Canada's path to gold in men's curling at Beijing Olympics

A lot has changed in curling since Brad Gushue’s first appearance at the Olympics in 2006.

The curling world has improved tremendously, for one. There’s more focus on strength and conditioning, for another.

What hasn’t changed is that the St. John’s native is still a top contender every time he steps on the pebbled ice. This won’t be any different when the first rocks fly at the National Aquatics Centre in Beijing.

Both in their mid-20s at the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy, Gushue and third Mark Nichols, alongside Russ Howard and Jamie Korab, captured gold. Now, at 41 and 42, respectively, Gushue and Nichols are making their return to the biggest stage in sports, this time with the front-end duo of Brett Gallant and Geoff Walker. Sixteen years may seem like a long time when it comes to an athlete’s peak performance, but both are still at the top of their game.

What has changed for Gushue, however, is his experience leading up to the Olympics.

“It's night and day, to be quite honest,” said Gushue in a recent media availability. “I think our preparation in 2006 was very chaotic, very busy with different appearances, events, a lot of activities that we had. We actually went into that and were quite tired out mentally, physically and this time around, we've been here in the house for almost three weeks. And outside of our time that we go to practice, there's a lot of time to rest and a lot of time to do nothing, to be quite honest.”

In the lead up to their departure, the foursome as well as team members Marc Kennedy, Jules Owchar and Jeff Thomas, have been living together at a rental house in Vancouver, preparing for the Games and avoiding COVID-19.

Team Gushue played a very light schedule ahead of the Trials and haven’t competed since. They hold a total record of 24-2 and were winners of two events on Tour.

Gushue and his team have won three Brier Tankards, one world championship, plus a handful of Grand Slam titles during their time together. They were the last rink standing at November’s Tim Hortons Curling Trials, beating Brad Jacobs in the final to earn the right to represent the nation in Beijing.

Back in 2006, Gushue went 6-3 in Turin before beating the United States and Finland in the playoffs. The field in Beijing is considerably more difficult as Gushue and company will be tasked with getting Canada back on the podium for the first time since 2014.

Let’s take a closer look at Canada’s path to gold in men’s curling at the Beijing Olympics.

 

Game 1 – Denmark (Mikkel Krause)

World Ranking: 69
Feb. 9 at 7am ET

The Canadians play the second-lowest ranked team in the field to kick off their schedule.

The Danes are led by 33-year-old Mikkel Krause of Hvidovre, who will be making his Olympic debut in Beijing. This foursome competed at last year’s World Men’s Curling Championship, finishing with a 3-10 record.

Denmark was the last team to qualify for this year’s Olympics, beating Czech Republic in the Netherlands to earn their spot. Team Krause has played just 18 games this season with nine wins.

Gushue will be the heavy favourite in this contest.

 

Game 2 – Norway (Steffen Walstad)

World Ranking: 15
Feb. 10 at 1am ET

The most notable player on Team Norway is Torger Nergård.

The 47-year-old has competed at every Olympics since 2002, winning gold that year in Salt Lake City as an alternate for Pål Trulsen and silver at the 2010 Vancouver Games with Norwegian curling legend Thomas Ulsrud. He’s played the previous four Olympics with Ulsrud, so this will be his first appearance alongside 32-year-old Steffen Walstad.

In their first world championship as a team last year inside the Calgary bubble, Walstad's rink finished tied for seventh with a 7-6 record.

They earned their spot to the Beijing Olympics after posting a perfect 8-0 record at the last-chance qualifier in December. For the season, Team Walstad is 41-18, highlighted by a win in Champery, Switzerland and a fourth-place finish at the European Curling Championships.

Gushue has taken all three of their head-to-head matchups all-time.

Picking up some early wins for Canada will be crucial as their schedule gets more difficult quickly.

 

Game 3 – Switzerland (Peter De Cruz)

World Ranking: 10
Feb. 11 at 7am ET

Peter De Cruz and Switzerland are ready to change the colour of the medal.

De Cruz, 32, owns four bronze medals from the World Men’s Curling Championship and another from the 2018 Olympics in South Korea. No silver. No gold. They also have two bronze and a silver for the European Curling Championships. 

The perennial contenders from Geneva are always in the mix but have yet to find a way to get over the hump when the playoffs roll around at international events.

De Cruz calls the game and throws second stones while the sharpshooting Benoit Schwarz is the last rock thrower and will look to expand his impressive highlight reel of pistols in Beijing.

The Swiss sport a 33-14 record in 2021-22, highlighted by a win over Sweden’s Niklas Edin in the final of the Swiss Cup Basel. They went 6-6 over two Grand Slam events in the Fall and missed the playoffs at the Euros.

All-time, Gushue has a 13-7 record in games against De Cruz, winning 11 of the last 13.

 

Game 4 – Sweden (Niklas Edin)

World Ranking: 5
Feb. 12 at 1am ET

Five-time world champion Niklas Edin is looking to add one more Olympic medal to his mantel in Beijing.

The 36-year-old earned bronze in Sochi and then settled for silver four years ago after losing to American John Shuster. Sweden has never won gold at the Olympics in men’s curling.

This current version of Team Edin have been together since 2016, winning the last three world titles as well as three European Championships. This season they own a 35-11 record with a victory in Penticton, B.C., and a loss in the Euros final to another gold-medal contender in Scotland’s Bruce Mouat.

Third Oskar Eriksson should have a good idea of the ice going into the tourney as he played in the mixed-doubles competition with partner Almida de Val, winning the bronze over Great Britain. 

