Ed's note: Curling Canada has been publishing some thoughts from Kevin Koe about competing at the Winter Olympics and his march to what we hope will be a gold medal in men's curling. Thanks to Curling Canada for letting us republishing excerpts here.
World Curling Federation/Richard Gray photo
On the Games experience
I’ve been playing so many years to get to the Winter Olympics and now that I’m here, I’m seeing things differently on the inside of the Games.
One thing that sticks out to me is that when I’m at home watching the Olympics, I know exactly what’s happening in every sport, what’s going on for all the Canadian athletes. But now I’m here at the Olympics, and I have no clue what’s going on, who’s competing tonight, where our best chances are for medals – especially the last couple days, as we’ve been getting more focused on our own routines. I found that odd – I’m finally at the Olympics and I don’t know what’s going on.
The opening ceremonies
It was just a great experience to be part of the Opening Ceremonies. You dream about that, and for me, the best moment was just as you’re about to walk into the stadium – everyone’s cheering and you’re walking in with your bigger Team Canada. That was for sure the highlight of the night for me.
On Preparation
It was a long time coming this week to get on the ice today. We had to leave Canada early to train in Japan to get over the jet-lag and get used to the time change. And then we were here in Gangneung for three or four days without getting on the ice. We would have liked to throw rocks, but it is what it is. It was good to get a couple days of practice, but today was a perfect day for us to play two games right out of the gate.
Beating Italy
I liked a few things about the way we played today. I liked our patience in the first game; Italy played really well and we just had to slowly wrestle away control from them. We didn’t panic. We didn’t know a lot about that team and it was easy to think that we should have been winning early, but obviously their great performance was no fluke. They went out and beat Switzerland tonight (Feb. 13).
Versus Great Britain
We had another good game tonight (Feb. 14) against Great Britain to get our second win. The guys are playing good in front of me; I played pretty good, but I missed a few that showed I’m not totally dialled in out there. But I feel good, I like the conditions, so I’m pretty sure it’ll come for me. I like where we’re at.