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Great Britain’s coach unwittingly motivates Canada’s curlers
That Brad Jacobs and his Canadian men's curling team were at their dominating best in their gold medal game win over Great Britain, at the Sochi Olympics, is for certain.
What is also for certain, now, is that the coach of their opposition, Soran Gran, inadvertently gave the Canadians a little fuel for their competitive fire, with comments he made the day before the game.
"Definitely more motivation," said Jacobs, of the comments, which took aim at the team's propensity to show lots of emotion while competing. Jacobs, Ryan Fry, and brothers E.J. and Ryan Harnden can often be seen celebrating good shots with a great holler and lamenting bad ones with a broom slam.
In speaking with reporters on Thursday, Gran complained about the Jacobs team's demeanor on the ice during games. From QMI Agency:
"The aggressive style we have seen from the Canadians here, that's something I don't like about the sport. I don't think it helps anyone. It doesn't help the player and it doesn't help his teammates."
"If I see the team we are playing against get aggressive and show anger, I think our guys should be happy because we'd have them exactly where we want them to be. I don't think that helps."
Jacobs, in an interview with Yahoo Sports, in Sochi, said that Gran's comments were not well received and spurred the Canadian men on in their march to the top of the podium.
"Definitely, when we read those comments, it just gave us more motivation to go out there and perform like we can and we did," said the skip, who personally shot 95% in the championship game.
Jacobs questioned the wisdom of Gran in even making the statements.
"I don’t think it’s a very wise decision to say something like that before a final game, playing against Canada, and to say it to Canadian press," he said, flatly.
"We believe in karma and you may have seen a bit of that tonight," he added.
Goran's comments, then, were a motivating factor for the Canadian men, but were not the only things to get them fired up. E.J. Harnden pointed to Jennifer Jones and her team's win over Sweden as being important as well.
"It was very motivating to watch them win that gold medal last night and we knew it was our turn and we made that happen," he told Yahoo Sports.
Oddly enough, Jacobs and his teammates were quieter than usual during their game against Great Britain, with Jacobs barely showing any emotion at all until the game was over, when he cracked a smile and raised his arms into the air.
Of course, there was little if any reason to show any frustration as the team waltzed to the win.
Full credit to them, though, for not being overly exuberant as they ran up the score. A definite show of respect to the opposition.
Might even have pleased a vocal critic of theirs.
