Team Canada infuriated some, amused others

#Nagano25Years — Feb 6, 1998

Here’s the fifth instalment of Nagano Olympic memories, 25 years later. The series kicked off here on Feb. 1, and the last three chapters are on The Curling Guy Facebook page.

February 6 saw us shuttle from our satellite village of Karuizawa to Nagano for Canadian curling’s first-ever Olympic media conference, and then a party for all Canadian Olympians at Canada House. 

But this was to become a notorious day for our team.

Here we are with the Schmirlers in an impossibly plain room with no microphones, no backdrop, no Olympic logos, no nothing. A far cry from the media spectacles at today’s Winter Games. But we, the men’s team, didn’t care ... we were just hoping no one would notice we were walking rather stiffly, and that Collin had a rapidly blackening eye.

We had gone snowboarding, you see, and WE SHOULD NOT HAVE DONE THIS. We wiped out. A lot. And the hill, which we spotted on the grounds of our mini-village, was actually solid ice, not powder, which we didn’t realize until we got up there with our rented boards. 

Naturally, we Toronto boys had never tried the sport before.

Oops.

Our Curling Canada handlers were furious. National coach Jimmy Waite told the media about it and added … “those idiots.”

Our attitude was that hey, the hill was right there, and it was tiny, and … oh well.

Our coach/alternate, Paul Savage, saw the whole disaster unfold from the village cafeteria windows. He told us later that he was whooping and hollering, something like “That’s right! You don’t mess with the Canadians, we’re crazy!” The other teams came over to watch and were aghast.

Yes, this was impossibly stupid. And we were lucky none of us were seriously injured. Savage came running over to us as went to return the rented boards, and I could have sworn he took a photo of us … but I haven’t been able to locate it.

This was also the news conference where the Schmirler gals started striking sumo wrestling poses for the assembled photographers. But they would be upstaged by Savage, who was already attracting attention thanks to the red leaf on his forehead.

Paul let it slip that he had an Olympic tattoo.

“Let’s see it,” said a photog.

“Don’t think I can,” he replied.

But of course he ended up dropping his pants, and showing off the Olympic trademark infringement tattooed on his upper buttock.

He got yelled at by his wife, Barb, via email.

Incidentally, Paul still insists the Schmirler gals screwed him over. He wanted our team to get Olympic tattoos before the Games, but we all refused (I’ve since got one). Sandra’s team overheard and agreed that they, plus Paul, would all get tattoos. None of the ladies did, of course, and Savage was left alone with his inked rear end.

After this chaos, it was time to dress sharply and gather for opening night at Canada House. And since I don’t seem to have any photos of that, here’s some pics of the opening curling party that was hosted by the World Curling Federation and the Nagano Games organizing committee a day or so earlier.

Who remembers Curling Canada boss Dave Parkes? That’s him at front row left.

VIPs from the WCF and the organizing committee banged some drums to kick things off. That’s WCF president Gunther Hummelt of Austria looking distracted. Mike threw a press jab at the WCF around this time, as I recall, by mentioning the irony of a nation with just two sheets of curling ice holding the global curling presidency.

Someone took a pic of Lisa Schoeneberg’s American gals that night, and here they are.

There’s Debbie-Deb! Look how young these guys look.

Of course, Erika Brown had competed at the Calgary 1988 Olympics—at just 15 years of age—when curling was a demonstration sport, so she’s a veteran in this photo. Her episode of the Curling Legends Podcast is a good one, by the way.

We would stay at the main village overnight because the opening ceremony was scheduled for the next day. More on that epic experience tomorrow at The Curling Guy page.