What We’ve Learned About The Retirement

The four lads on Team Gushue met the media this afternoon – although TSN somehow got an advance interview that aired shortly after yesterday’s announcement – and the questions and answers were flying.

Here’s our view of the most interesting things we learned since THE retirement call, and its fallout.

ONE WEEK

Brad Gushue had informed his family and teammates of his decision just a week ago. But it was a protracted decision, because for the previous season…

GUSHUE WAS GONE

The skip competed all last season feeling “95 per cent sure” that he was going to retire after the end of the 2026 quadrennial. Gushue said he “struggled with motivation and drive…" last season;  "my teammates knew, and my coach did too” and he believes his performance suffered on the ice.

Gushue missed two key 2025 Brier playoff shots for the win – in the Page playoff and the semifinal – that he would ordinarily make.

This followed a challenging cashspiel season where titles that normally came in droves were tough to find.

After the season ended, Gushue “wanted to get away from curling for a couple of months” and jumped into summer. In August, his teammates – Mark Nichols, Brendan Bottcher and Geoff Walker – asked him if he’d made his decision. That forced the veteran skip to bear down and make the call… and the odds he had been considering in 2024-25 eventually won out.

NICHOLS WAS IN

Gushue’s trusty third Mark Nichols was asked what his future plans are. Nichols said he’s now in that place where his skip was last summer, and only now must he deal with his future. Right now he’s “50-50 (for continuing to compete), without talking to anyone besides close family.”

Nichols acknowledged he had been clinging to hope; he called it a “one per cent” chance that his skip would decide to soldier on.

WHY NOW?

Gushue had two major reasons for making the announcement as the final season dawns: 1) to get it off his chest and lessen the pressure he might feel throughout a tough Olympic season, and 2) to give his teammates clarity, so they can move forward with their own decisions in the next few months.

The skip said he had hoped a September announcement would “relieve the burden” on him, and added that he feels less burdened already.

FAREWELL TOUR

Gushue doesn’t want to be feted and honoured at each competition this season. He thinks it might happen, but he’d rather it not.

In a similar vein, he doesn’t think he’s a curling “pioneer” of sorts – but he does feel proud to have affected change in the sport. “Some of it negative” he pointed out, in reminding us that it was his team that discovered the physics of directional sweeping, and the unfair advantage Hardline brushes gave to Hardine-sponsored teams back in 2017.

It would soon be known as the first “Broomgate” scandal.

2006 OR 2017

When pressed, Gushue said – personally speaking – that he thought his team’s hometown Brier victory in 2017 just did edge out his team’s 2006 Olympic gold triumph.

By 2017 he had more appreciation for what they’d accomplished… because after 2006 the curling Gods weren’t so kind. He said “curling humbled me”, and for the next 11 years, until his first Brier win at the Mary Brown’s Centre. 

MOST PRIDE

When asked, Gushue said he most proud of his longevity, a quarter-century of high-performance competition.

It’s hard to argue with that.

NEXT STEPS

Despite rumours of a possible TV analyst gig, Gushue said he has “no fallback position” and is excited about future challenges. He described a “hunger to try other things, which scares the crap outta me and gives me stress, but I’m going to embrace it.”

He’s still open, however, to off-ice curling projects. And he didn’t discount the possibility of playing mixed doubles with one of his daughters – which would, if it came to fruition, put him in the same category as Jennifer Jones, i.e. retired from four-player curling but still on the ice with a family member.

CURLING’S FUTURE

Brad Gushue wants to see a focus on growth. “We gotta try and get more young players in the game, the young generation,” he said. He noted that “kids have a low attention span, how do we get them to come out and try curling, give it a go…” and believes that the sport needs to get “more eyeballs, and get more bodies into the curling club… make curling as fun and accessible as possible.”