Before the Pants, there was Paal

Norway’s Paal Trulsen turns 60 today. Happy Birthday, Paal.

This is a great excuse to salute a guy who was the face of Norwegian curling between the prime Dordi Nordby era of the 1990s—she was something, right?—and Thomas Ulsrud’s Crazy Pantsmen circa 2010-19.

Trulsen made his mark winning Olympic gold at Salt Lake City in 2002, which was the first Winter Games under the NBC TV contract (CBS ignored the sport at Nagano 1998) and which really started the U.S. curling popularity explosion.

He and his teammates—Lars Vaagberg, Flemming Davanger, Bent Ramsfjell and youthful alternate Torger Nergaard—defeated Canada’s Kevin Martin in the final, stealing the victory when K-Mart threw his infamous out-turn draw a touch tight and heavy.

The Canadians even got a helpful tick on a stone in the top eight-foot, if you recall, but it wasn’t enough to halt Trulsen’s destiny.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hdajkgijpo4[/embed]

Trulsen had won silver at the 1992 Olympic demonstration event in Albertville, France—Martin was there, too, and finished fourth—and went on to compete at Turin 2006. He had intended on retiring after Salt Lake, but an Olympic gold medal has been known to put retirement plans on hold.

Trulsen made three world championship podiums, winning silver in 2002 and bronze in ’01 and ’03, and he also scored European gold in 2005. His wonky knee eventually had enough—Trulsen once claimed soccer player Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had the same injury—and he called it quits in 2007.

He went on, however, to become secretary-general and sport director of the Norwegian curling association. As such, his gravelly voice and gregarious personality have been present at most Olympic and world championships since, and he’s often seen on ice with the Norwegian teams during practice sessions.

Trulsen is a great guy, and it’s a milestone birthday. But there are suspicions here at the TCN office that the only reason I wrote this salute is to rehash one of the greatest curling TV commercials ever produced. I, of course, think this is utterly ridiculous. 

Sure, the spot shows a Samsung vacuum robot doing its thing via CGI. And it’s got Ulsrud and three of his mates gloriously overacting as they show jubilation at defeating Canada. 

And yeah, its wild the Canadians are portrayed by a very young Magnus Nedregotten (now two-time Olympic mixed dubs medallist) and WCTV commentary veteran Sander Roelvag, both wearing Canuck jerseys which they or the Ulsrud gang no doubt exchanged with Canadian opponents in their real life curling travels.

And yes, it’s even got our Paal himself scarfing a hot dog in the stands—in slow-mo!—before heading to ice level for a critical timeout.

I resent the accusations. But here’s the video anyway.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPfbes3FNFI[/embed]