Yo!

Associated Press has the story… but The Curling News has the photo!

Yes, he has arrived… NFL superstar Vernon Davis is in da house.

The curling-crazed, honourary team captain Vernon Davis… remember?

The photo is by Anil Mungal, and it is copyright The Curling News 2010.

Click to zoom in!

The word is out, just prior to today’s Olympic curling men’s draw.

Chris Plys, the young man we first noticed two years ago and declared to be “Dude”… is going in.

The former world junior champion, seen here throwing Olympic practice stones with Team USA, is off the bench and into the lineup at skip position for today’s match against France.

Plys will throw third stones, with regular third Jason Smith throwing last rocks.

As this AP story reports, the decision was made by team coach Phill Drobnick Thursday night.

Some blogthoughts from TCN/Canwest scribe Al Cameron can be found here.

Good luck Dude!

[Photo by Anil Mungal is copyright The Curling News 2010. Click to increase size]

by Margo Weber

I think it’s safe to say that I have Olympic fever. Every morning I look at the Olympic schedule and plan my day accordingly. I’ve been keeping up on the web too, reading quite a few websites to make me feel like I’m ‘in the know’ until I get to Vancouver next week.

Jennifer Jones is in Van blogging for Yahoo, so here’s her link if you’re interested. She’s professional, but isn’t afraid to call ’em as she see’s ’em. If you’re curling bad, she will slyly out you. If you’re behaving badly, she will call you out. I have, however, been assured she will not be picking an all-star hottie team, like I have in the past (remember this?)

C’mon Jen!

I also subscribe to some Twitter feeds, such as The Curling News (of course) and Jill Officer, Jen’s teammate. I don’t tweet, but I do like seeing updates. Jill is pretty funny, and I think I’ve found my match in Olympic obsession. Example tweet:

Was it really necessary for the camera to follow the US skier as she walked over to the porta potty and watched her go in?

I’m enjoying quite a few events. I really enjoyed watching the moguls and I feel I’ve learned a lot about sports I never thought much about before. The medal count is interesting to me: we (Canadians) should do really well partly because of our Own The Podium program. We’ll see how our medals stack up at the end of next week.

I think WINNING the Olympics is a seriously tall order, although that didn’t stop officials from claiming it at the beginning of last week. Just a note, Canada would need about 30+ medals for this to be possible. But a second place finish in the medal count is definitely  within reach.

I see a big medal showing next week and I’ve been referring to this fellow’s blog who predicted where we are getting our medals IF Canada indeed reaches 30.

It’s a loose prediction, but the Olympics are such a crapshoot anything can really happen. His predictions are hardly educated, but fun nonetheless. My personal thoughts are that the Canadians are playing with heart, are certainly entertaining, and the athletes have won me over regardless of how we do in the end. I would, however, like to see a little more singing of our national anthem on the podium. Remember Clara Hughes in ’06? That’s what I’m talkin’ about!

Regardless, this guy predicts a gold sweep in both the hockey and the curling. Yowza, wouldn’t that be something.

Speaking of curling. Both our Canadian teams are doing great. Kevin Martin’s team is curling lights out: some of their shots are amazing to begin with, then add that crowd roar and it’s so fun to watch. The closer games are a little more fun for me.

Cheryl Bernard’s team is playing well too, but they can play better. The good news for them is that the other teams are a little off as well. There certainly has been some very strange strategy from their international competitors.

Cheryl is making quite a name for herself. Yesterday on CTV’s Olympic website, she was the second most searched item, right behind American figure skater Johnny Weir. Today, the papers and websites are full of stories on how sexy all these curling athletes are.

Speaking of Weir, did anyone see that rose crown last night after his men’s free skate? Wowsers…

The message boards are lighting up with accolades for my friend Susan O’Connor, third for Team Canada. Our group of girlfriends will all be heading out to Vancouver to cheer her and the girls on. We’re so excited. When I have been glued to my TV, the other girls have been obsessed watching from their work desks with the CTV live stream on the internet. The feed is really good quality, about 45 seconds behind. Everyone’s bosses will just simply have to understand. Haha!

Speaking of message boards, some are suggesting a new way of determining the U.S. curling teams – an all-star selection team, similar to the British model. I don’t see any U.S. medals this time around… otherwise, the Americans are doing incredibly well, with some 18 medals.

I head out on Thursday for a whirlwind trip to see curling’s medal games. When I first booked this trip, I was told it was quite risky. What if Team Canada isn’t in one of these games? My response was… they will be. And know what, if they aren’t… they have bigger problems than me.

Go Canada Go!!

