Ice Gold , livre ebook

Canada’s Curling Champions
ICE GOLD
Ted Wyman
Foreword by
GLENN HOWARD
ecw press


This book is dedicated to Chris and Emily.
My heroes.

FOREWORD
by Glenn Howard
It’s every sports-minded kid’s dream to participate in the Olympic Games. For most, it remains a dream, and a very small percentage gets close, but for a select few, it comes to fruition and it comes with a gold medal.
When I first started the game at age 10, there was no sign of curling ever being a demonstration sport at the Olympics, let alone a full medal-sport like it is today. My dream was to get to the Brier, our national championship , and to play beside my idol — my brother Russ. We were two “average Joes” who loved to play and loved to win. There was never any talk of nutritionists, sports psychologists, personal trainers, coaches or gym memberships. As long as we had three meals a day, we were good to go. During the off-season we had no thought or consideration for curling whatsoever. We were taught to practise, practise and practise. Have fun and do it to the best of our ability. We maintained full-time jobs and practised as much as we could. We learned at an early age that the only way to get better was to play against the best. Get into lots of bonspiels, and play the “big boys” as much as you can and learn as much as possible. Become sponges.
Times have changed. Curling is one of the most-viewed Olympic sports on television. The days of throwing a few rocks, eating what you want, showing up at the rink and expecting to win are gone! Five years ago, I realized this and made a huge change in my outlook. After turning 47 and wanting to stay competitive and be successful, I had to make some wholesale changes. I hired a personal trainer. He has challenged me, educated me, provided valuable insight and helped with sports psychology. I am still working with him today. I am in the best shape of my life and still on one of the best curling teams in the world. I have worked with nutritionists and sports psychologists and, of course, I now have a gym membership. I learned that with better physical conditioning comes less fatigue and better concentration, which equates to better performance. Welcome to the present-day curler. Today’s game comes with greater demands, more time away from home and family, greater commitment to goals and team dynamics and also team preparedness.
The past five years have seen some great successes and some huge disappointments. Our team won the Canadian and world championships in 2012, but we were the Olympic Trials runner-up in 2009 and had a dismal sixth place finish in the 2013 Olympic Trials. Our successes and excellent consistency can definitely be attributed to the “new” work ethic and superb team dynamics created over the past years. But, what was missing? Why did we not achieve all our goals? Why didn’t we win the Olympic Trials? These questions are asked by every men’s and women’s team each year, and every four years for the Olympics, except for two teams. These teams didn’t ask themselves, “Why not?” They asked themselves, “Why did we win?” This year those two teams are Jennifer Jones and Brad Jacobs. Both were gold medalists at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Their greatest triumph bar none! Two totally different stories. The cool but wily veteran, 39-year-old Jennifer Jones, and the young, feisty 28-year-old Brad Jacobs. Two differing eras, but two identical results. How did it happen? Why did it happen?
Every curling team assesses their previous year and figures out what to do next. Do we continue with the same lineup? Do we make changes? These questions burn in every curler’s mind at the end of every season. Jennifer and Brad are no exceptions. Both teams made some huge changes that have turned out to be “gold!” Jennifer stayed with a couple of teammates that she had on her team for years, but she did bring on young Kaitlyn Lawes to add some youth and excitement. This combination proved to be lethal to the other teams. Although the change was massive, I believe the biggest reason for Team Jones’s success at the 2014 Olympic Games was Jennifer herself. She put on a performance for the ages. She had overcome a few challenges, including a very extensive knee surgery, the birth of her first child, Isabella, and a life-partner change. Jennifer is a very high-profile athlete in Canada, so with all the changes came a lot of scrutiny. This is where she rose to the occasion. Jennifer took all this as another one of life’s big challenges. She was going to win, plain and simple … and she did! In dramatic fashion, Jennifer, Kaitlyn, Jill and Dawn dominated the field and went undefeated to win the gold medal.
Team Jacobs made some changes as well. Brad and Co. were quite successful over the past few years, but they just didn’t have the consistency that the top teams possessed. Brad knew it, as did his cousins E.J. and Ryan. Their big change came with the acquisition of Ryan Fry. Not only was this a big move, it meant Brad’s long-time third E.J. Harnden would move down a position to second stone, a position he wasn’t that familiar with. They started slowly but it wasn’t for long. They quickly did some major damage on the bonspiel circuit, but they took it to the next level winning the 2013 Tim Hortons Brier. They eventually lost the 2013 world final but made a statement they were here and they were for real. The naysayers still questioned Team Jacobs’s consistency but they were soon quieted with their 2013 Olympic Trials victory and a berth in the Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. The exclamation mark came with an undefeated record. With a rough start at 1-2, the Olympic Games didn’t go quite as smoothly for the men’s team as it did for Team Jones. This was Team Jacobs’s turning point; their team dynamic and endless sports psychology sessions came into the forefront at this point. The pressure on Team Canada was huge. They could put their tail between their legs and feel sorry for themselves or they could think positively and do what they do best … make shots! And they did make their shots and started winning more games. To be exact, they didn’t lose again. They won the gold medal and capped off a perfect double gold performance for the Canadian curling teams. I’m sure if you ask Team Jacobs what the turning point was, they would say the big win in game 4. Brad, Ryan, E.J. and Ryan were able to perform at their very best when everything was on the line, the ultimate prize in curling … the gold medal.
You are about to read about two remarkable curling teams. How the players got their start and how they tick. You will get a better understanding of their quest for Olympic gold and the processes that got them there. They realized the changes they needed to make, the personal commitments and the buy-in from each teammate to achieve their goals. Perhaps you may look at your goals that you want to strive for in your personal or professional life and start to make the necessary steps. It can be a short process or it may take many years of hard work, dedication and the involvement of others, but if you don’t start with a plan in place, how will you know if you have arrived if you don’t know where you are going?
I hope you enjoy this book and are proud of the remarkable accomplishments of these great curling teams. It’s taken years of blood, sweat and tears for these teams to realize their dreams and win gold at the Olympic Games. I’m certain all Canadians were extremely proud when our national anthem was played, not once, but twice for our Canadian curling teams.
Glenn Howard
Four-time Canadian and Four-time World Curling Champion

