If things go as planned for Brad Jacobs and the Canadian curling team, Sunday’s Continental Cup victory in Las Vegas is foreshadowing for next month. In the curling equivalent of the “Ryder Cup”, Jacobs and the Canadian team helped North America claim a 35-25 victory over Team World. But the victory is only part of the preparation process for the main event: the 2014 Sochi Olympics, an event in which the Canadian standard is gold and any other result will be a disappointment.
It is a disappointment that lead Ryan Harnden knows all too well. The Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. native has known mostly success as a member of Jacob’s newly formed team. In just two seasons, Harnden, Jacobs, older brother E.J. Harnden, Ryan Fry and Caleb Flaxey have a Roar of the Rings and Brier title to add to their win earlier this week. But a silver medal at the 2013 World Championship felt like anything but an accomplishment for the team.
“We didn’t really have a great world championship last year so that has been stuck in our minds since we lost in the final,” the younger Harnden tells Last Word On Sports, underling the significance of the Canadian gold standard. “We are going to be very hungry for the gold medal in Sochi.”
If the team is able to accomplish that goal it would be the third straight Gold Medal in Curling for Canada. Brad Gushue of Newfoundland won at the 2006 games in Turin, Italy, while it was Kevin Martin of Alberta that claimed gold on home soil in 2010. For Harnden, watching Martin win Gold at the last Olympics was special:
“We are friends with them so just to see how excited they were and how they accomplished their goal and their dream. To see the way they won and how well they played all week [it was inspiring].”
But Harnden and his team are still a couple of weeks away from their chance at a dream Olympic week and intend to make the most of their remaining preparation time. Failing to adequately prepare could hurt the team when they ultimately arrive in Sochi. Therefore, the Continental Cup is just the start of a hectic schedule for the team.
“We are going to go home train in the gym and on the ice,” explains Harnden, “then take off for Switzerland on [January 30th] just to get away and finish up our training before we head to Sochi.”
Even before the team helped claim the Continental Cup there was a sense from Harnden that this preparation period was going well. That, plus the team’s recent history of success, dictate that the team will enter the Olympic Games with plenty of confidence. It is a confidence that could be the difference in medal colour for Canada.
Achieving a third straight Gold Medal in Curling for Canada is every bit as difficult as it is an expectation. But in Harden, Jacobs and the team that has won the right to represent Canada, both the rock and medal hopes are in very capable hands.
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