Canadian Curlers Face Long and Uphill Battle to Vancouver

Got more than a few minutes and some patience? It'll take a while to tell you how Canada's curling teams for the 2010 Olympics will be decided.

You still might by hazy on the process even after an explanation and good luck finding someone who can clarify it for you. The top skips in the land can't do it.

"I cannot explain it in seven sentences or less," said reigning Olympic gold medallist Brad Gushue. "I don't think the average person can understand it. It's far too complicated."

Canada is a safe bet for two Olympic curling medals in Vancouver next February. Since the sport made its Olympic debut in 1998, Canada is 6-for-6 in medals won.

In fairness, most people don't know how the country's biathletes and bobsledders qualify for the Olympics. But those sports aren't on television for nine days straight and watched by legions of avid followers.

When asked at the Tim Hortons Brier on Tuesday, Calgarian Mervin Nelson wasn't clear on how teams get to the trials Dec. 6 to 13 in Edmonton.

"Not for sure," he said. "I know who is in the running. It's tournaments and who wins the most money and that's about it."

One men's team and one women's team will represent Canada at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. Eight men's and eight women's teams will play off for that right at the Roar of the Rings in Edmonton.

That's the easy part. You could stop there to keep it simple.

If you insist on knowing more, Alberta's Kevin Martin, Ontario's Glenn Howard and Manitoba's Jennifer Jones have already qualified for trials by either winning three "majors" or earning enough points to put them at the top of the Canadian standings at various points since 2006.

Two more men's teams and three more women's teams will be decided by May 1 to fill half the field at trials. Shannon Kleibrink's Calgary rink is close to gaining one of the women's berths and could do so based on results at the upcoming Canada Cup and Players' Championship next month.

So by May 1, half the Roar of the Rings field will be filled. The other half comes out of a pre-trials event Nov 10-15 in Prince George, B.C., where 12 men's teams battle for the four remaining berths and a dozen women's squads will do the same in a triple knockout format.

Alberta's Randy Ferbey and Kevin Koe, Saskatchewan's Pat Simmons, Manitoba's Jeff Stoughton and Kerry Burtnyk, and Ontario's Wayne Middaugh have qualified for the men's pre-trials.

Kleibrink, B.C.'s Kelly Scott, Alberta's Cheryl Bernard and Saskatchewan's Sherry Anderson, Stefanie Lawton and Amber Holland and Ontario's Sherry Middaugh have qualified for the women's pre-trials.

This year's men's and women's national championship winners, and the Canada Cup and Players' Championship winners, all get into the pre-trials. The field will be completed with the top men's and women's teams in the Canadian rankings since 2006 of those not already qualified.

"Whether this is the right system or the wrong system I'm not sure," New Brunswick skip Russ Howard said. "I have a difficult time explaining it to people and the unfortunate part is people keep asking me."

The Canadian Curling Association director of event operations is one of the few who can give a succinct explanation of the process.

"Basically over the four-year period leading into the Olympics the players are able to acquire points for certain competitions," Warren Hansen said. "At the end of the four-year period, the 16 teams with the highest number of points that have been acquired will make it into trials and depending on if you're No. 1 or No. 16 will depend on how many points you've acquired."

It's difficult to engage curling fans in the process of determining who gets to trials because it's so complicated, but Hanson says have patience, because all will be revealed soon.

"Hang in there until the first of May and we'll know at that point exactly who will be playing in the trials and the pre-trials and the process from there becomes pretty simple," he said.

The CCA decided to reduce the trials from 20 teams - 10 men's and 10 women's - to eight aside. Adding a pre-trials event was a compromise with the athletes, Hanson said.

A main difference heading into 2010 from previous Olympics is that simply winning this Brier doesn't guarantee a berth in the final eight at trials, although it puts the champion in the mix to get there.

While some curlers object to the fact this year's Brier winner isn't guaranteed a spot in the final eight, Martin feels a team's performance over the long haul should carry the most weight.

"You don't want it to be one win," he explained. "You want the consistent guys going to the Olympics."

The current system rewards teams who play a lot of events every year to keep their ranking high. For teams in Atlantic Canada, that usually means flying somewhere else in the country to play in big-money events.

"In eastern Canada we play five or six weekends a year," Russ Howard said. "We don't have a snowball's chance in hell.

"For my team, it's like the Leafs winning the Stanley Cup."

As a leafs fan, I can only assume this means that the team is a lock.