Gushue, Sweeting stone’s throw away from Olympic berth
PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE, Man. — If Brad Gushue and Val Sweeting can win one more game and punch a ticket to the PyeongChang Olympics to represent Canada in mixed doubles curling, they’ll have to give a shout out to 10-year-old Hayley Gushue.
Back home in St. John’s, N.L., over the Christmas holiday, Brad was feeling blasé about the prospects of playing in the Canadian Olympic mixed doubles curling trials this week.
He was inexperienced at the game, was still feeling dejected about his team losing at the men’s Olympic trials in December and wasn’t motivated to get ready for mixed doubles.
It was Hayley who helped him start getting prepared by insisting they watch some mixed doubles games together to bone up on the strategy.
“She enjoys watching this,” Brad said Saturday after he and Sweeting booked a spot in Sunday’s final with a 9-4 win over Kaitlyn Lawes and John Morris.
“I don’t watch much curling and if she hadn’t been laying there with me, I probably wouldn’t have done it. So she helped me study.
“I wasn’t much of a studier in school either. She forced me to watch a few games and I learned a little bit and certainly it has paid some value.”
Gushue arrived at the mixed doubles trials still feeling underprepared. It is just the third mixed doubles event he has played in his career.
It’s hard to believe either he or Sweeting really believed it would be possible to be one win away from a trip to South Korea at this point.
“My biggest concern was getting through the round robin,” Gushue said. “I’m not going to lie. Coming into the week I still didn’t have all the motivation to play. I was still a little disappointed in how the team trials went and I don’t think my preparation was quite where I wanted it to be and obviously that showed with an 0-2 start.”
Sweeting and Gushue will face Lawes and Morris again in Sunday’s final. Lawes and Morris, both Olympic gold medallists in team curling, beat Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant 7-3 in Saturday night’s semifinal.
Gushue and Sweeting have emerged as the clear favourites from an original field that included many Olympic and world champions. Ten teams were weeded out of the mix in the round robin and five more bowed out in the double-knockout playoffs.
Among those losing Saturday were Jennifer Jones and Mark Nichols, Jill Officer and Reid Carruthers and Chelsea Carey and Colin Hodgson.
Gushue believes his team’s curling experience and game-calling ability were difference makers.
“The game is so fast-paced and I think an advantage we have, being skips, is we are able to think through the strategy probably a little quicker than some other people,” Gushue said.