JETTING TO OLYMPICS
Athletes named to Canada’s Olympic bobsled and skeleton team celebrate with members of the Royal Canadian Air Force in Calgary on Wednesday. One RCAF member called the team “fighter pilots on ice,” and wished them well on their “mission for medals.”
Canmore’s rock star is taking his Olympic curling show on the road.
This time to South Korea and the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games.
“I’m thrilled,” said John Morris, who’s taking aim at an Olympic gold medal in the sport of mixed doubles curling eight years after winning gold in the four-man game in Vancouver.
"It was a little disappointing not winning those team trials (last month at the 2017 Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings), but I had another chance to get back there with mixed doubles. And the Olympics, I thought, were a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so now to be able to go twice, it’s a dream come true. “And I can’t wait.” He’s competing with fellow highly decorated curler Kaitlyn Lawes of Winnipeg.
The two have paired up in the last six weeks to create a juggernaut twosome for what will be the debut of mixed doubles in the Olympics.
“My partner, Rachel Homan, won the team trials (with her rink at the Roar of the Rings), so I was really fortunate that Kaitlyn Lawes was available, and so we teamed up,” said Morris, who trains out of both The Glencoe Club in Calgary and the Canmore Golf & Curling Club. “We’re excited, but it’s the first-ever mixed doubles at the Olympics, so we’re not really sure what to expect. But we’re going to be going there guns a-blazing.”
Lawes is third for Jennifer Jones’ Winnipeg crew, while Morris has been skipping — while throwing third rocks — with a rink out of Vernon, B.C.
Now the two embark on something completely different — a twoperson game of curling that’s still quite fresh in Canadian circles.
“It’s exploded everywhere,” said the 39-year-old Morris. “Internationally, this sport is huge. It’s taking a little bit longer for it to catch on in Canada, because we’ve been so entrenched in team curling for so long. But it’s a fantastic sport — it’s blowing up. I think it’s just a matter of time before you see it becoming even more popular than team curling. I feel really grateful and privileged to be the first team going to the Olympics for Canada.”
Morris and Lawes earned the right to represent Canada by winning the 2018 Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Olympic Trials earlier this month in Portage la Prairie, Man. They topped the pair of Edmonton’s Val Sweeting and Newfoundland’s Brad Gushue in the championship final.
Since then, they’ve taken hiatus from their respective men’s and women’s teams to focus on the pursuit of Olympic gold in Pyeongchang. Training continues Monday in Toronto before they make their way overseas.
“There’s a lot of great teams,” said Morris of his Olympic competition. “Other teams have been playing mixed doubles professionally for about five years — Russia, China ... For Kaitlyn and I, it’s our second event. But we’ve got curling in our blood and our goal is to win.
“We know it’s going to be very challenging and really tough, but those trials for us were a really good test because we played some amazing Canadian teams and we really had to grind out some wins. That got us battle-tested for the Games. So we’re going to go in with a great frame of mind.
“Kaitlyn and I have both curled for a long time and at a competitive level, and we’ve both curled at a highest stage of the game. And we feel we work really well together.
“We’re Canadian — it’s in our blood. We’re going there to win gold.”