Olympics Day 2

Day 2 at the Olympics:

• I’m not sure who made the draw for this big shootout, but did anyone not notice that Great Britain played its first two games on the same sheet with the same rocks? Even skip David Murdoch was shocked at that. The Canadian women played the same sheet twice in a row but with different rocks.

• Speaking of Murdoch, he was called for a rules violation that I’ve only seen once before. He wasn’t standing on the sheet when the first rock of the second end was thrown. That’s a violation as the person in charge of the house has to be on the sheet. Seems a little picky but it’s in the book. Then again, so is the rule about dumping and that never gets called.

• Is there a sadder story so far than the American teams here? And I don’t mean sad as in pathetic but as in you feel bad for them. Combined, the men’s and women’s rinks are 0-5 and they shouldn’t be. These guys and gals just find a way to lose when they seem to be in a position to win. Last night, John Shuster had a draw to the four to win his game but the sweepers missed the call and they ended up losing on a measure. That sent the game to an extra end where the skip missed a raise takeout for the win. To me, it just seems as if these teams are playing much better than their records although sometimes I scratch my head at the strategy. I like Shuster’s Tweet this morning though: “Not one ounce of quit in this team....and that's a promise.”

• By the way, U.S. fifth man Chris Plys, a prolific Tweeter himself, has been told to stop tweeting during the game. Seems they want him to focus on curling rather than Twitter, which sort of makes sense. If I’m not mistaken, he is the first athlete at the Olympics to Tweet during the competition. And likely the last.

• Despite all the promises, I have yet to see another Canadian athlete show up to watch curling .

• Oh and all these whining British writers/columnists who are saying these are the worst Games ever? Not one has shown up here either. I spoke with a couple of British curling media types here who are somewhat PO’ed at that, considering they have two very good medal shots here.

• Oh and those Norwegian curling pants? There’s now a Facebook Group on them that has more than 53,000 members.
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Day 1 at the Olympics

First day of competition and here are some impressions:

* This is the loudest, most raucous crowd I’ve ever seen and heard at a curling competition. They scream, yell, bang the seats, wave flags and sometimes even at the right time. Yes, they aren’t the most knowledgeable folks. Sometimes they yell and scream when players are delivering rocks. Other times they yell and scream when players miss shots, but get a lot of stones moving. Still, it’s a fun atmosphere and the players seem to love it.

* I thought Kevin Matin was going to run Thomas Ulsrud out of the rink in his first game but the Norwegians battled back, especially with that three in the fifth. I don’t think they missed a shot after that and actually were set up for three in the 10th. Canada could have very easily lost that game. Instead, Martin made the clutch draw (which selfishly made writing my story with the 2002 last-rock miss very easy) with his last.

* I thought Bernard’s first game was good but there were quite a few key misses, I thought. And two really bad sweeping errors by the Canadians, one in the seventh and one in the ninth. On the first one, the TV microphones even picked up Cheryl asking Susan about it afterwards.

* Mirjam Ott’s delivery seemed to leave her a few times during the game. She was fishtailing so bad on a couple, she looked as if she was playing in the Friday Night Mixed at my club after a couple of cocktails.

* A thought: I think there are more Chinese media here covering the two Chinese teams than there are Chinese curlers.

* The weirdest tee shirt I saw today was worn by a 20ish guy who looked sort of normal. His shirt said: “Kevin Martin Makes Me Haaard.” That’s so wrong on so many levels.

* The Russian women’s team didn’t look very good. They made a few really strange calls and someone should tell them that four people sweeping a stone doesn’t really do anything more than two people sweeping.

* The novelty of the Norwegian men’s pants has worn off. Now they're just silly.

* Just in case you missed it last night, John Morris was named as one of Canada’s top 10 bachelors by Entertainment Tonight Canada.

