Brad Gushue

Brad Gushue
Curler
Born	(1980-06-16) June 16, 1980 St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada
Team
Curling club	Bally Haly G&CC, St. John's, NL
Skip	Brad Gushue
Third	Mark Nichols
Second	Brett Gallant
Lead	Geoff Walker
Career
Brier appearances	12 (2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015)
Top CCA ranking	3rd (2014–15)
Grand Slam victories	3: The National (2010), Masters (2014), Canadian Open (2014)
Medal record Men's curling Competitor for  Canada Winter Olympics Gold 2006 Turin World Junior Curling Championships Gold 1998 Thunder Bay Gold 2001 Ogden Canadian Olympic Curling Trials Gold 2005 Halifax Bronze 2013 Winnipeg Tim Hortons Brier Silver 2007 Hamilton Bronze 2011 London

Bradley Raymond "Brad" Gushue, ONL (born June 16, 1980) is a Canadian curler from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. Gushue, along with teammates Russ Howard, Mark Nichols, Jamie Korab and Mike Adam, represented Canada in curling at the 2006 Winter Olympics, where they won the gold medal by defeating Finland 10–4, including a dramatic 6-point sixth end in the final match (even though he missed a draw for 7-points), which was conceded after the 8-end minimum stipulated under Olympic rules.

Career

Gushue is a six-time (1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001) provincial junior curling champion in his home province of Newfoundland and Labrador, the last five as skip. In 2001, he not only won the provincial championship, but the national championship and world junior championships as well. Gushue was also the alternate for John Morris at the 1998 World Junior Championships which Morris won.

After his outstanding career as a junior, Gushue made an impressive transition into men's curling and his team quickly became a competitive force. Gushue qualified for the 2003 Nokia Brier where he finished with a 6–5 record. By the 2004 Nokia Brier, Gushue proved not only was he one of the best curlers in Newfoundland, but one of the best in Canada, when his team finished with an 8–4 record. The following year, Gushue qualified for the 2005 Tim Hortons Brier where his team once again finished 6–5.

In May 2005, Gushue brought in former world champion Russ Howard as fifth man on the team, in order to bring experience and advice for the Canadian Olympic trials. Shortly afterwards, second Mike Adam volunteered to step aside for Howard, as the team felt that Howard's skills and experience gave them the best chance to make it to the Olympics. Howard, playing as second, was given the right to call the team's shots as a skip would, but would defer to Gushue for the final word on calls. (Under international rules, Howard was nominally the skip, holding the broom in the house and sweeping opponents stones behind the tee line.) The personnel change was a success, as Gushue defeated Jeff Stoughton's team in the Olympic trials final on December 11, 2005, qualifying him to represent Canada at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. At the Olympics, he defeated Finland's Markku Uusipaavalniemi in the finals to win the Gold medal.

With his teammates, Gushue became the first Newfoundlander ever to win an Olympic gold medal. Prior to the gold medal match, a provincial order allowed for the closure of all schools at noon on that day, one hour before local coverage of the event began.

In 2007, Gushue replaced Mike Adam with Chris Schille as second. A month following their runner-up finish at the 2007 Tim Hortons Brier in Hamilton, Gushue announced that Jamie Korab, longtime teammate, was also cut from the team. Despite a strong Brier appearance and season, Gushue said that the team seemed to lack a needed chemistry and that Korab's departure was a group decision.^[1] In 2008, David Noftall assumed the lead position but this did not prove to be a winning combination.

In April 2008, Gushue replaced his front-end for the sixth straight year: Jamie Korab rejoined the team as lead and Ryan Fry joined the team at second.^[2] Gushue failed to make it out of the 2009 Canadian Olympic Curling Trials pre-qualifying tournament, where they won just one game.

In April 2010, Randy Ferbey joined Brad Gushue's team holding the broom but throwing third rocks. Brad continued to throw last rocks.^[3] Mark Nichols moved from third to second position and Ryan Fry played lead. Jamie Korab decided to take a year or two off. In their first event as a team, the rink lost to Thomas Lips in the final of the 2010 Baden Masters.

On February 9, 2011, Randy Ferbey announced that he was no longer curling with the Gushue team. He stated "I was done curling with them in Oshawa (The BDO Canadian Open Grand Slam Event).^[4]

For the 2011–12 season, Gushue put together a team of Ryan Fry, Geoff Walker of Alberta, and Adam Casey of PEI.

Gushue played in the 2013 Canadian Olympic Curling Trials – Road to the Roar, and just missed out on advancing to the 2013 Canadian Olympic Curling Trials, losing to the eventual Olympic gold medalist Brad Jacobs rink in the final qualifying game.

Brier appearances

Gushue has played in eleven Briers, all for his native Newfoundland and Labrador. He made his first showing at the Brier (Canadian Men's National Championship) in 2003, and has continued to represent Newfoundland and Laborador each year since, except in 2006 when he was unable to participate due to being at the Olympics in Italy. In 2004, Brad Gushue was named the All Star skip at the Nokia Brier. His best record ever was at the 2007 Brier in Ontario, where he finished 8–3 and earned himself a spot in the "One vs. Two" playoff game, where he beat Ontario's Glenn Howard. His team advanced to the finals, where they would have a rematch with Howard, and this time would lose. At the 2008 Brier, Gushue's team failed to make the playoffs, losing a tie-breaker to British Columbia's Bob Ursel.^[5] During the 2011 Tim Horton's Brier event in London, The Gushue Rink won the first ever Brier Bronze Medal game, Defeating Kevin Martin (Alberta) 10-5. Gushue missed the playoffs at the 2012 Tim Hortons Brier, posting a 5-6 record. At the 2013 Tim Hortons Brier, his rink made the playoffs again after an 8-3 round robin record. However, the team would lose in the 3 vs. 4 page playoff game against Northern Ontario, and then they would fall again in the bronze medal game to Ontario, settling for 4th. At the 2014 Tim Hortons Brier, Gushue missed the playoffs, posting a 6-5 record. At the 2015 Tim Hortons Brier, Gushue would have a great round-robin finishing 2nd at 9-2, including making the shot of the week to win in an extra end against AB. Said shot earned him an appearance on TSN SportsCentre's "1v1" segment and ultimately became the first athlete to retire as 1v1 Champion, winning the fan vote 10 times in a row against other spectacular plays in the world of sports. In the playoffs, Gushue would lose both the 1v2 game and the semifinal. In the Bronze medal game against SK, Gushue would lose in an extra end when he missed a difficult runback shot.

Personal life

Brad Gushue is currently a business owner in St. John's, NL. Gushue married Krista Tibbo on September 8, 2006. The couple welcomed their first child, a daughter named Hayley Sophia, on October 14, 2007.

In 2006, Gushue co-authored a book with Alex J. Walling titled Golden Gushue: a Curling Story, which offers a behind the scenes look at the rise of his team to Olympic gold ^[6]

Grand Slam record

Brad Gushue and his team have reached the championship match of a Grand Slam event seven times. The first was in 2005 when he finished second, after losing to Kevin Martin in the final game of Players' Championship. In 2010, he again made it to the finals at The National, facing Randy Ferbey. Gushue won the game, earning his first Grand Slam title of his career. ^[7] Gushue won the Masters of Curling in 2014.

Teams

*Ferbey left team mid season

References

External links

• Team Gushue
• Golden Dream (Team Gushue fan site)
• Gushue rink takes Torino gold
• Team Brad Gushue CS Profile
• Canadian Curling Association
• Brad Gushue on Real Champions
• World Curling Tour profile