GUSHUE RINK HOPES TO SWEEP ASIDE FIRST-TIME BRIER CURSE
History shows that newly crowned Canadian champs don’t earn world gold
No skip has ever won Olympic, world and world junior gold medals. Brad Gushue could become the first this week at the Edmonton Ford World Men’s Curling Championship.
But history suggests it could be a challenge. Since Glenn Howard won the worlds in Edmonton in 2007, the event has been held in Canada on four occasions and a Canadian team has managed to win only one of them.
Niklas Edin of Sweden has won the last two, Victoria 2013 and Halifax 2015. David Murdoch of Scotland won one, Moncton 2009.
And maybe you noticed that before Kevin Koe won the worlds last year in Basel, Switzerland, Canada had failed to find gold at three in a row — which is nothing compared to the nine-year drought Rachel Homan ended at the world women’s championship last weekend in Beijing.
You should also know, as the world championships begin Saturday at the Northlands Coliseum, that first-time Brier winners have had their problems at worlds.
You can put Randy Ferbey in that category. Twice.
Throwing third rocks for Pat Ryan in 1988, Edmonton’s Ferbey and teammates Ryan, Don Walchuk and Don McKenzie lost in the final against Eigil Ramsfjell of Norway. They bounced back to win it the next year.
Ferbey took his own team of David Nedohin, Scott Pfeifer and Marcel Rocque to Lausanne, Switzerland, in 2001 and didn’t even return home with a medal after winning the Brier. The Ferbey Four returned to the worlds three more times and won them all. That gave Ferbey four world titles, but two first-time team defeats.
Edmonton’s Kevin Martin won an Olympic gold medal but he was no world-beater after winning his first Brier in 1991, losing to Scotland’s David Smith in the final. The Old Bear won four Briers but only one world title, in 2008 in Grand Forks.
There’s a long list of Team Canada skips who entered the worlds as favourites and failed to win: Martin (1991, 1997, 2009), Pat Simmons (2015), Koe (2014), Brad Jacobs (2013), Jean-Michel Menard (2006), Mark Dacey (2004), Jeff Stoughton (1999), Vic Peters (1992), Mike Riley (1984), Kerry Burtnyk (1981), Barry Fry (1979), Ed Lukowich (1978), Jim Ursel (1977), Jack MacDuff (1976), Bill Tetley (1975), Hec Gervais (1974), Harvey Mazinke (1973), Alf Phillips Jr. (1967) and Terry Braunstein (1965).
Is there a Brier letdown factor for first-time Canadian teams?
“Any other team in that position would for sure be vulnerable,” Edin said. “But Team Gushue has been the team to beat for a couple of years now and seems to be stronger than ever. They will be the team to beat in my opinion. But we’ll, uh, try to do something about that.”
Rocque, who is here coaching China, believes there is a challenge there for the Gushue crew. He went through it with the Ferbey Four in Lausanne and was also part of the Victoria 2005 event that featured a six-way tie for first after the round robin portion of the tournament.
“The worlds can be anticlimactic after a team wins the Brier, especially if it’s the first worlds. Absolutely,” Rocque said. “Consider the crowds at the Brier in Brad’s hometown in St. John’s this year. They were so energetic and enthusiastic. But this team is not going to a world championship with only a few hundred people. These are home games for Canada and I’m sure most of Edmonton will be cheering for them. Gushue also has Olympics and a ton of Brier experience.”
Scotland’s Murdoch agrees Gushue is an exceptional case.
“The Brier is huge and has such an incredible strength of field that whoever wins will always represent a tough challenge to the world teams,” Murdoch said. “There is no question how much that Brier meant to Brad and the guys. But Brad and Mark Nichols have experience of something very similar with the Olympics in 2006 so I don’t see it being a problem for them to get back up for the challenge.”
There’s also the little matter of Gushue being only the second Newfoundland team to get to the worlds. The first, McDuff’s team, didn’t make the podium.
Another challenge is this is the final worlds before the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang.
“We are approaching the end of the quadrennial. The worlds before an Olympics does represent a bigger challenge,” Murdoch said. “Teams have been settled for a few years now and are gearing up for next year, so they are obviously training hard and competing a lot. Teams are rounding into their top form. And for several nations, what happens here will determine if they make it into the Olympics next year or not. Teams might end up out of contention for medals here, but will be battling like crazy for one or two more wins to qualify for the Olympics.” You get the idea. There are at least three teams here who could win gold and another four or five capable of getting to the medal round.
“Most of the international big names are here except for Thomas Ulsrud of Norway. That makes for a tough field but creates an open spot for the playoffs,” Edin said.
“Obviously Gushue has been one of the top teams in the world over the last three or four years. That team has even proven they could win without Brad when he was injured for the first half of the season,” Rocque said.
“I’d call Edin of Sweden the other No. 1 team in the world this season, winning a lot of events including back-to-back slams. Two-time world champion. Olympic-quality team. Add in David Murdoch of Scotland. Twotime world champion. Olympic medallist,” he continued.
“And the rest of the field can curl. I am assuming Norway is sending a strong team if they were able to beat out Ulsrud. Switzerland is having a great year. The USA can knock on that door. Japan is very strong …”
I stopped him before he got to China.