* Craziest thing I’ve seen here so far. Well before the second draw, they start piping the teams in and I figured it was a rehersal of some sort. Nope. It’s the opening ceremonies for curling. But there’s about eight people in the stands. Seriously. Apparently they forgot to tell anyone. It became the silliest thing I’ve seen in curling. Every Olympic curling team out on the ice. John Furlong, the CEO of VANOC, there to give a speech and no fans. By the time they finished, a few had dribbled in for the evening round. But as they exited, David Murdoch looked up at me on the bench and just shook his head. I shook mine right back.

At The Olympics

I arrived in Vancouver and spent my first day at the Olympic curling venue, which, in contrast to the rest of the venues, is freezing.

The place, officially called Vancouver Olympic Centre, is sort of tucked in beside a residential area and usually houses a neat little baseball complex.

The curling facility is a good looking, but small complex. There are seats for 5,600 and as for the media, I don’t know if I’ve ever been closer to the action. If Bob Pickering were still playing, he’d probably hit us with his backswing.

This was the first day the players have been on the ice and so far, it’s getting rave reviews. Kevin Martin said there’s about four and a half feet of swing and it’s weight sensitive, meaning if you’re heavy, it won’t move. He also said all the movement is late, good for those quiet weight hits.

I thought David Murdoch had the best line, though, when he said: Finally, the Olympic Games are going to have some curling ice.” There certainly hasn’t been much good ice in the past Games. This should be exciting if it stays like this.

Making a big impression during their session was Team Norway, who showed up wearing pants from a company called Loud Mouth Golf. You might have seen John Daly wearing this line on the PGA Tour. They definitely live up to their name, that’s for sure.


Apparently they have a second set that’s somewhat different. The pants were the idea of second Chris Svae who said there are no rules about what pants you can wear, but he added, “There might be after this.” By the way, he was the guy who brought out the pink belts last year.

Overall my experience here has been fantastic. I woke up early and headed downtown (I’m staying out by the airport) to the main media centre to get my accreditation and was in and out in about three minutes. No waiting. I then took a walk over to the flame and had to admit to being disappointed. The flame and structure are impressive but they’re behind a fence with a generator and some other junk in the way. I’ve posted a picture so you can see what I mean.



The Sky Train here is amazing and is free so that makes the transportation around the city easy. The curling venue is about a 10 minute walk from the station so as long as it’s not raining . . .as if, right?

Michael Burns Sr. RIP

I was saddened to learn today of the passing of Michael Burns Sr., the foremost curling photographer in the game’s history. Many newbies will know his son, Mike Jr., who has carried on the tradition.

Mike Sr., shot Briers for as long as I can remember. When I did my book on the history of the Brier, I spent a day in Sr.’s archives, looking through some of the most remarkable shots from decades of covering the roaring game.

In addition to curling, Sr., handled photography at the racetrack and eventually moved his business out there to a trailer. He had been downtown for years.

And, something many may not know, but he also shot other sports such as hockey and has one of the greatest shots of the famous Bill Barilko goal that won the Stanley Cup.
There’s more in this fine obituary in the Toronto Star.

I will always remember Michael as being well-dressed and professional, no matter what the day or situation. He was truly an amazing guy.

Jones, Howard and Lino

* Congrats to Jennifer Jones and her squad for another Scotties title. This one was well earned after getting off to a slow start, something that’s not unfamiliar for the foursome. I wonder if this will end any of the rumours of Cathy O-C getting the axe or moving on. After all, it’s hard to pass up another trip to the Canadian finals, especially since it’s in Charlottetown next year.
As impressive as the Jones team was, I have to guess many fans were hoping for that Cinderella story PEI team to pull it out. Kathy O’Rourke (whose haircut is probably closer to Cruella Deville than Cinderella) and her rink played solid except for that steal of two in eight. Ouch. But Erin Carmody was remarkable. My quads hurt just watching her stand in the hack and glare down at the broom for 30 seconds or whatever it was before she threw the rock. By the way, is she out of high school yet? She looks about 15.

