Olympic trials too much, Gushue says
REGINA Will the failure of Rachel Homan and Kevin Koe at the Pyeongchang Winter Games result in changes to Olympic qualifying for curling ?
The Canadian Olympic Committee and Own The Podium hasn’t been all that vocal about it, but it’s not a secret they never liked the Road to the Roar and the Roar of the Rings approach of Curling Canada.
Will the failure of Canada to bring back a women’s or men’s medal for the first time after going 10-for-10 dating back to Nagano 1998 and winning double gold in 2014 have any consequences?
Defending Brier and world champion Brad Gushue believes somebody should make changes — not because Canada sent the wrong curlers to the Olympics, because we didn’t, but because the way Canada picks the Olympic teams is in need of a fix.
“There should be maybe only six teams (playing for the right to represent Canada),” said Gushue.
“The competition to decide our Olympic team should also be held about as many as six weeks earlier.”
Canada, with the week-to-week grind for CTRS points to qualify for the pre-trials and trials, is wearing teams out mentally and physically before they get there, Gushue said.
He says Koe and Homan coming home empty-handed from Korea doesn’t mean the world has caught up to Canada. That hasn’t happened. But the world is definitely closing the gap.
And it’s time to deal with it. “You wear out,” he said. “After we lost out at the trials, went through the mixed doubles and then were out at Camrose at the Grand Slam event that followed, I was gone. I was done. I was burned out. I took two-and-a-half weeks off. I had to.
“I was just mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted. I’d been through it in 2005-06 and I knew how Kevin Koe’s team felt. I knew how Rachel Homan’s team felt,” said the Olympic gold-medal winner at Torino 2006.
“I guarantee you they were burned out. Once you win, you spend a couple of weeks making sure all your family and everybody is set up. Then you throw in a couple of weeks of Christmas. Then you have all the media and other obligations. You don’t really have time to really prepare.
“I believe the process to get to the trials is way too hard. It forces you to play way too much. I think it needs to be substantially reduced.”
Gushue says the Roar of the Rings Olympic Trials should be in mid- to late October or early November.
“The trials need to be moved up. It not only would provide a little bit of downtime for the athletes, but an opportunity to play in more events knowing you are Team Canada for the Olympics and knowing that you are going to have all the Canadian eyes on you.
“If you have a bad week you can get used to hearing all the naysayers. It’s not a burden to represent Canada, but that crest can be heavy. If you give our teams another month at the minimum to get used to wearing that crest and living as our Olympic team, it would result in our teams having a better chance to perform at their abilities.
“Four years of just grinding followed by eight weeks of just chaos is not ideal.”