On This Day in Olympic Curling History: Feb 27

Our long saga chronicling curling’s Olympic displays began on Feb. 7 and ends today, with the men’s medal games in Vancouver.

As described in yesterday’s penultimate chapter, the playoff schedule in 2010 took a full four days to complete.

Switzerland’s Ralph Stoeckli kicked things off with a rousing 5-4 bronze medal win over young Niklas Edin of Sweden.

The Swiss had assembled a superteam for these Games with veteran Markus Eggler (1992 world champion, 2002 Olympic silver) now at third stone. 

Trailing 4-3 after seven, Stoeckli blanked the eighth and ninth ends before punching a winning deuce on last stone, leading to some delightful scenes as captured by The Curling News’ Anil Mungal.

Stoeckli shot a fired-up 92% during the match. Despite disappointment, Edin – who clocked 83% – would go on to qualify for, and medal at, the next three Winter Games editions.

The men’s gold medal final saw Canada’s Kevin Martin score a single in the second end before adding critical steals of one in both the fourth and fifth ends for a 3-0 lead over Norway’s Thomas Ulsrud.

The Norwegians replied with a pair in the sixth end but Canada maintained control, scoring their first deuce of the game in the seventh end.

Classic scoreboard management saw the combatants trade singles until Norway was run out of stones coming home. The final score was 6-3 in favour of the delirious home crowd at the Vancouver Olympic Centre.

Martin, leading a superteam of his own with John Morris at third,  had avenged his Salt Lake 2002 loss on last stone to Norway, then skipped by Pal Trulsen. 

Leading a different squad, Martin had also lost the demonstration semifinal and bronze medal games at Albertville, France (specifically Pralognan-la-Vanoise) in 1992.

According to our correspondent, the pressure of an Olympic curling final reared its head again, one day after affecting both women’s finalists.

Neither team played ‘great.’ Canada blew a deuce in the very first end which, for this powerhouse team, is almost unheard of. Then they were held to a single in the second end.

Even worse, the front end was blowing sweeping calls. That. Definitely. Never. Happens.

But all’s well that ended well.

TCN’s Margo Weber made the drive over from Calgary to cheer on Canada’s women in their final, and offered some final thoughts on Vancouver’s Olympic curling showcase. 

Weber also compared the spectacle to the traditional major event on the curling calendar, the Brier, which was due to start in Halifax in a matter of days.

Like all Olympic Winter Games’ since Torino 2006, the Vancouver show would soon be followed by wheelchair curling at the Paralympic Winter Games, starting in early March.

But that will be another retrospective series, for another time.