* Glenn Howard went undefeated to win Ontario in Napanee. Brad Gushue takes Nfld/Lab. Yawn.

* Finally, here’s my story about Lino Di Iorio, the guy behind Balance Plus, who was rightfully fit to be tied when the CCA/COC started trumpeting all the top-secret results coming out of those two studies done at the University of Alberta and Wester using Own the Podium funds.
Lino’s been banging his head against the wall trying to get the folks up in Ottawa to buy in to his research with no luck. So he took his show to Scotland and other European countries, all of who have benefited. And many who were chuckling at how the Canadian media were reacting to the press conferences held to announce these revolutionary results. While we don’t know exactly what the Canadian studies came up with, a couple of people I talked to said they have a pretty good idea and they’ve known this type of stuff for, oh, almost a decade.

Scotties from my couch

So what’s going on at the Scotties? I don’t recall seeing so many missed shots in a big event. It’s not that the curling is horrible, just that you expect it to be a lot better at this stage.

I heard Vic Rauter talking on the FAN 590 radio in Toronto this morning and he was saying the ice has been giving the players fits, that it seems to change from morning to night. He too mentioned the number of missed shots. He also said that it’s very sensitive so if a player sets the rock back at all, it just never has a chance to get back. Quite often, too, the play gets better as the week goes on and the teams figure things out.

Still, while watching from the comfort of my couch, it’s easy to point out the flaws and point fingers. I’m sure it’s not nearly so easy when you’re there trying to deal with it. Still, I have seen some shaky deliveries with some drifting that almost always means a correction at release. You can get away with that in a club but not so on arena ice.

That’s another thing – the women don’t play as much on arena ice as the men. It’s a much different animal and if you’re an inexperienced team, it can be a tough learning curve. Of course that doesn’t really account for the play of PEI so far which has been the surprise. Of the teams near the top of the leaderboard, I suspect they’ve had the fewest hours on arena surface.

So far, the team that’s impressed me the most has been Ontario’s Krista McCarville. I was duly impressed with her rink in Edmonton at the Trials, with the aggressive style of play she used and the big shots she came up with. It seems to have carried forward – don’t forget she went through the Ontario playdowns undefeated, a remarkable achievement.

Still, it’s a long week and the halfway mark will only be hit today. Let’s see how things unfold today.

Chatting with Bernard

I had a chance to chat with Cheryl Bernard on Saturday as she and her team were in Vancouver for some pre-Games prep. Bernard is a classy individual who gives a great interview, offering up stuff other than the clichés.

When you talk to her, you get the sense she is very focused, very determined and very goal-oriented. So that’s why, she said, it’s been difficult since winning the Trials because her life really hasn’t been her own. She and her teammates have had to put on the leash of the CCA and COC and go here and there and do what they’re asked.

One thing she pointed out as sorely lacking has been the chance to play a competitive event. The squad went to Bern to play in one women’s spiel, but I think if I was the CCA or some bonspiel organizer, four years from now, I’d schedule a big women’s event in Canada in early January. Not only would you likely get the Canadian team, but probably most of the international rinks as well.

I do think it’s wise for the CCA/COC to have put a media attaché in place to help them deal with the crush of requests that invariably comes with being the Canadian curling team. When I did the book with Russ Howard after 2006, he talked about that as being absolutely smothering. Calls came from everywhere and a lot were from U.S. writers who knew basically nothing about curling. He and Brad Gushue had to deal with most of them.

This time out, Karen MacDonald is playing filter. I had no trouble getting some time with Bernard, however. MacDonald was superb in making all the arrangements. George Karrys/Curling Guru in the Sun has a story on the new attaché.

Back to Bernard and her mental fortitude. After talking to her and getting to know her somewhat, I think this is what will carry them through in Vancouver. While they don’t have a lot of international experience, they are so psychologically strong, they might have a big advantage over the rest of the field.

The column is here.