[Photo of Cheryl Bernard (left) and Susan O'Connor by Anil Mungal. Copyright The Curling News, 2010. Click to increase size]

You might be wondering… where are our Olympic curling previews?

Admit it. You just might be thinking: how can The Curling News, founded in 1957 and world-reknowned for decades, possibly claim to be number one in terms of All Things Curling™ without publishing the ultimate Olympic curling primer?

We’ve got two answers for you.

First: if you don’t read the actual hard-copy, print edition of The Curling News… you lose. As we have mentioned more than a few times before, the multitude of free content you see on our thousands of blog pages, on our explosive Twitter feed (with stuff added multiple times daily), our Facebook group page and so on is… exactly that: free content… and it’s far from all that we have to offer.

For the complete package, you simply must read the newspaper. There is special, print-only, proprietary info in there. And the February 2010 issue comes with the Olympic curling primer you want.

Second: for the first time in our 53-year history, we have printed stories in a language other than English and French. Joining French in the very special February Olympic issue are team previews in the language of each and every competing nation!

Chinese. Danish. German, for both Germany and Switzerland. Japanese (click image to increase size). Norwegian. Swedish. And even Russian.

In celebration of the Vancouver 2010 curling event – in celebration of international curling’s greatest moment – we now present you with the online version of these international language previews. Simply head to the homepage of our website and click on the special banner indicating Olympic Previews in 9 Languages.

However, if you want to read these previews in English, plus read our previews on teams Canada, Great Britain and the United States, you’ll just have to grab a copy of The Curling News.

And we invite you to click here.

On with the Games!

Here is a first look at Team Canada, men’s version, on the ice at the Vancouver Olympic Centre.

In The Curling News photo at left, skip Kevin Martin (left) and alternate Adam Enright prepare to keep the path clean for John Morris as the first of two practice days winds down.

“Today was about getting used to the building and really getting that Olympic feel,” Martin told CTVOlympics.ca afterwards. “I was here about 10-15 minutes early to take in the building. Every building is different so I wanted to get a feel without playing a game.”

“It was moving really well, at least four and a half feet,” said Martin. “It was mostly moving late and it was pretty finicky with weight.”

While the team eased into things on Sunday, they plan to get in a more structured session on Monday.

“Today was more mechanical for the guys. They were throwing well and getting comfortable,” said Martin. “Tomorrow (Monday), we’ll do more sweeping and game situations.”

[Click on image to increase size. Copyright owned by The Curling News (2010)]

Finally.

It’s here, curling’s finest moment. The first-ever Olympic curling competition to be held in Canada, the number one curling nation. Where curling athletes are respected by the media, by television, by fans of sports that involve real people from all walks of real life.

Finally.

It’s here, taking place in the actual host city, and not a satellite township located off the beaten path.

Finally.

We at The Curling News are proud to be at Vancouver 2010, with multiple eyes and ears  ready to bring you the inside scoops, the latest news, and of course, our expert commentary on what it all means.

Our first look at the Main Press Centre (MPC) shows an impromptu news conference starring the golden girls from Turin, Italy four years ago – Sweden’s Anette Norberg (left in yellow) and company.

Will the Swedes be able to sail their ship back onto the podium, a ship which has been steadily taking on water the past couple of years?

So many questions. So much excitement, with the Opening Ceremonies just a few minutes away.

Be sure to check out this here blog for content, as well as our Facebook group page and also our Twitter feed, which passed the 2,000-tweet mark a few days ago. If you haven’t checked recently, you are missing out big time… here’s a quick rundown of just a fraction of the content you can find there:

• two essential iPhone apps for Olympic fans in Vancouver

• dumb media questions asked of Canada’s Cheryl Bernard and Kevin Martin

• Team Brad Gushue (well, three of them) in a sweet new Olympic TV ad

• Team USA, men and women, are tops on Twitter and Facebook

• Kevin Martin Inc., ie. the curling team which runs like a business

• Danish curler makes Top 10 Olympic Hotties list

• plus predictions, famous writers, videos and more!

More coming soon.

So much more… it’s the Olympic Winter Games!

[The Curling News photo by Anil Mungal, click to increase size]

Another story we’ve been sitting on is now… oot and aboot!

The 2002 curling movie Men With Brooms, recently given a positive plug by the Huffington Post, is back… on the small screen.

A pilot episode was filmed back in December, with the on-ice scenes taking place at the Dundas Granite club near Hamilton, Ontario, and word came down last week that CBC has picked up the series for the 2010-11 season.

Fans will remember the film version came out in 2002, just in time to tap into the Salt Lake City Olympic fever. In keeping with the imminence of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, here’s the CBC pickup news in German (!!), courtesy of Swiss TCN reader Martin Stucki.

