TOKYO -- Aside from hand-holding, hugging and some lifting and tossing, figure skating is not considered much of a contact sport.
Tell that to Canada's Jessica Dube.
She returned to the ice Tuesday for the world championships after ending her last competition in a pool of blood. The left side of her face was sliced from nose almost to ear by her partner's blade after a disastrous side-by side camel spin.
Ten days later, she was skating again.
"We did pretty much everything right away," she said. "The spin was the first thing we did when we got back together. We decided to come here as soon as I got out of the hospital."
The Canadian pair won the national title in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in January. Last month, at the Four Continents tournament in Colorado Springs, Colo., partner Bryce Davison's skate slashed Dube's face, knocking her to the ice.
She was rushed to the hospital for treatment and underwent care for post traumatic stress disorder. Doctors say the 19-year-old skater's scar most likely will take about a year to heal.
"It's healing very well, so I'm not shy at all," she said. "I'm feeling really good."
On the ice, she and Davison put in a strong performance Tuesday, though they are not regarded as medal contenders. China is expected to dominate when medals are handed out Wednesday, the first of this year's championships.
"What happened at Four Continents was just a freak accident," Davison said. "It was a relief to be back out on front of people and to perform."
And they are going out of their way not to be timid.
"We do everything exactly like we did before," Dube said.
But maybe that needs to change. The two clicked skates as they began a jump, a sign of again being too close.
"We were a little bit too anxious," Davison said. "There were things that we felt were a little bit shaky, and our components and speed and power weren't exactly where we would have like. But overall we're happy."