U.S. curlers sweep pass Brits, capture bronze
Americans survive late rally to win first Olympic medal in sport
The U.S. skip Pete Fenson releases the stone during the Britain vs U.S. match in the men's curling battle for bronze at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympic Games.
U.S. edged Great Britain, 8-6.
John Macdougall / AFP via Getty Images
Updated: 1:44 p.m. ET Feb. 24, 2006
PINEROLO, Italy - Pete Fenson wanted the curling bronze medal to come down to the final shot, and he was ready to take it.
The U.S. skip bent his rock into the target area, where it came to rest inside of Britain’s best hope and clinched the Americans’ first-ever Olympic curling medal. Only then did the usually stone-faced Fenson break into a grin and raise his broom in victory.
“Our job’s done here,” he said Friday after winning 8-6 for the first American curling medal in a major men’s competition since 1978. “It’s always nice to come to a world event and perform well. It adds to the credibility for us. ... Hopefully it will have a great impact in the States.”
A gentlemanly sport with etiquette about when and how to celebrate, the Olympic tournament has witnessed more than the usual amount of fist-pumping, cheerleading and even a thrown broom. But Fenson, a Minnesota pizzeria owner who was sarcastically dubbed “Hollywood” by his teammates, has remained stoic in steering the U.S. team, rarely showing as much as a smile.
“On the ice, he’s nerves of steel,” American second Joe Polo said. “He has fun out there, but he just likes to stay as focused as he can.”
The object of Fenson’s focus was an international medal slump that, the U.S. curlers believe, limited the sport’s appeal in their homeland. In addition to three Olympic shutouts, the American men had not medaled at the world championships in almost three decades.
“The drought’s finally over,” said U.S. national team coach Ed Lukowich, a former world champion. “Bronze, for the U.S., is like winning the gold.”
While the Olympic medal raises the team’s profile for non-curlers back home — and in the United States, that’s pretty much everybody — the Americans say they actually had their coming out party at last year’s worlds. Though they didn’t medal, they finished in a six-way tie for first place before losing a tiebreaker that kept them out of the semifinals.
“We didn’t surprise anybody out there,” U.S. lead John Shuster said, pointing to the ice at the Olympic venue about 45 miles outside of Turin. “That’s for sure.”
But even their own national governing body set a lower bar for the men, making their goal a medal of any sort. For the U.S. women, who won the worlds in 2003 and came in second last year, anything less than gold was officially dubbed a disappointment.
“Everybody was not expecting us to do well here,” U.S. third Shawn Rojeski said. “But we were pretty confident coming in that we could be contenders. We were definitely OK with coming in here and not being the No. 1 favorites.”
The Americans will share the podium with two more traditional curling powers, Canada and Finland, who played for the gold medal later Friday. Britain was shut out of a medal one Olympiad after Scottish housewife Rhona Martin threw the “Stone of Destiny” to win the gold medal in Salt Lake City.
“It’s massively disappointing,” said British skip David Murdoch, whose team is also from Scotland, the birthplace of curling.
Though the sport requires a soft touch and a smooth delivery, curling is also about strategy, and that’s how the Americans beat Britain. Taking a 4-1 lead on Fenson’s double takeout in the third end — or inning — they turned defensive and worked to get into the final frame with a lead and the big, last-rock advantage known as the hammer.
Britain’s best chance to win came with the hammer in the ninth, but it could only manage one point — essentially holding serve.
“As soon as that shot stopped,” Fenson said, “I knew I would be drawing for the win. The guys just had to keep it open so I would have a path.”
The hammer went over to the Americans in the 10th end, and they kept Britain from building any protection that would keep Fenson from putting the last rock into the scoring zone. Murdoch had one rock in the target area, and he put his last rock out front as a guard.
But Fenson had an open draw around the right to get inside of Murdoch’s rock and give the U.S. the bronze.
“That’s the shot we always work for the win,” Shuster said.
