This weekend, only 7 of the 16 playoff teams at the Grand Slam were Canadian, leading to another round of declarations that the world has caught up to Canada.
This declaration, however, might be one of the longest running traditions in Canadian curling. So we wanted to look back at just a few of the times when we’ve been told about curlers around the world having caught up to their Canadian counterparts.
2002
Leading into that year’s world championship, a CBC article declared that “the world is catching up…”
Later in the article, Kevin Martin is quoted as saying “The Canadian public hasn’t seen it yet…the longer it goes , the more difficult it’s going to get for Canada to win.”
Randy Ferbey adds that “anybody can jump up and bite you, and that’s why it’s very difficult.”
2003
In the Globe & Mail, Bob Weeks wrote that “the world has caught up. Not only are there teams from around the globe competing, but almost all of them have at least a semi-legitimate chance to win.”
2006
An AP article in the Los Angeles Times, warned curling clubs against being unprepared for the influx of new players following the Olympics, citing the “Americans’ Olympic success.”
In describing the situation leading into those Olympics, the Devin Heroux recalled that “the world was still trying to catch up to Canada when it came to curling.”
2009
A Bob Weeks article leading into the world championship was titled “Rest of world catching up to Canada.”
Kevin Martin is quoted in the piece as saying “gone are the days when we were able to keep winning without much effort” and that “it’s kind of scary looking into the crystal ball and thinking what’s going to happen 10 years down the road.”
2014
There were no think pieces about the world having caught up to Canada in 2014. I wonder why?
2018
Following the American men’s semi-final win over Canada, Time declared that “in curling, the world’s catching up to Canada.” In that same article, Marc Kennedy is quoted as saying “it’s a really f—-ing hard game at this level…this is the new normal for Canada. We have to get used to it.”
Dave Feschuk argued in the Toronto Star that one of the reasons the world was catching up (or had caught up) was because of Canadian coaches. After noting that “the overriding feeling in the women’s curling world was that Homan’s lack of success had as much to do with the rise of the international field as it did with her sub-par form,” Feschuk attributes a lot of that rise to Canadians coaching internationally. He notes that 6 of the top 7 teams in the field were coached by Canadians, who could be described as “simple mercenaries - contract coaches hired by national sporting federations bent on finding success.”
2022
In a long-form piece for Sportsnet about changes to Curling Canada’s approach, Kristina Rutherford stressed that “casual curling fans may want to take a deep breath, because Canada isn’t the favourite it once was.”
In his season summery for CBC, Devin Heroux declared that “the world has caught up and curling is no longer Canada’s game to dominate.”