Canadian media are now aware, and you can read more here and here.

The Curling News was privileged to be on set in Dundas, back in December, and we invite you to subscribe today – as we will have a full behind-the-scenes report, plus exclusive photos, in a future edition of the newspaper.

You don’t want to miss it!

Now it’s Sweden’s turn!

Here’s Sebastian Karupp from the Niklas Edin squad, out and about in beautiful British Columbia and indicating where he believes Team Sverige will end up on the medal podium.

We wouldn’t bet against him, actually. Team Edin have compiled quite the curling resume recently.

World University Games champions a year ago – beating the Chinese Olympic team in the final, in their own hometown of Harbin, with some 20-30 million Chinese watching on state television.

Quarterfinalists at the first Capital One Grand Slam event of the season, at Toronto back in October. Remember that one? They started in horrid fashion, going 0-2, and then won their remaining pool games to qualify… against the field of the other nine Olympic teams plus Koe, Ferbey and Gushue.

Finally, the Europeans. While Canadians were focussed on their Trials in Edmonton, the young lads swept the competition in Aberdeen, Scotland to win gold at Europe’s most important competition. Just like that.

Are these guys on your Olympic pundit radar screen? If not, you’d better make some last-minute edits, and quick.

You can read more about their podium chances, plus that of Anette Norberg‘s women’s team, in the super-sized Olympic issue of The Curling News.

And if you happen to be Swedish, you just might be able to read our story in that language.

Say what?!

Hey, that’s the rumour… after all, de svenska lagen lämnar mycket att prata om…

[Fredrik Lindberg photo, click to increase size]

Word broke today that Michael Burns Sr., an award-winning sport photographer and the dean of all curling photographers worldwide, passed away on Monday at the age of 84.

Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, “Senior” started working at racetracks as an apprentice at Old Woodbine in Toronto in 1943. While working for Turofsky Photos in the 1940s and 1950s, Burns covered the National Hockey League at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

As official photographer of the Ontario Jockey Club (Woodbine Entertainment Group) since 1956, his images promoted horse racing for more than 50 years.

Overall, Burns was part of the sports scene around the world for the past seven decades. He was the official photographer for the Canadian government at five Olympics… but curling fans also came to know his images very, very well.

Senior has been the official photographer of the Canadian Curling Association for decades, beginning in 1958, and his son, Michael Burns Jr., has taken over most of the curling shooting for decades, too. Back in April 2009, during the Ford Worlds, TCN blogger Katja Kiiskinen paid tribute to “Burnsie”, junior version, who celebrated a milestone of his own at that historic championship.

The Curling News has been privileged to work with both Sr. and Jr. for decades, too, and we mourn the passing of Michael Burns today. Be sure to check out our next issue, the March 2010 “Brier” issue, for a spread of classic Michael Burns curling images.

For now, you can see one such image, taken at the 1976 Silver Broom (men’s worlds) in Duluth on our Twitter feed, via Twitpic.

You can also read more praise for the Burns legend in this story from the Toronto Sun.

A funeral service will be held at 10 am on Friday, February 12 at St. Clement Catholic Church in Toronto, with a reception at St. George’s Golf & Country Club. Visitation is from 2 pm to 4 pm on Thursday February 11at the Turner & Porter Yorke Chapel, 2357 Bloor St. West in Toronto.

Donations can be made c/o Dr. A. Simone, Canadian Food for Children Organization, 40 King George Rd., Toronto, Ont., M8X 1L3.

The Danes have arrived in Vancouver!

Here’s second Lars Vilandt – who also works for the Danish Curling Association – with the weight of the Olympic world on his shoulders.

The Danes are a tad late arriving due to their national championships, which were held last weekend to declare the Danish representatives for the worlds in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy in April.

Vilandt’s team, skipped by veteran Ulrik Schmidt, won the championship.

The Danes won’t be staying in the Olympic village too long – soon they are off to nearby Langley, BC for training on Feb. 11 and 13, returning to Vancouver on the 12th for the Opening Ceremonies (but of course).

Included in their warm-ups will be a friendly exhibition match against Marla Mallet and her 2009 B.C. women’s champions, who lost the final to repeat Canadian winner Jennifer Jones. That game takes place tomorrow, Feb. 11 at the Langley Curling Club at 8:00pm.

Another exhibition game is scheduled for 3:00pm on Feb. 13 against the BC junior men’s champions, the Tyler Klymchuk squad from Langley. Team Denmark will be available to meet the public and sign autographs an hour before that match, at 2:00pm.

[Lars Vilandt photo, click to enlarge]