The victory was especially emotional for Rojeski; it was the second anniversary of his mother’s death. The U.S. third carried a picture of his mother, Bonnie, with him throughout the tournament.
“I knew it was going to be an extremely difficult day for me today,” he said. “This team is extremely satisfied with the way they played today — and for myself, it’s that much of a better moment, for sure.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11540054/
==========================================================
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/winter_sports/4744334.stm
Britain's men's curlers lost bronze-medal match 8-6 to USA
to go home empty-handed from Pinerolo.
Britain's men's curlers are left devastated after losing their bronze-medal match 8-6 to USA at Pinerolo
Last Updated: Friday, 24 February 2006, 15:25 GMT
BBC Sport at the Winter Olympics
Great Britain's men's curlers failed to land the bronze medal after an 8-6 defeat in their play-off with the USA.
After a heartbreaking 4-3 semi-final loss to Finland, Britain set up another thrilling climax as they battled back from 6-2 down after six ends.
British skip David Murdoch's superb three-point haul on end seven reduced the deficit to 6-5 with three to play.
Each side added one more but the USA, who held last-stone advantage, sealed a comfortable victory on end 10.
In reality, Britain had always been chasing the game after American skip Pete Fenson's dramatic double take-out in the third end scored three and put his team 4-1 ahead.
Fenson scored two more in the sixth to leave Britain with a mountain to climb to get back into the game.
Murdoch's last-stone double take-out in the seventh gave Britain a triple but the Americans stayed clear and took the last-stone advantage into the final end.
Despite Britain's best blocking efforts, Fenson held his nerve to draw in his final stone for 8-6 and spark celebrations among the American fans.
It was a sad finale to a promising tournament for Great Britain, who consisted of Murdoch, Ewan MacDonald, Euan Byers, Warwick Smith and alternate Craig Wilson.
Murdoch's men had led the round-robin stage with six wins from their first seven matches before running into bad form, finishing with four defeats in a row.
Britain's women, skipped by former defending champion Rhona Martin, failed to make it to the semi-finals.
Americans survive late rally to win first Olympic medal in sport
The U.S. skip Pete Fenson releases the stone during the Britain vs U.S. match in the men's curling battle for bronze at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympic Games.
U.S. edged Great Britain, 8-6.
John Macdougall / AFP via Getty Images
Updated: 1:44 p.m. ET Feb. 24, 2006
PINEROLO, Italy - Pete Fenson wanted the curling bronze medal to come down to the final shot, and he was ready to take it.
The U.S. skip bent his rock into the target area, where it came to rest inside of Britain’s best hope and clinched the Americans’ first-ever Olympic curling medal. Only then did the usually stone-faced Fenson break into a grin and raise his broom in victory.
“Our job’s done here,” he said Friday after winning 8-6 for the first American curling medal in a major men’s competition since 1978. “It’s always nice to come to a world event and perform well. It adds to the credibility for us. ... Hopefully it will have a great impact in the States.”
A gentlemanly sport with etiquette about when and how to celebrate, the Olympic tournament has witnessed more than the usual amount of fist-pumping, cheerleading and even a thrown broom. But Fenson, a Minnesota pizzeria owner who was sarcastically dubbed “Hollywood” by his teammates, has remained stoic in steering the U.S. team, rarely showing as much as a smile.
“On the ice, he’s nerves of steel,” American second Joe Polo said. “He has fun out there, but he just likes to stay as focused as he can.”
The object of Fenson’s focus was an international medal slump that, the U.S. curlers believe, limited the sport’s appeal in their homeland. In addition to three Olympic shutouts, the American men had not medaled at the world championships in almost three decades.
“The drought’s finally over,” said U.S. national team coach Ed Lukowich, a former world champion. “Bronze, for the U.S., is like winning the gold.”
While the Olympic medal raises the team’s profile for non-curlers back home — and in the United States, that’s pretty much everybody — the Americans say they actually had their coming out party at last year’s worlds. Though they didn’t medal, they finished in a six-way tie for first place before losing a tiebreaker that kept them out of the semifinals.
