Is there a curling crisis in Canada?
There’s a crisis in Canada. The worst kind of crisis for our neighbors to the north.
It’s a curling crisis.
With a 6-5 loss to Great Britain Wednesday morning, skip Rachel Homan’s rink became the first Canadian curling team in the 20-year history of the sport at the Olympics to fail to reach the medal round. The Canadian women finished 3-5 in the round-robin stage of the tournament, unthinkable since Canada hadn’t ‘t lost more than one match at an Olympics in women’s curling since 2006.
A “seismic national sporting catastrophe,’’ is how Toronto Star sports columnist Dave Feschuk put it.
It was shocking, since Homan’s rink had won 37 of 40 major curling matches over the past year. Heartbreaking, since the Canadians had medaled in 11 out of 11 curling events since the sport became official at the Olympics in 1998, including mixed doubles gold this year.
There’s consolation to be found there, and in the fact that the men’s team is still playing for a medal with a semifinal match against the United States next up. Many of the top women’s teams still in contention, including the Brits, are coached by Canadians.
[fragment number=0]
[fragment number=1]
[fragment number=2]
If none of that works, a box of donuts from Tim Hortons may be the only thing to provide comfort for the Canadian hearts that were breaking from Toronto to the tundra early Wednesday.
The loss was especially devastating considering that the Canadian women had gotten off to the worst possible start, with three straight losses, then rebounded before unraveling again. Homan’s husband, ex-hockey player Shawn Germain, couldn’t hide his nerves while watching his wife compete in a morning match against Japan.
[fragment number=3]
Germain actually missed the end of the match, which Canada won, because he went to grab beers Nos. 4 and 5.
In a since-deleted tweet, Germain said that the “stress level is high, I’m not a drunk, I’m just Canadian.’’
Hey, 9 a.m. in South Korea is 7 p.m. in Toronto.
Lest you think Homan’s rink will return home to a frosty reception, remember: this is Canada we’re talking about. They handled this as only Canadians would.
[fragment number=4]
[fragment number=5]
