From Russia, with gold

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This article was published 28/04/2015 (4059 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One more hurrah, that’s how Lois Fowler convinced Cathy Gauthier to slip back on her sliders: with a promise of wine, laughter, and one last curling adventure.

With that, two of Manitoba’s most celebrated curlers began a journey that would take them to Russia, where they’d end their careers with a glint of gold.

Over the weekend, Fowler skipped Team Canada to a 2015 world senior women’s championship, sailing past Italy’s Fiona Simpson 6-2 in seven ends. The result never really seemed in doubt: Fowler, third Maureen Bonar, second Gauthier and lead Allyson Stewart had the game firmly in hand right from the opening deuce.

“We wanted that gold medal, we wanted to go out on a high,” Fowler said. “We’d played so well all week, and we all just rose to the occasion. I don’t think there was hardly a miss in the final on our team. We played really well.”

When it was all over, and they stood on the podium in Sochi together, Fowler and Gauthier knew they’d just thrown the last competitive shots they’ll ever make.

“I really fought the tears the entire final game,” Gauthier said, calling it one of the top moments of her life. “I just wanted it to slow down. But when the anthem played… next to childbirth, it’s right up there. It’s so amazing that I was the reason why they were playing it.”

On Monday, after landing at the Winnipeg airport to a bagpiped heroes’ welcome, Fowler confirmed that after 12 provincial titles — eight women’s, one mixed and three senior — she would join Gauthier in retirement, and trade curling ice for warmer climes in winter.

Fowler recently turned 60. Last year, her husband Brian — the former provincial champion, and world senior coach — survived a serious health scare. Their son Rob, the 2012 Manitoba champion skip, is well established in his curling career, and it’s just time for Lois to let the game go.

“I love it, but there’s other things to do in life,” she said. “I’ve had a wonderful career, why not cap it off with a gold medal at the worlds?”

Making the last hurrah even sweeter, is the fact she got to help Gauthier finally get her gold. Gauthier made three appearances at women’s worlds in her career, twice with Connie Laliberte (“The woman who taught me everything I know,” Gauthier raved as the two embraced at the airport), and once with Jennifer Jones.

Each time, her teams fell short, with the hardest being a heartbreaking 1995 final on Manitoban ice in Brandon. Gauthier stepped back from competition after winning a Canadian championship with Jones in 2005, and turned her attention to raising her family and building her successful curling broadcasting career.

Then, over a year ago, she got a call from Lois Fowler, and those plans changed. “Only Lois could have pulled me out of retirement,” Gauthier laughed. “There’s no one else. It was a promise of wine in her basement that lured me to Brandon, and that led to (the Canadian 2014 senior nationals) in Yellowknife, which led to a couple weeks in Sochi, which was the best experience of my life, bar none.”

It was only Fowler that could have sold her on the idea, Gauthier explained, because the Brandon-based skip is the “hardest working” player she’s ever known. “I just knew that with her, even though we were in different cities, that everybody would work really hard,” Gauthier said.

The Canadian foursome played strong through the tournament, losing just one round-robin game to the Americans. For Gauthier, there was a special sense of closure when they crushed Sweden 11-2 in the semifinal — after all, teams from that country had stonewalled her in all three of her previous worlds runs.

“They had taken everything away from me,” Gauthier said, with a good-humoured smile. “So when we beat Sweden, I had a little teary moment, and the girls just kind of rallied because I thought… I can actually beat this country!”

Now, it’s time to hang up their shoes. This summer, Fowler said, the group will likely get together and savour the photographs and memories. Then, she’ll have plenty of time to reflect on a 47-year-long journey from a two-sheet rink in Carroll, where she grew up, to the world senior ice in Sochi.

“You dream about these things, and you see all the teams that do go and win these things,” she said. “When it happens to you, it’s pretty special.”

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca