Russ Howard Quotations

We're starting to get more excited about it. It's still a long way off, even though we're leaving today. We get to Italy on Feb. 8 and we don't start competing till Feb. 13, but (there's) the excitement of being there for the opening ceremonies, the Olympics themselves and the ambiance that goes with it.

When I heard I was on the short list to be selected, I thought that was pretty cool.

So I said to myself, if I was going to drive two hours, I might as well go home and see my mother and the rest of the family.

Number one by a mile, baby. No question.

I got my haircut and was so busy I didn't end up getting dinner on Monday night. We practiced today and now we're back out on the road. So it wasn't as relaxing as I hoped it would be for a 50-year-old.

I beat him by a couple of weeks. That's really neat.

But that didn't matter. She was still an Olympian and part of our family. We were pretty proud of her.

It hit me after we beat Jeff Stoughton at the Olympic Trials in Halifax. There, you are trying to win a big game and the pressures that go with that. After you win, there you are on the podium, and they hand you the jackets and scarves with the Olympic logos on them. That's when I said to myself that this was pretty cool.

I was curling with my son (Steven) trying to get to the Brier. We had a good year, we made 12 finals and won a big bonspiel in Montreal and so things were looking good.

It is huge. It is easy to gloat after you have won but Canada has the most depth, the best depth. Canada deserved a gold medal somewhere along the line and I'm just so happy it was us.

That doesn't make a lot of sense to me. As you've just seen, it's hard to know who is going to be your best representative and once you start narrowing the teams down, it makes it a little tougher.

The 10th end man, exciting - a real finish.

You don't expect to get that chance. Obviously in curling you have a better chance than in some of these other sports.

We played really well the last half of the game, but it was slightly too late.

We get a couple of days at the Athletes Village at the start and a few days after the curling, so it should be an enjoyable time.

We had an Italian gentleman come to one of the curling receptions we were at as a team and we tasted some of the wines from the Italian region we will be visiting. He tried to help us with some Italian words, but I can't remember half of the words he taught us.

To get over there and to be part of the opening ceremonies and realize you are an Olympian for the rest of your life, and no one can take that away is, to me, 90 per cent of the experience. If we win a medal, that's a bonus.

Brad is a student of the game and this is a very well-prepared young team. Usually young teams have a lot of flaws, in how they prepare for the games and strategy, but not these guys.

Even in curling, it's pretty rare to be playing at that level and it was so nice of the kids to ask me to play with them.

I've been in a million events and I've gotten away with it every time. But I didn't even try here.

Ah, when you get to that age, it's all downhill.

This is huge for Canada. Don't take this the wrong way, but Canada deserved a gold medal somewhere along the line. I'm just happy it's us.

It's more nerve-wracking to watch than play, even at the trials. Watching is scary. When you compete you have some sort of control over the situation, or at least you think you do.

It's like the dust at home on the kitchen table, who knows, it comes from somewhere. That was my worst game of the year.

It's easy to gloat after you've won, but Canada's got the most depth and the best depth. We had two silvers and this could have been a silver. Don't take this the wrong way, but I think Canada deserved a gold medal somewhere down the line and I'm just so happy it was us.

Hopefully, our guys are peaking at the right time. We may need to make a few adjustments to make sure they're fresh and ready to crank on Friday. But this weekend they showed that they're ready to go.

The ice is so straight, they're trying to do things (to fix it), there's less pebble, some flat spots result.

The doctors aren't sure. We've had a lot of pasta and pizza - maybe the sausage, maybe that's part of it.