I have decided to close down the “Team Gushue” blog and the “Team Kleibrink” blog … and combine all of its contents with the root http://CurlingBlog.com
Once all the information has been transferred and consolidated .. this blog will be deleted.
Thank-you for your patience and understanding
Curling Blog - Team Kleibrink
By Bruce Campbell
Times Editor
Wednesday March 29, 2006
While Bruce Campbell wrote the following article, the responses from Olympic bronze medallist Shannon Kleibrink were the result of hard-hitting questions from Karen Andrews’ Grade 6 class at Senator Riley middle school. Andrews has curled with Kleibrink at the Nanton Meatspiel and the Highwood Mixed Bonspiel.
Shannon Kleibrink had a hot news tips for Senator Riley school journalists — sure winning a bronze medal in curling at the XXth Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy is great, but gee, sometimes you have no idea who your neighbours are.
“There was this hockey player staying in the apartment right next to us,” Kleibrink told the 25 students. “It was this real nice, big tall bald guy. We went out to eat with him at the Olympic Village and we got to know him. At the end of the week, my husband joined me and I said to the hockey player: ‘Oh, hi, how are you?’ — I still didn’t know his name. And my husband says: ‘That’s Matt Sundin.’”
“He (Sundin) and Peter Forsberg were in the apartment right next to us.”
Kleibrink was under the scrutiny of Karen Andrews’ Grade 6 students on March 22 about what life at the Olympics was like. The young scribes went beyond the stereotypical question like what it feels like to win the bronze medal?– tougher questions like “How much is a medal worth?”
“They must be worth a little bit,” said Kleibrink who was the skip of Canada’s women’s team consisting of Kleibrink, Amy Nixon, Glenys Bakker, Christine Keshen, and Sandra Jenkins. “Because as soon as you won a medal you were assigned a bodyguard. Well, we had four extra days after we won our bronze medal at the Olympics. They didn’t tell us we would have bodyguard — and because we are Canadians we didn’t even think of it. We went shopping and this guy was following us all the way to Torino (Turin) — we thought we had this stalker. So we phoned security at the Olympic Village and told them we have this guy following us everywhere we go. They said: ‘Of course, you do, that’s your police guard.’”
While Kleibrink was acutely aware of how her curling team did, she was too busy to know how the Canadians — like the highly publicized men’s hockey team, were doing.
“We had just won our curling game — it was sort of a nothing game — and there was this big media scrum,” Kleibrink said. “I was asked specifically to attend the scrum. All the lights were on me, they put a mike in front of my face and asked me: “How do you feel about the men’s failure?’
“I said : ‘What men?’ (Canada had just lost 2-0 to Russia).
“That was one of the most difficult things was trying to keep track of how the Canadians were doing.”
She said she is now watching video highlights of the Games — because she couldn’t watch much of the action while she was actually in Torino.
These Riley reporters were on the ball. They knew sometimes stereotypical questions are good– how did it feel to receive an Olympic bronze medal after beating Norway 11-5 on Feb. 23?
“The most fun experience was receiving our medals,” Kleibrink said. “We were taken by police escort and when we walked out on the stage, we couldn’t believe it — all you could see were people – which is amazing because there were no Italians receiving medals at that ceremony… It was like being a rock star for the night.”
Receiving the bronze on behalf of her country — especially after her team battled sickness — was a major highlight for Kleibrink, but so was receiving something else in Turino.
“One of the very best things about Italy is the gelato,” Kleibrink said. “Every night we would try a different gelato. For some reason, everybody in Italy likes Canadians. We would go into the store and they would give us gelato and have their pictures taken with us.”
© 2006 High River Times
By ANGELA MACISAAC – Calgary Sun
Wed, March 15, 2006
There will be a new face on Team Kleibrink next season.
The Calgary-based curling rink announced yesterday Glenys Bakker is leaving the fold of the Olympic bronze medallists.
Bakker, second, has elected to step down because skip Shannon Kleibrink, third Amy Nixon and lead Christine Keshen are ramping up the competitive schedule next season.
Bakker, while stepping aside, is still interested in curling at a high level.
“I just had my best season ever,” the 43-year-old mom of two said.
“I’m not ready to retire.”
After winning the Canada Cup and the Canadian Olympic trials in 2005, the team is staying together for the BDO Player’s Championship at the Corral, April 12-16.
“We’re gunning for that,” Bakker said. “It would be nice to end the season with another win.”
Word is Bakker will be replaced by Bronwen Saunders, who skipped her own rink until abdicating the responsibility to Crystal Rumberg last fall.
Kleibrink could not be reached for comment.
Copyright © 2006, Canoe Inc. All rights reserved.
By JIM BENDER, STAFF REPORTER
LONDON, Ont. — Glenys Bakker returned to her Calgary home to hug her infant daughter, who had no clue that her mom had just won Olympic bronze in Italy.
“When I got home and she (Sara) saw me, her eyes were like two big saucers,” Bakker recalled here yesterday. “She just kind of looked at me and I was like, ‘Oh, I’ve been away too much.’
“That was probably the biggest reason why I wasn’t playing well. I wasn’t completely there. Part of my heart was back home.”
All tolled, Bakker was away from home for about 80 days pursuing an Olympic curling medal for Canada.
“I actually felt like I sacrificed a lot, and to win this actually seemed to make it worthwhile,” said Bakker, second for Shannon Kleibrink, whose entire team was flown into the Scott Tournament of Hearts to be recognized by the crowd and fellow competitors at the John Labatt Centre last night.
“I will be awfully surprised if I ever get another chance to win another Olympic medal, realistically, in Canada. It was such a sweet feeling, a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”
BATTLED
And don’t tell any of them that they won “just a bronze.”
“I would challenge them to do what we did, to battle through sickness and play those teams, and we are so happy with the bronze,” said lead Christine Keshen, who fought some kind of virus. “Considering what we went through, and to win that last game, it feels like more than that to us. I don’t think anyone can say, ‘It’s only a bronze.’ ”
Third Amy Nixon, who also battled a virus, would have some choice words for anyone who would suggest that.
“First thing I’d say, right off the top, that it’s a lot of hard work for this bronze,” she said. “A bronze medal is an accomplishment and, as I get older, I think it will feel even better. Obviously, there’s still some residual regret about not getting a little bit better than that.
“For a 28-year-old who had never won a Canadian championship and had never gone to a Canadian junior, it’s not bad.”
And all four will cherish those special moments on the podium where they were presented with their medals at an outdoor plaza.
“When I got up there, it was so bright, there were so many lights and cameras and people as far as you could see,” Keshen said. “That was just powerful. I just felt so, ‘Yes, thank God we’re here.’
“After I got off the podium, I broke down completely. I was a mess. It was suddenly, ‘Oh my God, it’s over, we did this. Finally, we’re done.’”
Nixon will always remember being on the podium with her dad, Daryl, the team’s coach.
“That will be one that will be able to evoke emotion from me for a while,” she said.
“The podium and the night after the podium was pretty overwhelming,” Kleibrink said. “It was like being a rock star for a day.”
Copyright © 2006, Canoe Inc. All rights reserved.
Mar. 4, 2006. 01:00 AM
LONDON, Ont.—Olympic curling bronze medallist Shannon Kleibrink has the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver in her sights but she’s not sure her team will remain the same.
“We haven’t had a chance to sit down and talk about that. I know I’m going to be trying but I don’t know if it will be the four of us or what,” Kleibrink told the Star yesterday before meeting fans at the Scott Tournament of Hearts.
Kleibrink and teammates Amy Nixon, Glenys Bakker and Christine Keshen were all in good health after travelling here from their Calgary-area homes. Several were afflicted with bacterial-related illnesses in Italy.
“Amy, Christine, my husband and several spectators all got really sick,” Kleibrink said. “It didn’t affect me, thank goodness. We don’t think it was food poisoning. It was a bacterial infection that lasted the entire time we played.”
Kleibrink blamed the health woes on non-pasteurized dairy products and said she spent the final five days eating salads at McDonald’s.
Reflecting on the Olympic experience, Kleibrink said if the team could do it all over again “the first thing we’d do is pack another suitcase of Canadian food.”
She said she hasn’t thrown a single stone since the bronze medal game and finds it difficult to get any time to herself.
“I come from a small town — 14,000 in Okotoks — and I think 13,999 of them know me now. I went to the grocery store the other day and it took a couple of hours. Down every aisle, they all stop and want an autograph. It’s fun, though.”
Kleibrink said the team was happy to be a part of Canada’s 24-medal performance.
“We were cheering at the TV for sports that we’ve never seen before,” she said, adding, “To have any Olympic medal is a dream so I’m not disappointed.”
Added Nixon: “Canadians have to realize there are some other countries with really, really good teams,” a reference to the gold medal Swedish women’s team.
Brian McAndrew
Copyright Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved
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