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It could be said that Paul Poirier is a Renaissance man. It could also be said that's he's an ice dancer who is as tough as they come.

On Friday, Vanessa Crone of Aurora, Ont., and Poirier of Unionville, Ont., won the junior ice-dancing title at the Canadian figure skating championships — even though early in the week, Poirier could barely walk off-ice.

Poirier was suffering from an accident he incurred a week ago while training for men's singles. He's also been known to skate pairs. But this week, he's concentrating on ice dancing.

Last summer, he was practising a Lutz jump while at a men's competition in Pittsburgh when his right skate blade speared his left foot. The blade pierced right through the leather and apparently into the foot. Fearing the worst, rink attendants carried him off the ice, with his feet still in the combined position.

"We thought that was it,'' said Louis Stong, director of skating development for Skate Canada.

As it turned out, the blade had gone between two toes and hurt nothing.

A week ago, same thing. Poirier was practising a triple Lutz, when the right skate blade speared his left foot. This time it was serious. The blade pierced his foot, requiring eight stitches between the toes. The blade went right through to the bottom of his foot, compacting soft tissue.

That Poirier could skate at all on such a foot and win a national title is incredible. While on the ice, no one could tell that anything had happened to him. Off the ice, it was a different story.

This week, Crone, 16, and Poirier won the compulsory dance and the original dance, although Friday, they finished second in the free dance to the promising Joanna Lenko of Meadow Lake, Sask., and Mitchell Islam of Barrie, Ont. However, overall, Crone and Poirier won with 145.46 points, just ahead of Lenko and Islam with 143.78.

Winning the bronze medal was another promising team, Sophie Knippel ot Ottawa and Matthew Doleman of Dundas, Ont.

In spite of his injury, Poirier vows he will skate the men's event at the Junior National championships in Brampton, Ont., in two weeks.

Krone and Poirier have already hit the junior Grand Prix circuit and this season won a bronze medal in Oslo, Norway.

As a team, Krone and Poirier have an extraordinary touch on the ice. "Almost every step they take, they are curving,'' Stong said. "They have beautiful edge quality.''

And an attention to detail that belies their youth. When Poirier does a footwork sequence in his men's competition, it's no secret that he's an ice dancer as well.

And Krone and Poirier are trendsetters, too, already. They come to the table with creative and new ideas that haven't been seen before. They are the first skaters to do what is best called a lift spin. Yesterday at the end of their free dance, they did it, spinning, and then Poirier lifted his partner off the ice.

Last year, Crone and Poirier would do their spins in both directions. This fall, other ice dancers began to do it and now even some pair skaters are trying the difficult trick.

Their choreography, done by coaches Carol Lane, a native of England, and Juris Razgulajevs, a former Soviet competitor, is interesting and well phrased to the music.

World silver medalists Marie-France Dubreuil of Longeuil, Que., and Patrice Lauzon of Boisbriand, Que., have many promising skaters to follow in their footsteps.