigning Canadian champions, called specialists he knew and Davison was soon making three visits per day to an Edmonton hospital to receive antiobiotics intravenously.

"David got me in quickly," Davison said. "The doctor said that, if we had waited another two or three days, it would have got into the bone and caused a blood infection. And that would mean at least two months treatment."

As it was, Davison missed more than a week of important Olympic-season training, while Dube continued to work on-ice with Pelletier. In the past, it's been Davison who's had to work alone while his partner dealt with a number of serious injuries.

It's been an eventful summer for the former Ancaster rep hockey player. Three weeks before his ankle problems, Davison was diagnosed with a tear in his duodenum, the part of the short intestine that connects to the stomach. But because that occurred during the couple's training break, he didn't miss any ice time.

Davison and Dube are back on the ice in Montreal and gearing up for the compressed Olympic season.


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