While distinguished and well-respected athletes in their own rights – Ronaldo and Lance Armstrong are hanging up their hats – Kevin Martin is still going strong. They don’t call Kevin Martin the “Old Bear” for nothing. He’s still ripping, roaring, and clawing his way to curling championships at the ripe age of 44. K-mart currently sits on a throne as one of the greatest skips currently still professionally competing in the sport of curling. The Old Bear is one of the greatest curlers in the current curling world and it might be years before he hangs up his rock.
Curling is often made the butt of Olympic game jokes. A little over a year ago on 60 minutes, Andy Rooney, said of curling, “the dullest Olympic sport is curling, whatever curling means”. Charles Barkley has said, “Curling is not a sport. I called my grandmother and told her she could win a gold medal because they have dusting in the Olympics now.” How would the Old Bear respond to such statements? Well, I think he’d give those comments a hearty Canadian chuckle.
When I think of Canada a few things come to my mind – Labatt Blue, Wayne Gretzky the “Great One”, and Curling. I also think of the lakes, the mountains, the forests, and the hills – "a place of peace, the repose of the mind". Like the beauty inside of Canada - Curling has an inner beauty. I think many Americans nitpick at curling because they don’t see the beauty in its complex simplicity, the sportsmanship involved, and the intense competitiveness and difficulties of these chess matches on ice. Instead it is easy to notice the sport’s “lack of glamour” – and perhaps lack of physical toughness that is made apparent in other sports such as hockey and football. Well, if that’s the case, consider curling the equivalent of a nice game of golf... on steroids.
K-mart's Canadian Curling team won Olympic gold in 2010 as they went undefeated in round robin play, beat Sweden in the semis and eventually knocked off Norway for the gold. Now, in 2011, it’s March Madness in the curling world. From March 5-13, The Brier, will be taking place in London, Ontario. K-mart will seek to become the first curler to win five Briers as a skip. Then as the final four in basketball kicks off on April 2 in Houston, Texas – 1800 miles away the World’s Men Curling championship will be taking place in Regina, Saskatchewan. It will be interesting to see how K-Mart comes out in these upcoming events. We might not have the young Terps to root for this March in the field of 64, but we surely we will have the Old Bear to support.
A little background on the Old Bear – he’s married to Shauna Martin (Honey Bear) and has three children, Karrick, Kalycia and Mykaela (three little bears - possible future curling champions). He is the owner and operator of Kevin's Rocks-n-Racquets. He has owned his own business since 1991. Prior to that, he was an ice maker. He also runs curling academies at the Saville Sports Centre. He has a resource management degree from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. (source: wikipedia/Kevin Martin)
Folks, Curling rocks, it is aboot time it’s sweeps through America. Check in over the next few months on B-W Blogway for results of all the curling action going on around the world and get updates on Kevin Martin. Let’s Go Old Bear!!! It's hammer time!!!
It's not just a rock. It's forty-two pounds of polished granite, with a beveled underbelly and a handle a human being can hold. Okay, so in and of itself it looks like it has no practical purpose, but it's a repository of possibility. And, when it's handled just right, it exacts a kind of poetry - as close to poetry as I ever want to get. The way it moves.... Not once, in everything I've done, have I ever felt the same wonder and humanity as when I'm playing the game of curling. ~Paul Gross, John Krizanc, and Paul Quarrington, Men with Brooms
