Kevin Martin and his Alberta rink sure did deliver in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. They took the Olympic Golf for Men’s Curling and cemented their place in the hearts of Canadian curling fans everywhere.
Here’s a quick run-through of some of the memorable moments:
First off, a nice tap-back by Martin against Team USA in the round robin:
Next, Martin draws to the button for a win against Switzerland:
John Morris with a nice double in the Gold Medal game:
The crowd breaks out into ‘Oh Canada’ for the Gold Medal game:
I’m not sure if this is what young curler Jason Gunnlaugson grew up dreaming about. But now that the Manitoba native has been recruited by the Russian federation to be a full-time curler and train to be the country’s entry in the next Olympics, it creates a very interesting dilemma. Could he possibly pass up the chance to be paid handsomely ($100k a year) to curl professionally and compete in the next games, even if it meant vying for a medal with another country?
It’s a tough question to be sure.
The Winnipeg Sun has been following the story closely and updates can be found here, here and here.
Columnist Gary Engstrom probably said it best with this observation:
Don’t misunderstand, the target of my venom here is not Gunnlaugson, Richter, and Forrest for making the deal. In truth, most of us would have been hard-pressed to refuse such a lucrative offer to trade nation for personal gain.
No, the real jerks are Russian Olympic officials for stooping to such lengths and using loopholes in International Olympic Committee rules to hire mercenaries. Their goal is to win medals at any cost and maybe, just maybe, trick the Russian population into thinking they know what they’re doing.
What do you think? What would you do if you were in his shoes? An how do you feel about the sanctity of the Olympic Games when countries stoop to these antics to try and buy medals?
I’d be interested in your thoughts in the comments below.
Our hats go off to Alberta’s Kevin Koe who had a fantastic season this year capturing the Tim Horton’s Brier and going on to take the Ford World Championships a few weeks later.
Koe certainly took advantage of his opportunities this year. First off, not having to face nemesis Kevin Martin in the Alberta playdowns, he knocked off Randy Ferbey’s team to secure the Brier berth for Alberta. He and his team then played progressively better and better as the Brier week went along, culminating in a sweet extra-ends victory over Glenn Howard in the final. The cold draw that Koe made in the final end (see video below) was clutch, that’s all I can say. Congrats.
A funny mash-up video you might like of musical artist Jonathan Coulton’s song ‘Curl‘ and the Colbert Report’s Stephen Colbert as he hams it up with the US Olympic Curling team in advance of the Winter Olympic Games.
Fortunately it didn’t do much much for the US team as John Shuster’s rink didn’t fare well in the games.
A great tournament and Canada has a strong pair of representatives in Kevin Martin and Cheryl Bernard (both from Alberta). Here are some of the best shots from that wonderful week of curling from Edmonton:
Hope everyone is enjoying their summer. Before you know it curling will be upon us again.
Until then look back again and marvel at this shot that Glenn Howard made at this past year’s Brier. I think it’s still the best shot I’ve ever seen, what do you think?
Due to popular demand we have added some new local city curling club listings to CurlingRink.ca.
We’re hoping to make it easier for to find the best local club in your area.
We’ll be adding listings for all the major centres across Canada over the next while, but here is our first set of listings. We hope you find it helpful.
An interesting post over at the Blind River CC blog as Glen Austin revisited a curling syposium that was put on earlier this summer by the NOCA (Northern Ontario Curling Assoc).
The symposium centered around the operational aspects of maintaining a successful club – especially as things have gotten more challenging. Things like insurance, member recruiting and media sterategies were covered.
What stood out more than ever was the need to look at curling from a business standpoint. With times being the way they are, small clubs ( and larger clubs!) need to get creative in moving forward and maintaining the club. Undoubtedly, there is definitely a need to look to outside funding sources for revenues needed for club maintenance. These monies by and large can only be accessed by those clubs which are “Not for Profit”. This is where our club has to go and as fast as we can. I was surprised to see how many clubs have already done this,…and already accessing dollars for various initiatives within the club.
Interesting read if your club is looking at their future path as many others are…
