Quarrel brewing over choice of fifths

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This article was published 09/12/2009 (6081 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

EDMONTON — There’s a possible controversy brewing over the selection of fifth players for the Canadian curling teams at the Winter Olympics next February in Vancouver.

The Canadian Curling Association wants input into the choice of alternates after the men’s and women’s finals this weekend at the Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings Olympic trials, but some players have protested that the CCA should have told them before the trials.

In fact, said CCA high performance director Gerry Peckham, the policy hasn’t changed since the last trials in 2005. Simply put, like then, the CCA wants to make sure an alternate player is available to its Olympic representatives who can step in and handle any of the four positions on the ice.

The CCA’s reasoning is that alternates have been needed in past Olympics and haven’t always risen to the occasion, or even been considered as a viable option, and there are always health issues at the Olympics.

“The Olympics,” said Peckham, “are where the diseases of the world go to meet.”

Most notoriously, at the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan, Canadian skip Mike Harris was felled by a flu bug prior to the gold-medal final and curled 25 per cent against the Swiss; Paul Savage, then 50, was the team’s fifth player despite being well past his prime as a competitive curler.

The problem, of course, is there wasn’t an option in 1998, and the CCA wants to make sure there is one in 2010, and make sure the Canadian Olympic Committee is satisfied that all steps have been taken to send the most complete curling team possible.

— Canwest News Service