High Time I Said Goodbye to Curling
For over 20 years, the sport of curling has been a part of my everyday life. I’m not the youngest anymore, and those of us who are a bit older know all too well that as we get older, the exciting moments—the activities that can still stir up strong emotions—become fewer and fewer, and their intensity also gradually fades. Thanks to curling, I’ve learned that even older people can fall in love all over again. I never would have thought that anything could captivate me as much as curling and its unique aspects.
When I first became interested in the sport, players like Glenn Howard and Kevin Martin—as well as Andrea Schopp and Annette Norberg—were at the top, with Thomas Ulsrud and Dave Murdoch, and Mirjam Ott and Jennifer Jones, hot on their heels. Gradually, talents like Niklas Edin and John Shuster, Eve Muirhead, and Bingyu Wang followed. At one point, there was a full field of exciting athletes competing in countless thrilling tournaments. As a man, I often found myself admiring the female players; I was equally impressed by some of the gals for both their looks and their talent.
Anyway, let’s fast-forward 20 years—and now the very last of my early curling heroes have finally retired. More than once, I stayed up late into the night watching Tirinzoni and Ulsrud amongst many others. Now that they’ve retired, I really miss that connection.
The fact that so many players will now be competing with new teams doesn’t help much either. I’m finding it extremely hard to see Pätz, Amos Mosaner, Joel Retornaz, Lacedelli, Oskar Eriksson, Benjamin Kapp, Mark Nichols, Satsuki Fujisawa, Kerri Einarson—all of them—on the ice with new partners. I’m convinced we’ll see many new great curlers, especially Xenia Schwaller and Serena Gray-Withers, but I just don’t belong there anymore.
I’m very grateful that I was able to be part of this wonderful era. Above all, I’d like to thank Thomas Ulsrud (RIP) and all three of his teammates, Glenn Howard, Johnny Frederiksen, Jiri Snitil, E. J. Harnden, Brad Gushue, Sven Michel, Amos Mosaner, Matt Hamilton, Marc Muskatewitz, Silvana Tirinzoni and her three 2019 teammates, Andrea Schopp, Carmen Küng, Ludmila Privivkova, Iveta Staša-Šaršūne, Analena Jentsch, Dilşat Yıldız, Sarah Wilkes, Lauren Gray, Seina Nakajima, and Giulia Lacedelli. My favourite events were the WMCC in 2012 and the WWCC in 2019, will help me get over the loss of my great love—at least a little bit.