In countries where the only ice is the kind that ends up chilling a beverage in a glass, floor curling is the next-best alternative to rinks where Olympic curlers Tom Brewster and Karri Willms honed their craft.
They brought the gymnasium version of the game to Harwin Elementary School to raise student awareness of the 2020 World Women's Curling Championship, which will be hosted in Prince George next month.
Three classes of students in grades 4-7 took part in the Olympic Celebration Tour and the kids curled on the hardwood floor, sliding light rocks on wheels at the rings of a target mat. They didn't get to toss any of the 44-pound curling stones the women will be throwing on the ice at CN Centre, March 14-22, but they did get to feel the weight of the Olympic medals Brewster and Willms brought with them.
Brewster, a native of Aberdeen, Scotland, passed around the silver medal he won at the 2014 Sochi Olympics with Team Scotland, which lost to Brad Jacobs of Canada in the final. Brewster, 45, quit curling competitively two years ago to focus on his young family and he coaches some of the top junior teams in Scotland.
While Scotland invented the sport in the 16th century, curling maintains a higher profile in Canada, with national TV coverage of major events that he doesn't get to see in his native country.
"There's a lot more people in this country and it's on TV quite a lot and the TV production is really good," said Brewster. "That highlights the sport so a lot more people are aware of the sport. People know the ins and outs and it's probably played to a higher standard in the clubs over here than it is back home. Most of what we see is streamed nowadays."
Brewster has been involved in curling since he was eight. His international experience in curling has given him not only success but friendships in many countries.
"I have really good friends in different parts of the world and that's part of what this sport is, it's a social sport and that's how it started in Scotland because the farmers couldn't do anything else," said Brewster, through his thick accent. "It was too cold, so let's go throw some stones on the ice and have a dram. It originated because of the social aspect and that's what draws me to it. You can walk into any club in the world and strike up a conversation around the sport."
Willms, a native of Vernon, teamed up with Julie Skinner (nee Sutton) to win bronze at the 1992 Olympics in Albertville, France, the second year in which curling was an Olympic demonstration sport.
"The Olympic atmosphere was super," said Willms. "All the emotions you go through and you get to see all the other Olympians and you, all the different countries, and everybody is so proud to represent their countries. The biggest memory for me was not only curling but the closing ceremonies and being part of that Olympic movement. Of course, at the time, you're focused and all the training you do is to go for gold but we came home with the bronze and we're very proud of that."
The year before Albertville, Willms played lead for Canada in the 1991 world championship in Winnipeg and lost 4-3 in an 11-end final to Norway.
On Sunday, Kerri Einarson skipped Manitoba to an 8-7 win in 11 ends in the final of the Scotties Tournament of Hearts. Einarson will represent Canada next month in Prince George.
Willms, 50, the competition and development officer for the World Curling Federation, lives part of the year in Italy. She's coached the national teams of Italy, Latvia and Great Britain.
She says said the game has gone through a lot of changes since when was in her prime. The equipment is better. There's more focus on pebbling of arena ice to make it more conducive to allowing rocks to curl and the curlers themselves take better care of themselves as athletes.
"Everything has been taken up to another notch," she said. "A lot of the teams now are focused on their fitness, eating properly. Maybe back then, some of the teams didn't focus on that as much, and it was more working on the ice.
"We worked in the gym six days a week and so we were higher up on that compared to most of them. I think that gave us an edge, but now it's a given. You have to have your nutrition and you have to work out."
Now in its seventh year, the Olympic Celebration Tour goes all over the world and will be in Glasgow, Scotland next month for the men's world championship, with plans to also visit Ukraine, Brazil, Japan and Alaska. The presentation started with a short cartoon which covered the basic rules of curling, followed by a short quiz, which gave the kids a chance to win curling pins.
"This floor curling program we're using is used in schools all around Canada," said Scott Arnold, head of development for the World Curling Federation. I think 1.5 million kids have been introduced to the sport of curling using floor curling. It was developed here in Canada.
"Some of the members of the World Curling Federation don't have ice and this is how they learn."
After the Harwin visit, Brewster and Willms attended a reception at the Prince George Golf and Curling Club and on Saturday offered their expertise to a some of the students and junior curlers who gathered for an on-ice practice session at the club.
