Shae-Lynn Bourne isn't the retiring type.

Her competitive ice dancing career ended five years ago, but she's at the rink as often as ever. In addition to her work as a solo skater, she's in demand as a coach and choreographer. Somehow she also finds time to reminisce about all that she and longtime partner Victor Kraatz achieved. The 10-time Canadian champions made three Olympic appearances and won six world championship medals, including gold in 2003.

"I do look back and sometimes I'm amazed and proud and excited and actually grateful for all that we went through," Bourne, 32, said in a phone interview from her Toronto home. "I'm looking forward to being in Chatham on Thursday because I have a lot of thankyous to share."

She'll be inducted into the Chatham Sports Hall of Fame tonight at the W. I. S. H. Centre. It'll be a short visit home. She leaves Friday morning for Vancouver where the Canadian skating team is holding a camp at the site of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Bourne will be there coaching ice dancers Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje, the Canadian silver medallists.

"It's been a real treat working with them," she said. "They're a young and talented team. It's been great to be on that side of the boards and giving back."

She went to Japan this summer to choreograph and perform in a show starring Olympic gold medallist Shizuka Arakawa. She'll go back at Christmas for more shows. She has created a short program for four-time Canadian ladies champion Joannie Rochette. Pro skaters for whom she's choreographed include Kurt Browning and Ekaterina Gordeeva.

The coaching and choreography keep Bourne so busy, she doesn't tour full-time anymore. She still squeezes in some shows, though.

"I'm truly enjoying my life," she said.

She has no plans to put away her skates. Entertaining fans is too much fun to quit.

"You can only do it for so long," she said, "and I'm still young enough I still have it in me to perform."

She went to the 2006 Turin Olympics as an assistant coach to then-husband Nikolai Morozov. (They divorced last year.) They coached Arakawa to a gold medal in ladies singles and Ukrainian dancers Elena Grushina and Ruslan Goncharov to bronze.

"It was amazing," Bourne said. "It was different from being out there and skating, but it was a real thrill."

She and Kraatz, a Vancouver native, were 10th at their first Olympics in 1994 at Lillehammer, Norway. They went again in 1998 to Nagano, Japan, and in 2002 to Salt Lake City, Utah, finishing fourth each time. They won four bronze medals and a silver at the worlds before making history in 2003. They were the first North American ice dancers to be world champions. That gold medal was the highlight of her career.

"I just felt so much energy, like a big weight fell off my shoulders," she said.

They turned from competitive skating to ice shows after their triumph. That lasted only a few months, however, before Kraatz ended their 13-year partnership. They were inducted into the Skate Canada Hall of Fame in 2007. It's been quite a career for someone who left Chatham at age 11 and met Kraatz at 15.

"It wasn't my goal to be an ice dancer," Bourne said. "I wanted to be a pairs skater as a young girl.

"I didn't have anyone I looked up to in ice dance. When I started with Victor, we had our own look and our own style."

They didn't make a conscious effort to be different than the traditional, staid dancers. Their athleticism and energy just made them stand out. Bourne also credits choreographer Uschi Keszler for their trademark hydro-blading, a technique that had them skate very low to the ice.

"She had these sort of wild, crazy ideas and we were her guinea pigs," Bourne said with a laugh. "We tried it, and it worked."