Brad Gushue waited 'a lifetime' to curl for Olympic gold again

Brad Gushue cheered for the Toronto Maple Leafs as a teenager in Newfoundland, but he knew Petr Nedved's name and appreciated his hockey prowess. Nedved played close to 1,000 games for other NHL teams, and he competed in two Winter Olympics, for Canada in 1994 and for his native Czech Republic in 2014.

No Winter Olympian has waited longer than Nedved to make a second appearance, forcing Gushue to settle for the Canadian record: 16 years. Gushue skipped Canada to gold at Turin in 2006 and is curling in Beijing this month alongside Mark Nichols, his longtime third.

Told about this record when they qualified for Beijing, Gushue and Nichols identified the upside behind the stat. They've anchored an elite team for a lot of Olympic cycles.

"But it's also bad. It's taken us so long to get back," Gushue said in a recent interview.

"Really, it is a lifetime ago, when we went the first time," he said. "Our perspective has changed dramatically, in life and also in curling."

Unmarried and childless in 2006, Gushue was 25 years old and laser focused on the pursuit of gold. When his rink reached the final in Turin, schools closed across Newfoundland to maximize viewership. Canada pulled away from Finland with a six-point sixth end. In St. John's, the provincial capital, Brad Gushue Crescent abuts Russ Howard Street, celebrating the Hall of Fame curler who was twice Gushue's age when they teamed up for that Olympic season.

Howard has long since retired to the broadcast booth, and Gushue and Nichols are veterans now, seasoned in the grind of trying to rule a loaded curling country. They didn't even qualify for Canada's 2010 and 2014 Olympic trials, but went on to win three Brier titles and the 2017 world championships as the wait continued. Last fall at the national trials, Team Gushue curled 90% in the final to edge Brad Jacobs 4-3, finally sealing Olympic berth No. 2.

Gushue's 1-0 in Beijing so far. Canada beat Denmark 10-5 on Wednesday in his first Olympic action since the '06 final, when Nichols' shotmaking and Finnish mistakes in the sixth end gave Gushue the rare chance to draw for seven points. Overtaken by adrenaline, his throw sailed through the house.

"My heart was pounding so fast that I wasn't able to compose myself," Gushue said. "Anyway: We missed the shot. But we were up seven at that point (in the game). It ended up not mattering."

Near misses stopped Gushue from returning to the Games sooner.

His team played well against Kevin Martin in the run-up to the 2010 Olympic trials but didn't get a crack at him there, and Martin surged to Olympic gold. Gushue competed in 14 Briers before he won one, overcoming Kevin Koe in St. John's on the last stone of the 2017 tournament. Team Gushue went unbeaten at worlds that year but lost to Mike McEwen in the semis of the next national trials.

Eliminating Jacobs in a defensive slog this past November made sure Gushue, 41, and Nichols, 42, would be two of Canada's oldest athletes in Beijing. The delegation's elder stateswoman is Jennifer Jones, 47, the 2014 Olympic champion skip who opens play Thursday against South Korea.

During the national trials that led into Turin, Howard gave Gushue a pep talk in their shared hotel room, assuring him that even Hall of Famers get extremely nervous. Gushue is a husband and dad now, more patient and composed than he was in '06. Calmer in life, he stays zen on the ice in moments that used to frustrate him.

"I think the patience has helped from a strategic standpoint," Gushue said. "We don't feel like we have to take some of the big chances that other teams take. It allows us to be steady. If someone goes out and makes a ton of shots against us, yes, they can beat us. But we're not going to give it to them.

"I think that's the reputation we've earned as a team, because of the patience. Just the perspective of 16 years of failure and some success," he said. "I've learned that curling isn't the be-all and end-all. When I was 25 and we lost a big game, I felt like it was the most devastating thing that could happen to me. But in 16 years and having kids and getting married and gaining more perspective - it is only a game."

Curling's also a national pastime, but Canada's mastery of the sport has waned. At PyeongChang 2018, Kaitlyn Lawes and John Morris won gold in mixed doubles' Olympic debut, but Koe's team finished fourth and Rachel Homan's team didn't reach the semifinals. At the 2021 world championships, the Canadian men (skipped by Brendan Bottcher) and women (Kerri Einarson) both missed the podium, a first in event history.

Homan and Morris, meanwhile, just wrapped up a fruitless yet rollicking run in the Beijing mixed doubles draw. Three pivotal games in a row went to extra ends:

• 7-5 win over Czech Republic: Down 5-3 in the eighth frame, Homan released the game-tying shot with one second of thinking time left on the clock, enabling Canada to steal in overtime.

• 10-8 loss to Australia: Set to forfeit their Olympic finale because of initial COVID-19 test results, the Aussie duo that Morris coaches on the side was cleared to play, raced to a 7-0 lead, and won when Canada's furious comeback stalled just short.

• 8-7 loss to Italy: Canada had the hammer in the ninth end, but Homan's draw to the button slid a millimeter too far, eliminating her and Morris before the semis. Italy was undefeated in pool play and later won the gold medal.

In the men's bracket, expect the depth of the field to fuel drama. There are more medal contenders worldwide now than in 2006, when Team Gushue, by its skip's assessment, might have been Canada's fifth-most talented rink but emerged from the national trials as the Olympic favorite.

Beijing's formidable men's skips include Niklas Edin, the Swedish three-time reigning world champion; the United States' John Shuster, who upset Edin in the 2018 Olympic final; and the Swiss curler Peter de Cruz, who beat Koe for bronze in PyeongChang. Bruce Mouat's British team leads the world curling rankings this season. (Gushue enters the Games ranked second in the world, Jacobs is third, and four more Canadian rinks round out the top 10.)

Another challenger to watch is Joel Retornaz of Italy, who dealt Gushue one of his few defeats in Turin.

"It's not going to be as easy as it was 16 years ago," Gushue said. "And I'm not saying it was easy. But we're going to have to play really well this time. It's not just a matter of going up and playing OK to get to the playoffs."

COVID-19 restrictions are keeping foreign fans out of Beijing's Olympic bubble, but Gushue has shone before without his full cheering section present. Back in 2006, doctors advised that his mother, Maureen, shouldn't fly to Italy while she recovered from cancer treatment. When Canada won the final, Gushue retrieved his flip phone and called home, speaking into the CBC camera to tell her to pick up.

He'd phoned Maureen throughout his time in Turin, describing to her what he saw and felt as his team inched closer to gold.

"I'm going to do the same thing this time. I have a 10- and a 14-year-old daughter who are my inspirations for getting back to the Olympics," Gushue said.

"I'm going to share with them some videos of me walking around the village. Do some FaceTimes when we're at other events, if we get that opportunity. Let them see what I'm experiencing. Let them be as much of a part of it as I possibly can."

Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.