Bernard thrilled to be chasing Olympic gold again

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This article was published 29/01/2018 (3121 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PENTICTON, B.C. — Two days after the Olympic trials, Cheryl Bernard’s phone rang. She was surprised to hear the voice on the other end of the line, but not very: before the 2014 Olympics, she’d chatted with Jennifer Jones, too.

“Congratulations,” Bernard told the caller. “I figured you would call… but I didn’t think you’d call this soon.”

For a heartbeat, Rachel Homan, the newly minted Canadian Olympic skip, paused.

“That’s not what I’m calling for,” Homan said, after a moment.

And that is how, at age 51 and eight years after her own Olympic run, Cheryl Bernard learned she was going back to the greatest sports show on Earth. No, she never imagined it would happen, and yes, she’s over-the-moon excited.

Curler, broadcaster, 2010 Olympic silver medallist — and now, alternate for Pyeongchang-bound Team Homan.

“It’s a thrill to wear a Maple Leaf again,” she says, chatting after the Scotties’ Monday afternoon draw.

There was a brief flurry of drama over Bernard’s selection; fans were surprised the team didn’t opt for longtime fifth Cheryl Kreviazuk. (She, by the way, is at this Scotties in Penticton, playing second for Ontario skip Hollie Duncan.)

Bernard actually asked about that, too, when Homan called. But Kreviazuk wasn’t eligible for the Olympics, under Curling Canada’s guidelines of international play.

So why, Bernard asked, did Team Homan want to choose her, eight years after her own Olympic dream?

“Their reasons made sense to me,” she says. “Experience under pressure in Canada, which is the biggest pressure you’d ever face. I’m not currently on tour against them… and just like she said, ‘You’ve lived this.’”

On a personal level, the invitation is a spot of pride. It is also a sense of purpose: there is a lot to be said, in this sport in particular, for the wisdom of experience. And Bernard believes in Team Homan, and in where their talent is bound.

“I cannot tell you, behind the scenes, the work they’ve done,” she says of the Ottawa foursome. “I have so much respect for that, because I know what they’ve given up. To help them in any way possible, no question, I would do it.”

If there’s one thing Bernard thinks she can bring to Homan, third Emma Miskew, second Joanne Courtney and lead Lisa Weagle, it is perspective.

See, the Scotties are one thing. Every year, rookies arrive wide-eyed at the Canadian women’s championship and rave about the scope of the event. Over time, returning curlers grow used to the pace, the volunteer throngs, the near-daily post-game scrums.

By now, Homan sails calmly through that. But nothing can prepare you for the Olympics, because there’s nothing like the Olympics: the spotlight, the pressure, the swarm of media descending after every game, and on every player.

“It’s such a different animal,” Bernard says. “You need to absorb it along the way.”

For instance, she got sick at her Olympics, but her team barely discussed it. Looking back, she thinks, it was as if they couldn’t bear to entertain the thought of what would happen if she couldn’t play; the pressure was too great.

“It’s so overwhelming and there’s so much going on,” she says. “The normal process you have when you’re at a Scotties is, you kind of sit down with each other after a game and say, ‘I’m feeling this’ or ‘What am I doing here?’

“It’s almost like you can’t at an Olympics, because the other three are trying to hold their head above water as well. There are so many demands and distractions. So the fifths and coaches end up as sounding boards for players.”

If Bernard has to get in the game, she’ll be ready. Since stepping back from competitive play, Bernard has been curling weekly; she even subbed for Jones in 2016, after the Manitoba skip gave birth to her second child.

“It comes back so quickly,” Bernard says of that muscle memory. “It doesn’t go away.”

She’s also tossed a few rocks on the arena ice in Penticton, and can’t help but notice it feels pretty great.

“I’ve been thinking, maybe I’ll make a comeback,” she says, and laughs. “In seniors or something.”

By the way, the Olympic turnaround is quick: Bernard will fly home from Penticton on Monday, and jet out to Pyeongchang two days later. (That schedule is why Homan couldn’t defend her 2017 Canadian title.)

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca