Team Canada pulls inspiration from beloved sitcom hero and bounces back after first loss at worlds

Mark Ideson’s only message to Team Canada after its first loss on Day 3 of the 2024 World Wheelchair Curling Championship at Gangneung Curling Centre in Gangneung, South Korea was simple.

“You know, just like Ted Lasso says, you have to be a goldfish,” said the Canadian skip about games that get away. “We’ll let that one go and just move onto the next one.”

The saying originates from the TV series Ted Lasso and refers to leaving the past behind. According to the show, a goldfish is the happiest animal on earth because of its extremely short memory. So, when Ideson’s Canadian squad, rounded out fourth Jon Thurston, third Ina Forrest, second Gil Dash, alternate Chrissy Molnar, head coach Mick Lizmore, and team leader Kyle Paquette, lost its first game of the tournament to defending champion Team China and skip Haitao Wang, it didn’t ruminate on the result. Instead, it channeled the spirit of that familiar freshwater friend.

“China is a good team and they always play really well against us,” said Ideson. “But we’ll regroup for tonight and come out firing.”

And that’s exactly what Canada did in the evening draw against Ain Villau’s team from Estonia.

After forcing the Estonians to one in the first, Canada replied with its biggest score of the week—a massive five-ender that materialized after a runback from Forrest. The offence kept coming as Canada followed up its big end with consecutive steals in the third and fourth ends. Despite Estonia’s best efforts to mount a comeback, Canada kept its cool and secured an important victory.

“They gave us a run there, they put a lot of pressure on us as the game went on. We managed to play the scoreboard and gave ourselves a chance in the end, so it’s nice to get that win,” said Ideson.

The Canadians (4-1) sit in a tie for second with China and hometown team Korea, skipped by Hyeonchul Lee. With the loss, Estonia drops to 1-4.

The United States (1-4), skipped by Matthew Thums, picked up its first win when it served China its first loss of the tournament this morning, but couldn’t repeat that performance against first place Latvia and skip Ojars Briedis, who improved to 5-0 and is now the only undefeated team left.

Sweden (2-3), skipped by Viljo Petersson-Dahl, is back in the mix after earning its first and second wins against Italy (3-2), skipped by Egidio Marchese, and Slovakia (2-3), skipped by Radoslav Duris. Norway, skipped by Jostein Stordahl, also finds itself in the middle of the pack at 3-2.

Scotland (0-5), led by Hugh Nibloe, is the only team yet to find the win column as Czechia and Dana Selnekovicova (1-4) earned its first win against them.

The round robin will pass the midway mark tomorrow when Canada meets with the United States (Tuesday, 12 a.m. ET) and Scotland (Tuesday, 5 a.m. ET).

The top six teams from the round robin advance to the playoffs, with the top two receiving a bye while the remaining four play in the first round. The gold and bronze medal games will take place Friday, March 8 at 9 p.m. ET.

All games will be available to watch on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@curling1.

For live scores, standings, and statistics for the 2024 World Wheelchair Curling Championship, go to https://livescores.worldcurling.org/wwhcc/.

This story will be available in French as soon as possible at https://www.curling.ca/category-all-posts-fr/?lang=fr.