Camrose ideal warm-up for Pyeongchang Games
They won’t let Ken Duggan paint the Olympic rings on the ice here this week.
Considering he has 11 Olympic teams — 13 if you include the members of Canadian and USA mixed doubles teams — that begin play in the last major curling event prior to the Olympics, maybe they should.
“We’ve done well with our previous events but we’re going to do really well with this one. This will be our best for sure,” guarantees the man who has headed the organization that has played host to a steady stream of successful curling events.
The one that begins Tuesday is the first Pinty’s Grand Slam his Camrose crews have attempted to produce.
“The timing for the teams and the fans is perfect,” said Pinty’s Tour executive, Sportsnet and NBC Olympic commentator Kevin Martin. “If there was one Slam I would bid on every four years that I would bid on and really, really want, this would be the one. It carries so much weight. The winner has such an advantage.
“It’s a monstrously big event for these teams. Remember these 11 Olympic teams that are here are all Olympic podium calibre teams. Most of the other Olympic teams that aren’t here aren’t podium calibre.”
Duggan already figured that out. Put him down to host the same event in January 2022.
“You couldn’t find a better event combining international and top Canadian teams in one place. You have 16 of the world’s best men’s teams and 16 women’s teams — including the 11 Olympic teams featuring our two, Kevin Koe and Rachel Homan,” said Duggan.
The field also includes Olympians Thomas Ulsrud of Norway, Niklas Edin and Anna Hasselborg of Sweden, Peter de Cruz and Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland, John Shuster and Nina Roth of the USA and Chang-Min Kim and EunJung Kim of host South Korea.
“I think we have a chance to sell out several draws or come within a hundred or so of doing it,” said Bratrud of putting people in the pews of the 2,300-seat arena.
It’s not just Edmonton that makes the Northern Alberta Curling Association territory the “World Capital of Curling” it’s a host like Camrose.
“When we had the Continental Cup it was minus 40 C all week,” said Duggan of the first one in December of 2008 when Camrose opened the Encana Arena. “We had a Canada Cup here in 2014. And we had three provincial championships here — the women’s in 2011 and men’s in 2012 and again in 2016. They’ve all done well. But this one is going to out do them all.”
Martin, who will be in Pyeongchang in the NBC broadcast booth while his 2010 gold medal mates John Morris (doubles with Kaitlyn Lawes) and Marc Kennedy and Ben Hebert (with Kevin Koe and Brent Laing) are all Olympic bound after competing in Camrose.
“You don’t want to lose these battles only a few days before going to Korea to play each other,” said Martin. “It’s an important time of preparation for these teams and a great opportunity to study these teams. If somebody has a glitch in their delivery, everybody is going to figure that out.
“We had a Slam right before the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. I remember we were so burned out after the trials in Edmonton we decided to take a big whack of time off. We hadn’t thrown a rock since the trials when we came back in early January. I remember we were 1-4 in the first event when we came back. But we had one Slam just before the Olympics. We went back to work and went undefeated in that last Slam and went undefeated the rest of the year including through the Olympics.”
Many of these teams, including Switzerland’s Tirinzoni are coming here off the Continental Cup in London, Ont.
“It’s a very good timing. The Continental Cup was a great thing, too, but it’s more of a fun thing. We need to go back to more serious curling with a big event like in Camrose to get the right preparation,” added Tirinzoni.
Ulsrud, who lost the gold-medal game to Martin at Vancouver 2010, said it’s always been the Continental Cup leading into the Olympics for him.
“You know the drill. You have fun at night and try curl as hard in the day as you can,” he said. “This Slam event is the best practice you could have for the Olympics. This is the best way to make you sharper for the Olympics. This will make it a hard test.”
“I think it’s brilliant,” said Edin.
“Camrose is a really big step toward having a chance to winning the gold medal at the Olympics,” said the two-time world champion and runner-up to Brad Gushue at the Ford Men’s World’s last year in Edmonton.
“This is awesome,” said USA skip Roth.
“This is the best situation we could have asked for. It’s just outstanding to be able to play some of these teams we’re going to play in the Olympics.”