Kristy Swanson

Instead of advising Jeff Buttle the figure skater, Lloyd Eisler will spend the Olympic weeks with Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Eisler, a three-time Olympian (twice a pairs bronze medalist with Isabelle Brasseur), was scheduled to be one of the Canadian Olympic Committee’s athlete advisers in Turin. He accepted the duty, which he was told was an important ingredient in converting Canada’s world-class performances into Olympic medals, but begged off at the last minute because of a conflicting commitment to a Fox-TV reality show.

The show, Skating With Celebrities, partners six pro skaters with six pop personalities and Eisler will be paid to skate with Kristy Swanson. She starred in the Buffy movie back in the year of Albertville, 1992. (Want to feel old? Turin is the fourth Winter Olympics since then.)

"When we have 200-plus volunteers, it happens fairly often that someone will have business or a family situation or something and will have to step aside," COC spokesman David Bedford said of Eisler’s decision.