“We didn’t surprise anybody out there,” U.S. lead John Shuster said, pointing to the ice at the Olympic venue about 45 miles outside of Turin. “That’s for sure.”
But even their own national governing body set a lower bar for the men, making their goal a medal of any sort. For the U.S. women, who won the worlds in 2003 and came in second last year, anything less than gold was officially dubbed a disappointment.
“Everybody was not expecting us to do well here,” U.S. third Shawn Rojeski said. “But we were pretty confident coming in that we could be contenders. We were definitely OK with coming in here and not being the No. 1 favorites.”
The Americans will share the podium with two more traditional curling powers, Canada and Finland, who played for the gold medal later Friday. Britain was shut out of a medal one Olympiad after Scottish housewife Rhona Martin threw the “Stone of Destiny” to win the gold medal in Salt Lake City.
“It’s massively disappointing,” said British skip David Murdoch, whose team is also from Scotland, the birthplace of curling.
Though the sport requires a soft touch and a smooth delivery, curling is also about strategy, and that’s how the Americans beat Britain. Taking a 4-1 lead on Fenson’s double takeout in the third end — or inning — they turned defensive and worked to get into the final frame with a lead and the big, last-rock advantage known as the hammer.
Britain’s best chance to win came with the hammer in the ninth, but it could only manage one point — essentially holding serve.
“As soon as that shot stopped,” Fenson said, “I knew I would be drawing for the win. The guys just had to keep it open so I would have a path.”
The hammer went over to the Americans in the 10th end, and they kept Britain from building any protection that would keep Fenson from putting the last rock into the scoring zone. Murdoch had one rock in the target area, and he put his last rock out front as a guard.
But Fenson had an open draw around the right to get inside of Murdoch’s rock and give the U.S. the bronze.
“That’s the shot we always work for the win,” Shuster said.
The victory was especially emotional for Rojeski; it was the second anniversary of his mother’s death. The U.S. third carried a picture of his mother, Bonnie, with him throughout the tournament.
“I knew it was going to be an extremely difficult day for me today,” he said. “This team is extremely satisfied with the way they played today — and for myself, it’s that much of a better moment, for sure.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11540054/
==========================================================
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/winter_sports/4744334.stm
Britain's men's curlers lost bronze-medal match 8-6 to USA
to go home empty-handed from Pinerolo.
Britain's men's curlers are left devastated after losing their bronze-medal match 8-6 to USA at Pinerolo
Last Updated: Friday, 24 February 2006, 15:25 GMT
BBC Sport at the Winter Olympics
Great Britain's men's curlers failed to land the bronze medal after an 8-6 defeat in their play-off with the USA.
After a heartbreaking 4-3 semi-final loss to Finland, Britain set up another thrilling climax as they battled back from 6-2 down after six ends.
British skip David Murdoch's superb three-point haul on end seven reduced the deficit to 6-5 with three to play.
Each side added one more but the USA, who held last-stone advantage, sealed a comfortable victory on end 10.
In reality, Britain had always been chasing the game after American skip Pete Fenson's dramatic double take-out in the third end scored three and put his team 4-1 ahead.
Fenson scored two more in the sixth to leave Britain with a mountain to climb to get back into the game.
Murdoch's last-stone double take-out in the seventh gave Britain a triple but the Americans stayed clear and took the last-stone advantage into the final end.
Despite Britain's best blocking efforts, Fenson held his nerve to draw in his final stone for 8-6 and spark celebrations among the American fans.
It was a sad finale to a promising tournament for Great Britain, who consisted of Murdoch, Ewan MacDonald, Euan Byers, Warwick Smith and alternate Craig Wilson.
Murdoch's men had led the round-robin stage with six wins from their first seven matches before running into bad form, finishing with four defeats in a row.
Britain's women, skipped by former defending champion Rhona Martin, failed to make it to the semi-finals.
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