Gushue rested and ready for Brier
Team Canada skip was heartbroken after falling short of Olympic berths
Brad Gushue prepared for Regina’s Tim Hortons Brier by taking time off.
The Team Canada skip for this year’s Canadian men’s curling championship needed a break after competing at the highest levels of the game from early December to the end of January.
Gushue’s hectic schedule included the Canadian Olympic team and mixed doubles trials. He then helped North America edge Europe in the Continental Cup of Curling. His final competition before the Brier was the Grand Slam of Curling ’s Canadian Open in Camrose, Alta.
“After Camrose, I actually took 17 days off,” said Gushue, who returns to the Brier as the defending champion. “I didn’t go to the club or even throw a rock. I didn’t get totally away from curling because I commentated on the Manitoba men’s provincial championship.”
Gushue felt the urge to curl again while serving as an analyst for Sportsnet’s coverage of the Manitoba championship.
“I knew then that the break was what I needed to get recharged,” Gushue said. “There is still some disappointment for not having made it out of the trials, especially with how well we had performed in the last three or four years. We’ve done all that we can to get over it and we’ll be ready when we get going.”
He was close to representing Canada in the Winter Olympics for a second time. He won the gold medal in men’s curling at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.
Gushue, who is backed by his St. John’s, N.L., team of third Mark Nichols, second Brent Gallant and lead Geoff Walker, was beaten 6-4 by Winnipeg ’s Mike McEwen in a semifinal at the Olympic team trials in Ottawa.
Gushue then connected with Edmonton’s Val Sweeting for the mixed doubles trials in Portage la Prairie, Man. They made it to the final before losing 8-6 to John Morris and Kaitlyn Lawes. Morris and Lawes won gold during the sport’s debut at the Winter Olympics.
After the mixed doubles trials, Gushue headed to London, Ont., for the Continental Cup and then curled in the Canadian Open.
“I was pretty heartbroken after the mixed doubles,” Gushue said. “You miss out on the team trials and I felt like we were just starting to get over it.
“Then you reinvest yourself in the mixed doubles and we all made the playoffs. I made the final, which was heartbreaking. I have to admit that I mailed it in for those final two weeks because it was hard to get physically and emotionally invested after what we went through.”
Having said that, Gushue is looking forward to skipping Team Canada in his 15th appearance at the Brier. The 2017 championship win before his hometown crowd in St. John’s meant Gushue didn’t have to participate in the playdowns to reach the Brier.
Gushue’s absence spurred interest in the playdowns. St. John’s resident Greg Smith emerged from the nine-team provincial championship as Newfoundland and Labrador’s Brier representative.
“After we won (in 2017) we were in the Brier Patch and the guys were giving me big hugs and they had tears in their eyes,” Gushue said. “I was surprised because we were competitors for a lot of years. Then I realized they were so happy because they didn’t have to play us in the playdowns.”
Gushue and Smith are in the same pool at the Brier, but don’t play each other until Wednesday evening,
“I breathed a big sigh of relief when I saw we were in the same pool,” Gushue said. “I would have been extremely disappointed to have us in the different pools.”
I have to admit that I mailed it in for those final two weeks ... after what we went through.