Six weeks in Toronto

Curlers’ Olympic dream

The Olympics are the highlight in the career of every athlete who is allowed to participate. For several sportsmen the upcoming Winter Games in Vancouver are something extra special – and not only for Canadians, also for some Germans.

The curling team of Skip Andy Kapp* is looking forward to the event in a country, in which their sport is bigger than everywhere else in the world. There are about 1 million active curlers in Canada compared to 600 in Germany. At least most of the people probably know what it is like since 1998 when curling has become a part of the Olympic program.

"We must be the perfect son-in-laws because we are always cleaning", Kapp told me one of the usual remarks about his sport when I met his team four month before the Olympic Games begin. The athletes from Füssen in Bavaria took part in a kind of dress rehearsal in Mississauga. At the Grey Power World Cup of Curling** Andy Kapp and his mates Holger Höhne, Andreas Kempf and Andreas Lang could compare themselves with the five best Canadian curling teams and eight other national teams which will represent their country in Vancouver 2010.

I watched the game Germany against the Scottish reigning World Champions and observed the counterparts sliding alternating polished granite stones down an ice sheet. After each team has thrown eight of these rocks, points were awarded for each own stone which was closer to the centre of the target ("house") than the opponent’s closest one. In every round none of the teams could reach high scores, but at the end Germany had beaten the Britons 4:3. Therefore Andy Kapp was in a good mood to talk to me, but also exhausted: "We play very intensive and never give up. Sometimes our performance looks fluttering", he admitted. When I watched the game I could hear him yelling when he requested his team mates to use their brooms and scrub frantically. In this case it helped; Kapp and Co. drew in the playoffs of the tournament.

The real aim is certainly another one: The Germans have been focusing on the Winter Games 2010 for years. When the time comes they want to win a medal. I keep my fingers crossed for my friendly fellow countrymen. However, Canada will be the absolute favourite, regardless which of the harshly competitive teams will qualify for the Olympics. For example, Brad Gushue won the Gold medal in Turin 2004, Glenn Howard and Kevin Martin are the World Champions of the years 2007 and 2008. Luckily for every other participant that Canada can only nominate one male team for the Olympic Games.

Andy Kapp, whose most recent international success was a bronze medal at the European Championship 2008, appeared very confident: "We view ourselves on the podium." His team owns the advantage of a good deal of experience – some have been playing together for 18 years. Another point seems to argue for the Germans: "I think, we play better and more concentrated in Canada than in Europe. It is such fun to be here. Even if there are relatively few spectators, there are much more than everywhere else." He is convinced that 10,000 or more would watch the Olympic tournament live if enough seats were available. "Nevertheless, when 4,000 people come into the arena it will be a phenomenal atmosphere."

The audience will see a very balanced competition. Andy Kapp believes that almost everybody can beat everybody. In Mississauga, by the way, the Germans were eliminated in the quarter final by Canadian’s Glenn Howard, the later winner of this World Cup.

* http://www.team-kapp.de/ 
** http://www.grandslamofcurling.com/world-cup/