SWEEPING AWAY THE TENSION ON A CURLING RINK
Married couples face a test of a different kind when they sign up for mixed doubles
It’s just a painted sheet of ice, but imagine it as 150 linear feet of wallpaper and, voila, the ultimate test of marriage awaits.
Love on the rocks, as it were. That’s the potentially dark side of doubles curling with a spouse or significant other. The serious upside, for the first time in 2018, is an Olympic berth.
Canada will undoubtedly send a strong team to PyeongChang; the one that emerges from the trials in Portage la Prairie, Man., in January. It won’t necessarily be a spousal set, but there are star-studded unions in the mix: Jennifer Jones and Brent Laing, Dawn and Mike McEwen, and Laura Crocker and Geoff Walker, who are engaged.
Kim and Wayne Tuck of Ontario have a lower profile, but a legit shot at a trials berth. They have played the traditional mixed game together for years and won the Canadian mixed doubles title in 2014, so they know the game pretty well. Even so, they are still figuring out how to coexist as mates and teammates.
“When you’re playing with your significant other, I think you have to have thick skin,” Kim said. “I’ve always been the cheerleader on any of the teams that I’ve played with. To curl with Wayne, that’s not his persona. He’s a skip by trait. Not that skips aren’t cheerleaders, but most of the time skips are a tougher personality.
“That took me a really long time to learn and I’m still learning it. We’ve been curling together since 2002 or earlier and that’s one of the things that’s hardest as a couple.
“And every couple is different. Wayne and I aren’t the super lovey dovey, public display of affection type couple. And at the end of the day, good or bad, I couldn’t see myself playing this with anybody else.”
The Tucks will be at the Sherwood Park Curling Club this weekend for the Service Experts International Doubles Classic. It will also feature two teams that have already qualified for trials — Calgary’s Kalynn Park and Charley Thomas, and Saskatoon’s Marliese Kasner and Dustin Kalthoff — and two others that have already qualified for the Olympics: Russia’s Anastasia Bryzgalova and Alexander Krushelnitskiy, and South Korea’s Hyeji Jang and Ki Jeong Lee. There are Chinese, Hungarian and American teams, too.
Heather and David Nedohin are also competing, with markedly different expectations. Though both are elite curlers, they are too busy with family and off-ice careers to put in the time necessary to chase the Olympic dream today.
“I would say if our lives were a little slower, maybe in a few years it’s something I would honestly consider, because I really enjoy it,” Dave said.
They both like the fast pace, which they equate to rugby sevens, and want to help grow the game. Heather manages the Sherwood Park Curling Club and has included a recreational draw at this weekend’s event. She and Dave have also been teaching kids, and having great fun at the same time.
“The game of doubles is intriguing, it’s fast, it’s different, you’re not standing around the house, you’re up, you’re sweeping, it’s always moving,” Heather said.
“And I think I can handle him now,” she said of her husband.
David returned the gentle shot with trademark aplomb.
“I’ve grown a thick skin from playing with Randy Ferbey for lots of years, so I should be able to do this,” he said with a smile. “I think we’ve watched each other enough to know our tendencies, to know when to be that calming influence and when it’s OK to say something. You see that look in her eyes and think, OK, I’d better not say anything right now.”
The Tucks navigated the same potentially troubled waters.
“The first year we played mixed, it was all about figuring out how far or where the line is before you cross it,” Wayne said. “There was a bunch of things you couldn’t say, which I found out the hard way.”
The switch from mixed to mixed doubles was natural for them, but the new game is “a totally different beast” as Kim puts it, and they are still working on strategy. But they aren’t intimidated by the level of competition this weekend, and if all goes well, there are points available to help them qualify for Olympic trials.
“I don’t want to say we’re seasoned veterans, but we’ve played a lot over the last three years so we know our way around the game,” Wayne said.
And around each other, which is just as important in mixed doubles.