Just like eight years ago, John Morris is returning to Alberta with a gold medal, but now the curler has made history and changed his philosophy on the game.
Morris, with partner Kaitlyn Lawes, won the mixed doubles competition at the PyeonChang Olympics, the first gold as the sport made its debut at the Games.
In Vancouver 2010, the former Chestermere firefighter was part of Kevin Martin’s gold-medal winning team. Now he’s a double gold medallist, and the duo were the only medallists for Canada in curling at these Games.
“You know what, it feels unbelievable – two golds for Canada,” Morris said in his post-game media conference. “This is for everybody back home, who have always been supportive, and it just feels so great. We got off to a great start. It just feels awesome to be part of this team.”
Morris and Lawes dominated the Swiss duo of Martin Webster and Jenny Perret in the gold-medal final, wiping them out 10-3. It was in the semifinal against Norway that there were some tense moments as Morris and Lawes allowed a 5-2 turn to 5-4 before they put up a three-point end to win 8-4 and breath a sigh of relief.
Norway topped Canada 9-6 in the opening game of the tournament, but Morris and Lawes were solid the rest of the way.
Although he’s reached the pinnacle in team curling, you can now consider Morris a convert on the mixed doubles game. It’s a throwback to his younger days as it requires him to jump up and sweep his own stones while also sweeping for his partner.
“I think this game of mixed doubles is just fantastic,” Morris said.
“It’s something that everyone back in Canada should try. It’s fast-paced, athletic, a lot of fun and the beer still tastes just as good after the game.
“I think that it’s here to stay and I can’t wait to see how well it does in Canada.”
Canada didn’t fare well at these games in team curling. Rachel Roman’s rink on the women’s side failed to make the playoffs, while Kevin Koe’s rink — which includes Chestermere’s Ben Hebert — lost to the eventual winner from the U.S. in the semifinals and also dropped the bronze-medal game to Switzerland.
So Morris and Lawes are the darlings of the Canadian curling world right now.
Morris might turn his focus full-time to mixed doubles and plans to talk about it with Lawes once things calm down.
A winner of junior, national, world and Olympic titles in his career, Morris sees mixed doubles as a rejuvenation of his excitement about the sport. At age 39, he could stick around for another Olympic cycle, but he’s already completed the double dip.
“You don’t have a lot of chances to go to the Olympics, especially being from Canada,” Morris said. “The curlers from Canada, we have a lot of depth there.
“It feels fantastic, we have a lot of support back home and to be able to help our team out with a gold medal and to be able to bring it back to all our friends and family and all our support back home, it just feels amazing.”
