Most medal depth in Olympic team sport?

MOOSE JAW, SASK.—What is the most competitive team sport in the winter or summer Olympics?

This question has been posed many times over the years, in publications like Sports Illustrated and from stakeholders like the Canadian Olympic Committee.

My question is—does curling have more medal depth than any other team sport?

What got me going on this was the second draw of the world men’s championship “day three” here at Temple Gardens Centre. Of the eight teams on the ice, the top seven were all playing.

Canada, China and Scotland all boasted 3-0 records. The Swiss were 3-1, the USA, Norway and Sweden all 2-1. Korea was 0-4 but generally pretty competitive.

The Olympic four-player team competitions at Cortina will feature 10 teams, and just about all of them will be capable of a podium finish. I honestly can’t think of another Olympic team sport that can say this.

I love hockey but the bottom two or three teams would need more than a miracle on ice. Basketball, rugby and soccer are getting close but not yet. Most sports have, to use a baseball analogy, AA or AAA outfits trying to beat Major League teams.

I ran this question by Tim Thomas, a former Boston Bruin who played goal for the USA at Vancouver 2010. “You are probably right,” he said. “Curling has depth.”

Tim always had a teammate or three who enjoyed watching the granite game. His wife Melissa got hooked during those 2010 games in Vancouver. Their daughter Kiley won a club championship in Colorado Springs.

This is something prairie people need to be proud of. Yes, our Scottish friends invented the game but it was western Canadians who helped create a global sport. As many of you know, up until the 1960s almost 70% of curlers in the world lived in the Western Conference of the CFL.

Ours is one of the most-watched Olympic sports around the world. And some would say the least lucrative in the big picture. And now for my segue… Moose Jaw is smack in the middle of the prairies.

Team Canada are probably in the meatiest part of their round robin. They took a loss to Scotland’s Team Mouat on Monday and get seven-time world champion Niklas Edin and Team Sweden on Tuesday morning, Joël Retornaz and Italy Tuesday night, and Magnus Ramsfjell’s Team Norway on Wednesday—all serious medal threats.

(How we have grown numb saying “seven-time world champion” with regard to Edin. Not to forget he’s also the defending Olympic champion.)

Monday saw Curling Royalty in the arena with Ernie Richardson and his son Jim. Ernie held that record, which seemed like forever, until Edin came along. 

Some records in sports seem out of reach and the Richardsons seemed that way for a few decades.

Seven seems out of reach and counting in most of our lifetimes. Maybe there is more similarities between Ernie and Niklas. Ernie won his first title after only eight years of curling. When he got hooked, he really got hooked, becoming a practice fiend. If Malcolm Gladwell is right, he got his 10,000 hours of mastering his craft in due time. In only six years Niklas became a world junior champion.

How does he stay motivated? In the recesses of my mind there is a Kevin Martin interview with Edin on Sportsnet from a couple years back. It reminded me of a Roger Federer quote after he won one of his many Grand Slams in tennis.

First the Martin interview, and Edin’s response to a query:

I’m just trying to improve my mental and theoretical game all the time and that keeps me going. I like the way that curling is set up where there’s a physical aspect to it but there’s also a big theoretical and mental part of curling. The older I get the more mental I need to look at it. And the physical side. I can’t be as strong as I used to be in my 20s, but I’m trying to stay in good enough shape that it doesn’t become an issue.

As Federer said after that Slam win, “The mental was strong today.” At that point in his career he was already in his 30s and attacking his sport from more of the theoretical and mental perspective. The implication being “the mental” takes as much or more of a commitment then staying in physical shape.

Crooked ends and blanks… I’ve got to admit I enjoyed the Scotland vs Canada battle. Four straight blank ends. Some like this, some don’t. I don’t mind. Make no mistake, there’s a ton of skill involved in these blanks with the five-rock Free Guard Zone.

Let’s be honest: in our parents’ generation, those blank ends were just running rocks up and down the ice. Kind of like NFL football almost eliminating punt returns in the last third of seasons and the playoffs with the fair catch. In both cases all it did was give you time to feed the dog, get more nachos, or hit the washroom.

I like Edin’s term that part of the game is theoretical. The angles, the precision, the artistry … I find it all captivating. It’s building a creative defence that the pre-FGZ days seldom if ever offered.

Canada skip Brad Jacobs looked done in the 10th end but made a beautiful long raise-triple takeout to get two and force the extra end. But it wasn’t enough as the Scots played a near perfect frame and made their last rock takeout to win, and become the only undefeated team at 4-0.

That lasted a few hours, before Czechia’s Lukas Klima—coached by Canada’s Craig Savill—thumped Scotland 8-2 to move to 3-2 on the week.

China’s undefeated run came to an end versus the Swiss who are now 4-1. And good old Niklas Edin, after losing game one, is now at 3-1 after knocking off the Koreans.

Crooked ends usually meaning three-plus points tend to do teams in at the world level. Team USA and skip Korey Dropkin were up 4-1 against Norway when Ramsfjell’s men posted a four-ender to take a 5-4 lead. Norway got control back in the last half of the game having the hammer all tied up in the 10th. It was a good finish but Norway advanced to 3-1 and dropped Dropkin to 2-2.

Norway then beat Italy 9-8 to move to 4-1. Joël’s guys are now 2-3.

Obviously, it’s a long week. Two teams haven’t scored a win yet.

It’s Gordie Howe’s birthday today. Arguably Saskatchewan’s greatest ambassador for sports around the world. The man who inspired “Elbows Up” a few weeks back.

And, for the record, Number 9 did throw a few curling rocks in his day.