INTRODUCTION
She settled back into the hack, flipped her hair a few times in customary fashion and triple-checked the bottom of the 42-pound piece of granite in her hands. Decades of experience helped control the roiling excitement in her stomach as the biggest moment of her life stared her directly in the face. History would be made that day and a lifelong dream would come true in spectacular fashion, in the biggest game, on the world’s biggest stage. Ever the picture of composure, she lifted her head, contemplated the objective one last time — it was a task she had performed thousands of times before with ease, though with much less on the line — and reared back to throw the stone that would propel her into curling and Olympic lore.
Thousands of miles and several decades away sat a painfully shy little girl, too timid to go outside and make friends but full of dreams she never dared to believe would come true. What would that reticent child think of her older self now? Would she be able to believe that she’d grow up to be a corporate lawyer, a coveted public speaker and a national hero, not to mention one of the greatest female curlers ever to walk the planet? So shy she could barely open her mouth to talk to people her own age, she’d wonder who this intimidating person was: this 39-year-old woman who was the focal point of millions of televisions around the world, this darling of the international media, this icon of a sport who relished performing under the glare of the spotlight.
Little did the girl know that she would soon find a way out of her shell and start chasing her dreams of being the best at something — anything — by taking up sports, trying her hand at many athletic endeavors, simply to have a chance to feel included. She’d quickly find she loved playing sports — the competition, the camaraderie, the feeling of belonging. At age 11, her father would introduce her to curling and the mutual attraction would be instantaneous. She loved the smell of the ice, the sound of the rocks and the brooms and the friendships she started to form with teammates. It was where she felt the safest, and it allowed her to start to believe in her dreams.
Thirty years later that in