On This Day in Olympic Curling History: Feb 24

Two Olympic champions were declared, 12 years apart on this day, and both would have been considered unlikely by pundits just a few months earlier. 

TORINO 2006

The day kicked off with two monumental occasions: an Olympic bronze medal for USA, 8-6 winners over Great Britain, with a streaker disrupting the match.

As our man on the scene wrote: “There was only one other fellow trying to corner (the streaker) before Keith (Wendorf) arrived, and no sign of the incredible security presence which has done a great job of hassling photographers and journalists all week. Remarkable.”

Following the previous day’s women’s team medal games which included a tight final between Sweden and Switzerland, Canada’s Brad Gushue scored a massive five-point sixth end to defeat Finland’s Markku Uusipaavalniemi for gold.

The strike by Canada third Mark Nichols in that end is still a favourite of the International Olympic Committee, which posts the video on its social channels every year.

Canada, with last stone advantage, actually missed a shot to score seven. The Finns tried to concede the game, but were instructed by officials to continue play through the eighth end.

The match ended 10-4. 

Both Canada and Finland finished atop the combined standings at 8-3, with bronze medallists USA at 7-4 and Great Britain at 6-5. 

The team’s home province of Newfoundland, now known as Newfoundland and Labrador, closed schools in the afternoon so children could watch the game. On Mar. 6, a highway was named after the team and numerous St. John’s city streets named after each athlete.

Veteran Russ Howard, who turned 50 during the Games, only joined the team nine months earlier. Prior to the Olympic Trials, Winnipeg skip Jeff Stoughton declared the revised Gushue team had “no chance” of winning.

It would be years before Gushue and Nichols would win their national men’s championship – the Brier – which would launch an era of Team Gushue dominance, which included a second Olympic appearance, good for a bronze medal.

Brad Gushue announced his retirement in September of 2025, and his final tournament – his 23rd Brier – starts this week in St. John’s.

PYEONGCHANG 2018

Prior to the men’s final, the women’s bronze medal was contested at Gangneung Curling Centre.

Great Britain’s Eve Muirhead, winners of bronze at Sochi 2014, were looking to bounce back after a semifinal defeat to Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg. However, the Satsuki Fujisawa foursome had other ideas and navigated the scoreboard to a 5-3 victory.

It marked Japan’s first-ever Olympic medal in curling, and the already-frenzied Japanese fans cemented the Fujisawa team into official canon.

After winning Olympic bronze throwing lead for Pete Fenson in 2006, John Shuster moved to skip stones and endured some lean Olympic years in 2010 and 2014.

Early on in South Korea, things again looked bleak… but Team Shuster got on a roll and made it to the final.

Their opponent was Sweden’s Niklas Edin, winner of Olympic bronze four years earlier.

The eighth end – in which USA scored an incredible five points for the eventual 10-7 victory – has since been analyzed by multiple sources but the entire game deserves this in-depth look.

The victory came at a key time for the sport in America. Steady grassroots growth had accelerated after the bronze medal in 2006, but this was something entirely different.

Since PyeongChang, no nation has built more dedicated curling facilities – and redeveloped shared curling facilities – than the United States.

“It’s a remarkable tale of teamwork, guts, talent, redemption and joy, and it deserves to be told as a Hollywood film,” read our cover story. “And don’t think some enterprising folks in La-La-Land aren’t thinking about it.

“Has the sleeping giant truly awakened? Only time will tell. Suffice to say the U.S. media machine cranked itself into a frenzy and disgorged mammoth amounts of curling content on television, print media and radio and across the internet – right into office water cooler chatter throughout the lower 48.”

Shuster’s team also made it to Beijing 2022, where they lost the bronze medal game to Canada. 

VANCOUVER 2010

The men’s tiebreaker saw Niklas Edin of Sweden defeat Great Britain’s David Murdoch in a thrilling battle that ended 7-6.

The Swedish Olympic Committee, on the recommendation of Svenska Curlingförbundet, originally sent the young Edin foursome to the Games to gain experience in their future development.

Now they would compete in the following day’s semifinals.

The women’s semifinals served up a bit of everything; one was a scintillating see-saw clash and the other a methodical one-sided display.

Defending champions Sweden stole two early ends and added a three-count in the fifth end en route to a 9-4 win over China. The difference was the struggles of 2009 world champion skip Wang Bingyu, who fired only 60% compared to defending Olympic champion Anette Norberg (75%).

In the other semi, the raucous home crowd cheered on Canada’s Cheryl Bernard foursome as they defeated Switzerland’s Mirjam Ott by a 6-5 scoreline.

Once again, Calgary skip Bernard shouldered the heavy load, and continued to excel with her shotmaking in critical situations.

Once again, Ott had lost an Olympic semifinal. It was her second in a row, following a similar loss to a Canadian team (also from Calgary) at Pinerolo in 2006.

The day also marked Ott’s third consecutive Olympic playoff appearance, after winning silver as third for skip Luzi Ebnoether at Salt Lake City 2002.