Russia made offer he couldn’t refuse

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/05/2010 (5945 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

At first blush, I thought it was a practical joke. Thought it was April Fool’s Day.

I mean, a young man from Canada — from Charleswood, no less — talking about spiriting off to Moscow to curl for the Russkies in the Olympics and taking two of his Manitoba teammates with him?

But that’s exactly the little bombshell Jason Gunnlaugson dropped Wednesday, announcing that he and teammates Tyler Forrest and Justin Richter are planning to pack up their brooms and tuck-slide all the way to Russia in a brazen attempt to qualify for the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.

This is treason, right? A Canadian curling for the Kremlin. Jason Gunnlaugskov? If this had happened 30 years ago, we would have disowned the guy. He’d be branded a traitor. Even now, Gunnlaugson will be considered by some an opportunist at best and a curling mercenary at worst.

So why am I so damn jealous? Why am I not offended that a 25-year-old would so blithely ditch patriotism for such a blatantly pragmatic philosophy as, “We want to be the best team in the world. This is an opportunity to make it happen?”

After all, it wasn’t so long ago that Brett Hull created an uproar when the Golden Jet’s son decided to lace them up for the Yanks. And Hull had dual citizenship, for heaven’s sake. Yet few red-blooded Canadian hockey fans have totally forgiven Hull for leading Team USA to victory over Canada in the 1996 World Cup.

So just imagine this scene in Sochi: Gunnlaugson is standing on top of the podium, a gold medal dangling around his neck, with the Russian anthem playing and that country’s flag being raised. And standing to his left is Kevin Martin. Or how about Jeff Stoughton? Two guys from Charleswood — one Russian, one Canadian. Ouch.

Come to think of it, it was only last week the local curling community was in a tizzy when Jennifer Jones fired longtime third Cathy Overton-Clapham. As expected, Jones took a lot of flak on the message boards from the bravely anonymous populace. How could she dump her own friend and loyal teammate? they wailed. Fair enough.

But let’s see what kind of backlash, if any, Gunnlaugson gets for literally jumping to another country in order to accomplish the exact same goal: winning an Olympic gold medal.

The only difference, of course, is that Jones wants to win gold for Canada. Gunnlaugson wants to win gold for Mother Russia. But as stated in this space before, the double standard applied to women’s curling when it comes to the highest levels of competition is as entrenched in the game as the free guard zone.

Gunnlaugson’s logic is straightforward: In order to fast-track his development, get the Russian sports federation to bankroll the team, which would include two Russians (the second almost certainly baggage). Boom, you become a full-time curler and money and sponsorships are suddenly no object. All the international experience and resources you want are there for the asking.

Meanwhile, Gunnlaugson would be the darling of a Russian Olympic program that pretty much fired almost every federation head after a monstrously disappointing 2010 Games in Vancouver, where the country won only 15 medals, just three of them gold.

In fact, just the way Gunnlaugson was shamelessly recruited by the Russians gives you a glimpse of what they’re prepared to do to not embarrass themselves in Sochi. Who’s next on their list? Jon Montgomery? Here’s a better question: Should Canada start recruiting Ethiopian marathoners and Lithuanian weightlifters?

But we digress. Apparently it’s a transnational world now. If you don’t think there’s a ton of 20-something Canadian curlers out there who would have jumped at the Russian offer, think again.

To actually follow through, however, is another matter entirely. Clearly, Gunnlaugson, Justin Richter and Tyler Forrest are going in with their eyes wide open. They understand there will be consequences, negative and positive. In the end, they felt the opportunity — and the adventure, for that matter — was too juicy to pass up.

Hey, it’s a free country. And the prospect of Gunnlaugson competing for Russia in the 2014 Winter Olympic Games oddly strikes me as far more intriguing than galling or unpatriotic. Maybe that will change the moment a guy from Charleswood stands at attention atop the Olympic podium while “his” national anthem is played in Sochi. Maybe then it will feel like Gunnlaugson sold a little bit of his soul, or his citizenship, for a shot at the brass ring.

It’s like that old Russian proverb that goes: “As you make your bed, so will you sleep.”

Sweet dreams, Jason Gunnlaugson. The nights can be cold in Moscow, too.

randy.turner@freepress.mb.ca