Hurry Hard : The Russ Howard Story

by Howard, Russ; Weeks, Bob

• ISBN13: 9780470839553
• ISBN10: 0470839554
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-04-17
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

"And again, I had to pinch myself. Could this all really be happening? Was it possible that I was now a gold medal winner at fifty? "I had won many championships, world and Canadian championships, Ontario and New Brunswick championships. I had won hundreds of bonspiels and cashed scores of first-place cheques. I have a basement full of trophies and medals, but nothing could compare to the moment I was experiencing now; nothing could ever match the newest reward that was hanging from my neck." From Hurry Hard, Chapter 1 It was a long journey for Russ Howard from his childhood in small-town Ontario to the pinnacle of the Olympic podium in Turin at the 2006 Winter Games. Worlds apart, separated by thousands of kilometers and over four decades, but joined by one remarkable curling career. A career that started on a quiet, lonely rink in Midland , Ontario . Howard, coached by his father, developed a solid, consistent delivery at an early age. He loved practicing, where other youngsters loathed it, and for hour after lonely hour he honed his skills by throwing rock after rock on the rink at the Midland Curling Club. A natural skip from a young age, Howard was always drawn in by the strategy of the game. He relished the responsibility of throwing the last rock. For him, it was always exciting and thrilling to control the final shot of the game, where others were fearful or nervous. And for over three decades, it has been exciting and thrilling to watch him. With award-winning journalist Bob Weeks, Russ Howard takes us on his personal journey through forty years of playing the game he loves: championships won and lost, the characters in the game, ever-changing teams and teammates, personal triumph and heartbreak, and an inside view of the curling world from one of the greatest in the sport.

Author Biography

Russ Howard has established himself as one of the most-celebrated curlers in the world in more than 30 years of curling, winning two Canadian championships and two World championships along the way, and setting records as a skip in the Brier – the annual national men’s championship -- for appearances, games played and wins. He contributed to building the game with an idea that put more offence into it and also fought for players’ right to wear sponsorship cresting in national competitions. Beyond all that, he became an Olympian—and turned 50—at the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, where Howard won Olympic gold as skip of Brad Gushue’s rink, the first-ever Olympic gold medal for Canada in men’s curling. Russ Howard is an Ambassador for Muscular Dystrophy Canada and the Canadian Liver Association.

  Bob Weeks is the editor and co-publisher of the Ontario Curling Report, now in its thirty-first year of publishing. For 18 years, he has written a weekly column on curling in The Globe and Mail, while providing coverage of curling’s major events for Canada’s national newspaper. He has written on curling for publications across Canada and is a regular commentator on both radio and television. He is a two-time winner of the Scotty Harper Award for the top curling story in Canada, and in 1995 he wrote The Brier: The History of Canada’s Most Celebrated Curling Championship, the first comprehensive history of that great event. He is also the author of Curling for Dummies. When not writing about curling, Bob is the editor of SCOREGolf Magazine, Canada’s leading golf publication. He is also heard talking about golf on a nationally syndicated radio program and appears frequently on TSN.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

The Pinnacle

The Start

From Boys to Men

Back to the Brier

First Win

New Rules, New Hope

New Directions

On Top Again

A World of Difference

On the Move

Me and the Kids

The Trials

Off to Italy

Let the Games Begin

Medal Hunt

Index

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