Team Canada Beijing 2022 Blog: Jules Owchar

By Jules Owchar

This is my fourth Olympics, and every one of them is special.

I remember the first one, in 1992 in Albertville with Kevin’s (Martin) team. It was a demonstration sport that year, and the ice conditions were pretty awful, so not a really good curling event. But we had a good time, and I still have a lot of the Team Canada gear we got that year. Not sure where it all is, but I kept it!

Kevin and I got back in 2002 in Salt Lake and then those Games in Vancouver in 2010 where we won gold — it doesn’t get much better than that, winning on home ice. 

That was much more like the guys today; you could see it right in the pre-game draw that they had draw weight and looked comfortable. That’ll help the boys. We have the rest of the day off, so we’ll see what the boys have in mind for later.

I was glad to see Marc (Kennedy) get in the game today. He’s been doing a lot of work behind the scenes, and he doesn’t miss too many when he gets on the ice.

We had a good night at the Athletes Village after the loss to Sweden. These boys have won and lost enough big games to know how to move on and focus on the next one. I’m rooming with all of the coaches, and we played some virtual reality games that Scott (Pfeifer) brought over. Some kind of game where you’re hitting red and blue blocks that are coming at you (editor’s note: Beat Saber). I did pretty well on Level 1, and then when he stepped it up, then I struggled. But it was a lot easier than F1 racing.

I guess I’ll be wearing this trapper hat for a while longer. I had two hats for the game yesterday against Sweden and I was wearing this one for Brett’s pre-game draw and he hit the button. I switched to the other one for Brad’s draw and he missed and things didn’t go so well after that, so I’ll have to keep wearing this one.

People have asked me if this is my last Olympics. Well, I guess it depends on how good Brad is! But 2026? Well, that’s stretching it. Four years for now? But it’s the same for all of the guys — will Brad still be playing? Never say never. But we’re definitely not looking down the road. We’re just concentrating on this. And we still have work to do here.