Gushue and Edin have a long history on the world stage. The St. John’s skip defeated Edin to win the 2017 world championship in Edmonton before the Swede got his revenge in the final the following year in Las Vegas.

All-time, Gushue has won 21 of their 28 head-to-head matchups, including the past four, dating back to October 2019.

Team Edin beat Mouat and the Scots in the worlds final last year inside the Calgary bubble.

Two world-class skips playing for curling powerhouses. This one is going to be a treat and a possible gold-medal preview.

 

Game 5 – United States (John Shuster)

World Ranking: 28
Feb. 12 at 8pm ET

Can John Shuster strike gold again?

Shuster shocked the world at the Pyeongchang Olympics, capturing the gold-medal with a 10-7 win over Sweden in the final. It marked the first time the Americans won gold in men’s curling at the Olympics.

Team Shuster went 5-4 in the round robin before edging Canada’s Kevin Koe in the semi-final, 5-3, to set up the gold-medal date. The United States also beat Canada in the round robin, 9-7.

Shuster, 39, is bringing back the same lineup to Beijing, aside from Chris Plys replacing Tyler George at third. Plys went 3-6 in mixed doubles with partner Vicky Persinger, missing the playoffs. 

The native of Chisholm, Minn., has represented the Americans at every Olympics since 2006, earning a bronze medal in Italy in his first appearance.

Since their Olympic triumph, Team Shuster competed in the 2019 and 2021 World Men’s Curling Championship where they made the playoffs both times but lost in the qualification round.

This season, Shuster owns a 22-7 record, highlighted by taking two out of three games against up-and-comer Korey Dropkin to win the U.S. Olympic Curling Trials for a fifth time in his career.

Gushue and Shuster haven’t played each other since November of 2019 with the Canadian taking eight of their 11 matchups all-time.

Despite being the defending champions, you won’t find many people taking the Americans to win.

Will they prove everyone wrong again?

 

Game 6 – Italy (Joel Retornaz)

World Ranking: 16
Feb. 14 at 1am ET

Gushue may have won gold in 2006, but he didn’t beat Italy’s Joel Retornaz.

Playing in front of his home country fans in Turin, Retornaz led his Italian side to a stunning 7-6 extra-end win over Gushue and the Canadians. Italy would finish outside of the playoffs with a 4-5 record but enthralled the crowd with their upset win over the powerhouse curling nation.

The 38-year-old competed in his second Olympics in 2018, finishing 3-6.

In the past quadrennial, Italy has made some noise on the world curling circuit. Led by Retornaz and third Amos Mosaner, Italy missed the playoffs at the 2019 and 2021 World Men’s Curling Championship by just one game before earning bronze at the most recent European Curling Championship. Retornaz also has a Euro bronze medal from 2018.

Mosaner, 26, should have plenty of confidence coming into the men's tournament as he's fresh off going a perfect 11-0 in the mixed doubles competition with teammate Stefania Constantini, beating Norway in the gold-medal final to capture the country's first Olympic medal in curling. 

Team Retornaz are 42-15 on the season and booked their spot in Beijing by going 8-1 at the last-chance qualifier in December.

Gushue has beaten Retornaz four out of five matchups, with the lone loss coming in Torino. 

Italy has made some solid progression over the past four years but might not be ready to compete for a playoff spot at the Olympic Games.

 

Game 7 – China (Ma Xiuyue)

World Ranking: Unranked
Feb. 14 at 8pm ET

Ma Xiuyue, 30, and his rink from Harbin were selected to represent China as the host nation.

Third Zou Qiang has the most experience on the squad with four appearances at the world championships, most recently finishing last with a 2-11 record in the 2021 event.

The Canadians will be the heavy favourites in this one.

 

Game 8 – ROC (Sergey Glukhov)

World Ranking: 42
Feb. 15 at 7am ET

Sergey Glukhov, a 29-year-old from Sochi, put together a career performance inside the Calgary bubble last season at the World Men’s Curling Championship.

Leading RCF, Glukhov posted an 11-2 record in the round robin, including an 8-7 win over Brendan Bottcher’s Canadian team. The Russians would later fall to Scotland and Switzerland in the playoffs to miss the podium and finish fourth. Still, an impressive feat given eight of the 10 teams competing in Beijing also competed in last year’s world championship. Glukhov is bringing back the same lineup to the Olympics.

Team Glukhov is 25-10 in 2021-22. The two skips have split their two career matchups which took place at the China Open in 2018.

If Glukhov can find what he had in Calgary last year, ROC might be a dark horse in Beijing.

 

Game 9 – Great Britain (Bruce Mouat)

World Ranking: 1
Feb. 16 at 8pm ET

Can you say gold-medal preview?

Scotland’s Team Bruce Mouat are ranked first in the world for a reason. All four members of this Edinburg rink are 29 or younger and are just starting to heat up.

Team Mouat earned silver at last year’s world championship and bronze in 2018. They beat Team Gushue in the preliminary round at the 2018 worlds before the Canadians got their revenge in the semifinals.

They also took both Grand Slams inside the bubble last spring and the opening Slam this season before falling to Gushue in the National final in November. Don’t forget their undefeated 11-0 run in Lillehammer this year to capture their second Euro title, beating rival Team Edin in the final. At 34-7, the Scots have simply been the best men’s rink in curling this season and are going to be an extremely tough out in Beijing.

Mouat also competed in mixed doubles with Jennifer Dodds, losing to Sweden in the bronze-medal game. 

Gushue has taken 10 of their 15 matchups all-time dating back to 2015, including both contests this season. 

This is the game everybody has circled on their calendars in the preliminary round.