Howard, for the win! April 9, 2007

(Photo courtesy of The Curling News – curlnews.blogspot.com)

Team Glenn Howard of Ontario wins the world curling championships. This is wonderful and I am very happy for them. They were – or, specifically, Glenn Howard was – totally kind and hilarious when Danna and I met them at the Brier.

So many props to them. But what I’m most interested in is this picture – I mean, how freaking adorable is it?! Too freaking adorable, that’s how much. I laughed so hard when I saw it.

Oh, curlers. Don’t you just want to give them a big ol’ hug and a donut or something?

I think my favourite recent Glenn Howard moment was from right after they won the Brier. He’s the manager of a Beer Store in Midland, Ont., and he said it was lovely that people kept coming up to him in the store and congratulating him – but that he was having trouble getting his work done! I say again: oh, curlers. Heart.

Such is life for amateur athletes. It’s a tough road, and I don’t envy them. I like watching them, though. Well, while they’re performing their sporting heroics – not while they’re at their day jobs. That’s just creepy.

Figure skaters, represent! March 21, 2007

It’s been a frustrating and tiring day, and I am still utterly failing to get my work done. However, the thing that’s really making me happy is this: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/indepth/feature-davison-dube.html. Way to show up, Jessica and Bryce!

Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison are the pairs figure skating team who made national headlines at the Four Continents competition when Bryce accidentally sliced Jessica’s face open with his skate blade during a move. Yes, you read that right. Yes, it was awfully disturbing!

My sister said she remembers sitting in a campus pub at Queen’s when the incident was replayed on the evening highlights, and she and all of the drunken students around her spontaneously yelled ”AUGH!” in sympathy when they saw Dube go down.

People make fun of figure skating a lot, and though I love the sport – and yes, it is a sport, in my humble but emphatic opinion – I’ll freely admit there’s a lot to tease. Start with the fluffy and spangly costumes, and go right on through to the often-wacky arm flailing; there are some parts of the sport that make it – well, not so sporting.

But when it’s done right, it’s the most beautiful combination of art and sport. And figure skaters are some of the most dedicated and tenacious athletes out there.

I’d like to see any other athlete get his or her cheek sliced open by a sharp blade and walk it off. Jessica hopped back on the ice a mere 10 days after the accident, and she and Bryce delivered an absolutely gorgeous short program at the World Championships in Tokyo yesterday. They ended up in seventh overall, which is pretty terrific, all things (read: FACIAL STABBINGS) considered. 

You’re making me proud, kids. And you’re making my mom very proud. (She loves them, and has for years, because she loves figure skating more than almost anything else. [Just to reveal a part of my bias!] She hung up on me twice last year when she called me from the Canadian Figure Skating Championships. Someone more exciting came along! No, I didn’t cry myself to sleep. Of course not. …)