By Bob Weeks, The Globe and Mail
Silver simply won’t do it this time.
Eight years ago, Kevin Martin came away from the Olympics with a second-place medal and while he would have preferred gold, he wasn’t unsatisfied with his finish. To win a medal, he said, was a great achievement.
But this time around, there is only one colour on his mind.
“For sure, definitely,” answered Martin when asked if silver would be a disappointment. “It’s a lot of work to get back here and you don’t get that many chances in lifetime. We’ll give her our all but I roll with the punches pretty good so it definitely won’t be the end of the world if we don’t win but I seriously want to get up that podium one more step.
After losing the final to Norway’s Pal Trulsen in 2002, Martin has been on a mission to get back and reach the top step of the podium.
He re-built his team with John Morris, Marc Kennedy and Ben Hebert, and demanded they buy in to his plan, set up in exacting detail. And hit the gym to try and transform his 43-year-old body into a machine that could keep up to the hold up to the rigours of all the play.
“It’s been guys pushing each other and he’s finally found three other guys who want to be like him,” said Jules Owchar, Martin’s coach for the last 25 years. “He didn’t always have that. These four guys work hard. They’re in tremendous shape and it shows.”
That’s all brought Martin back to the spot he was eight years ago, and now he knows what to do ahead of Saturday’s contest.
“All you can do is play well,” said the Canadian skip. “That’s the key to this whole thing. Make sure we get a lot of rest, have a real important practice session [today] and leave nothing on the table.”
Standing in his way is a, once again, a Norwegian team that has played exceptionally well and is looking forward to the challenge.
“They just look like they’re on cruise control,” said Norwegian skip Thomas Ulsrud of the unbeaten Canadian rink, “playing really well but I’m not too worried because the way my guys played we’re going to give them some trouble.”
If the Norwegians need any inspiration, they will find it in their team leader, Trulsen, who has been helping out the rink throughout the Games. So what can the retired star pass on to the current Norwegian skip?
“Nothing,” Trulsen said emphatically. “He is better than I have ever been.”
Trulsen is also impressed with Martin, who he says has continued to improve year after year, just like the game. “Curling is like all other sports,” he said. “It gets harder and what’s good enough eight years ago is not good now. He’s a better curler, he has more shots, more difficult shots.”
The victory turned Trulsen into a minor celebrity back in his home country as the infamous last-shot miss by Martin and the Norwegian celebration was played over and over on television. While it inspired Ulsrud to work to for a medal of his own, it didn’t spur any growth in the sport. There are still just eight sheets of curling ice in the entire country.
Ulsrud may have a chance to help curling’s cause but that will come later. For now, he’s simply developing his game plan to take on the powerhouse Canadians.
“This is what we’ve been training for,” he stated. “When we put this team together three years ago, this was the ultimate goal, to play the Olympic final. Back then we said we were probably going to play Canada and that’s going to be awesome.”
Game time is 7 pm.