Travelling across the world and living out a second dream come true, curler John Morris is going back to his roots.
Long before the curler spent years with the Chestermere Fire Department, he grew up chucking rocks at houses in his hometown of Ottawa, and there weren’t always enough friends around for full team curling.
Those days of horsing around on the curling sheet prepared him for this moment. Morris and partner Kaitlyn Lawes of Winnipeg will be Canada’s first Olympic entry into the mixed doubles competition in PyeongChang, South Korea, which start Friday, Feb. 9.
“I would go out with my friends and we would play one on one or two on two,” said Morris. “You jump up and sweep your own rocks. It brings me back to the joy and the fun of the game.
“I love that aspect of mixed doubles. Internationally this sport is huge. It’s taken a little bit longer for it to catch in Canada because we’ve been entrenched in team curling for so long. It’s a fantastic sport and it’s blowing up everywhere.
“It’s a matter of time before you see it become even more popular than team curling in Canada. I feel grateful and privileged to be the first team going to the Olympics from Canada.”
Morris and his rink fell short in the team trials in December, which was won by Calgary’s Kevin Koe and his all-star squad, but he made the most of the second chance in mixed doubles, even after his planned partner had to drop out.
Ontario skip Rachel Homan qualified for the Olympics on the women’s side and she had to drop out of the mixed doubles competition, so Morris was lucky Lawes was available. After one warmup session together, they hit the mixed doubles trials and pulled out the victory.
Mixed doubles is lot more work than Morris is used to after several seasons as a skip. He sweeps every rock, including his own, and with five rocks per end that is a much bigger physical challenge than he’s been used to lately.
“The training changes quite a bit,” Morris said about his Olympic preparation. “I’m doing more cardio and interval training.
“I found at the trials … I wasn’t out of gas but you have to recover quickly. You go pillar to post for 30 seconds really hard and then you have a minute and a half to recover and go back at it.
“I’ve really been training hard. I love that aspect of the game. It feels like more of a sport when you have to exert yourself as much as you can have a small recovery window.
“That training has changed a bit. I’m training here on my own. Usually I’m with my team on the ice. Kaitlyn is in Winnipeg. It’s different when you don’t have your team with you.
“I’ve always been a big advocate of fitness and nutrition with curling and this is huge. You have to be fit to play this game. If you aren’t you will be left in the dust.”
Morris has a chance at being a double medallist in curling. He brought home gold as part of Kevin Martin’s team at the 2010 Games in Vancouver.
This is a chance at history actually. This is the first time mixed doubles is part of the Olympics, and everyone remembers the first of everything.
There’s no doubt that Morris is headed there with a purpose, and he has high expectations even though this isn’t an event he’s done much.
“We’re Canadian curlers so this is in our blood,” Morris said. “We’re going there to win gold.
“We are going there well prepared and ready to go and we will play our hearts out. If that means a gold medal for Canada, that’s awesome. We expect that but you never know. We can’t focus on the outcome right now. All we can do is prepare.”
Morris is relishing his second chance at being an Olympian. This time will be much different than eight years ago, as this won’t be his home country. He still expects Canadian fans to show up in droves but experiencing another culture will be part of making memories.
“I’ve been trying to eat at every Korean place in Alberta to get the authentic Korean culture,” Morris said with a laugh. “It’s going to be a definite difference. Vancouver was such an amazing experience and you can’t top that.
“However, I went to Japan over the last few years with our team and it was an amazing experience. It was awesome. The jet lag kicks you in the butt but it’s very friendly and a very respectful culture.
“I can expect to hear a lot of people giving Canadians the roar too.”
