Brian Boitano is nearly 14 years removed from the performance of a lifetime that earned an Olympic figure skating gold medal. One of the skaters competing here at the Goodwill Games, Johnny Weir, was born the year of Boitano’s first Olympics appearance, 1984 in Sarajevo.

Yet time’s passage has done little to dull Boitano’s passion for skating. As he poured over research Wednesday to prepare for his role here as a TNT skating analyst, Boitano also made sure to reserve ice time of his own for training.

“I need to skate; I’ve got Kristi Yamaguchi’s event in three weeks, and then I am doing Ice Wars,” he said, referring to the long running professional skating competition.

Boitano, who rarely takes on television broadcasting assignments, is joined in the booth in Brisbane by play-by-play host Tracy Wilson and fellow analyst Rosalynn Sumners. First up is their coverage of the Goodwill Games men’s short program, a live telecast beginning at 7 a.m. ET during Wednesday’s TNT Morning Show (5-8 a.m. daily). Russia’s Evgeni Plushenko leads, trailed by the USA’s Michael Weiss and Russia’s Alexei Yagudin.

Later in the year, his production company, San Francisco-based White Canvas, will orchestrate a holiday skating special from Las Vegas. As it has for many years, the show will air on NBC on New Year’s Day. Boitano’s sneak preview is that the production will incorporate a modern dance company, Pilobolus.

For the first time in 15 years, Boitano will not headline the annual Champions On Ice skating tour produced by Tom Collins. But he says plans are in the works for some new skating projects, details of which must remain, for now, undisclosed.

MELLOW YELLOW: Cab driver Stuart Davies, a friendly, chatty fellow, is a human encyclopedia on the subject of Brisbane and surrounding Queensland. A more pleasant person you won’t find around town, but our ride didn’t get off to the greatest start Wednesday

Running late, I showed up to jump in the cab bearing a freshly brewed “flat white” espresso in a lidded “take-away” cup. “You’ve got to promise you won’t spill a drop,” he said, raising an eyebrow as if to suggest a conspiratorial role. I agreed. He then advised that smoking, drinking and eating are forbidden by state law, which explains why Brisbane cabs are mostly spotless.

There was more. He says Americans travelling solo must learn to ride in the front passenger seat when hailing cabs. It’s quite a common practice here. Cabbies encourage lively conversation. I explained most cabbies in the U.S. hoard so many newspapers and fast food containers, the front seat is rarely an option. (FYI: He says Brisbane cabbies are required to speak and read English. What a concept.).

Stuart expressed curiosity about American professional basketball players. He picked up three young NBA stars here for the Games at their downtown hotel, the Stamford Court. They barely fit in the car (cabs here are typically mid-sized at best), but insisted he drive them to the big shopping mall. No problem, Stuart explained, except that it was only two blocks away. He suggested they walk. They told him to drive on.

Davies drives a cab from 3 a.m. to 3 p.m. five days a week, and loves it. “Within 100 kilometres of Brisbane, we’ve got everything except desert,” he says. “Our beaches are the best in the world and we take them for granted. I wouldn’t live any place else.”

SIGHTINGS: Wally Szczerbiak of the U.S. men’s basketball team checked out the men’s figure skating Wednesday night. … A shift of party venues for Goodwill Games swimming celebs? The socializing Australian swim team members had made a club called Adrenalin the rage, but the wee hours of Wednesday found Grant Hackett and the boys at another hot spot called Hotel L.A. … About the time most of those folks were getting to bed, Goodwill Games founder Ted Turner was the keynote speaker at a 7 a.m. breakfast event attended by more than 1,000 from the Brisbane business community. Amazingly, Hackett was there as well. … Olympic track star Michael Johnson interacted with kids during a school visit in suburban Brisbane Wednesday. The curtain falls on Johnson’s athletic career Friday night when he runs a leg of the men’s 4x400 relay for Team USA.