Tuesday, February 12, 2002
Martin's crew is good to go
Olympic opener moves Bartlett
By TERRY JONES -- Sun Media
OGDEN, Utah -- Don Bartlett positioned himself in the hack and prepared to throw the first rock. And it was an Olympic moment.
Three hours later, after beating Hammy McMillan of Great Britain, he almost choked up just talking about it.
That first rock, made especially for Salt Lake City 2002 coincidentally in Hammy's home town of Stranraen, Scotland, had the Olympic rings engraved on the handle.
As Bartlett slid out of the hack, he slid over the Salt Lake logo on the button and ...
"It has been a long 10 years,'' he said. "We waited a long time, Kevin and I, to get to the real Olympics and get the real feeling. We've been to a lot of big events together, but this is every big event times 10.''
It was 1992 in Albertville, the last year of curling being an Olympic demonstration sport. The whole experience was a bad joke and one which ended, again ironically, with Martin's Edmonton rink losing to one McMillan in the bronze-medal game.
"It was very poorly run up in the middle of nowhere, with poor rocks, two sheets of ice and two sheets of water and ... well, ever since then, to be in the real Olympics has been my dream. I'm not sure I'd have still been curling without that dream. And throwing that first rock was my dream come true.''
QUITE A RUSH
Just sitting in the hack thinking about it was a rush for Bartlett, who remained all these years as a lead for Martin to have a real experience as an Olympian and to throw that first rock with the rings on the handle and "Salt Lake 2002'' etched on the face of the stone.
"You're at the pinnacle of all sports. If you can't be pumped about this, you can't be pumped,'' he said. "It felt great, it just felt so great.''
For third Don Walchuk and second Carter Rycroft, throwing those first rocks in what turned out to be a blank end was no less a moment than for Bartlett.
"I admit, I was a little pre-occupied by it,'' said Walchuk who was curling with Pat Ryan back when Martin's rink went to Albertville.
"The surroundings are awesome,'' he said of the way they've dressed up a very iffy building which normally has two walls of windows into a little gem of a venue worthy of the Olympics, even if it only seats about 10% the number of the spectators Randy Ferbey will have when he defends the Brier at the former Olympic Saddledome in Calgary next month.
"It took me an end to get settled down. It took me a couple of shots. You're stepping into a different zone. It's the knowing that it's huge, the knowing it's big. And getting off to a good start is so important. But after a couple of ends it became a curling game to me.''
The three all had percentages in the 80s in the 6-4 win in which Martin shot 94% and McMillan, who beat Winnipeg's Jeff Stoughton to win the 1999 world championship, was a disaster at 66%.
CLEAN SWEEP
Martin improved to 2-0 with an 8-3 win over Tim Somerville's U.S. rink last night.
Canada's only game today is against the tough handle (if not tough to handle), Markku Uusipaavalniemi of Finland.
But there's only one first game at the Olympics.
Surprisingly, perhaps, it was 24-year-old Rycroft who showed up ready to throw his rocks without getting all gooey about it.
"If you haven't figured out where you are by now ...
"The opening ceremonies did it for me. That's been the highlight so far.
"The only thing wrong with it is that it went by so fast. It seemed like we were only marching in for about 20 seconds and it was over.''
Walchuk agreed.
"I've never had a feeling like that in my life. I would have liked about eight more trips around the stadium.''
All of them feel like real-deal Olympians. If the opening ceremonies didn't do it, it was living in the Olympic Village for four days before moving up here.
"Meeting all the other athletes, that's half of it to me,'' said Bartlett.
"We've got pictures with Catriona (Le May Doan), Jamie (Sale) and David (Pelletier), Elvis (Stojko) ...'' said Rycroft.
Just a bunch of giddy guys at their Olympic git-go.
2002 Games Curling Coverage
