Q&A: Mark Kennedy on Olympic controversy, undefeated start at Brier

castle. JOHN’S, NL — It’s just 10 days since Mark Kennedy won Olympic gold in Cortina, and he and his Canadian team have already won five straight since then.

That means Kennedy, skipper Brad Jacobs, Brett Gallant and Ben Herbert didn’t have time to catch their breath after winning in Italy before heading to Newfoundland to defend their national title at the Brier.

Nonetheless, a tired but recharged Team Canada is a perfect 5-0 so far, with their latest win coming on Tuesday afternoon at the Mary Brown Centre, an 8-4 win over Team Quebec in front of 6,116 appreciative fans.

Kennedy, 44, is competing in her 14th Brier and is a four-time national champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist. Not long after walking out on the gravel ice following his latest victory, Kennedy sat down with Sportsnet to talk about everything from his incredible performance in Italy and the double-touch controversy he sparked on the ice to his future in the sport and whether he’s considering four more years (his answer to that last question was very short and sweet).

Sportsnet: What has life been like since the Olympics? You’re already here competing again, and it’s going to feel like a whirlwind…

Kennedy: Yeah, it’s a huge feeling about what happened and trying to get the energy back to get here. But we’re getting a little better every day and it almost feels good to be out on the ice with the guys again. Just being excited, exhausted, tired, and having a good time. Just say the name and you will feel the emotion.

How full is your energy tank right now?

kennedy: At the beginning of the week we said it was about 5%, but I would say it’s moving up to about 50-60%. The schedule of one game a day with lots of rest worked well for us. Now that Chiro is with us, he is doing all the right things to fill his tank for the tough games ahead.

How much beer did you drink in the 48 hours after your team won Olympic gold?

Zero because I don’t drink anymore. Almost 10 years have passed. But the boys had a good time afterwards, and that was to be expected. (laugh).

How much sleep did you get that night?

Oh, not really. The most I slept was on the flight home. We were home for 48 hours. I’ve slept more here this week than I’ve slept in two weeks in Italy.

Do you feel like your team is rolling with the momentum here to continue to get another opportunity to represent Canada? (The winner of the Brier will advance to the World Championships later this month).

Yeah, maybe… we need to fill up the emotional tank and the energy tank a little bit, but we’re still throwing rocks, we’re still making a lot of shots. Yeah, who knows? I think the longer this week goes on, the more we will want to take on one more challenge.

(April 2024) Since putting this team together, have you checked every box imaginable?

Yes, I think so. That’s nonsense, right? You set really high goals, but you weren’t sure if you could reach them. We did that. So that was some of the conversations we had after (winning the Olympic gold medal). We just kept looking at each other like, ‘Wow, we actually did it.’ We did everything we said we would do.’ And we improved every area we wanted to improve. We all did our jobs really, really well, and Brad was the best player there all week. It made a big difference.

When the double touch controversy broke out in Milan, how did you and the team eliminate all the noise it could cause?

It was important for me to get off social media for a week. The secret has been to surround myself with great people, great teammates, family, people who love you and want to see you succeed. And, you know, there’s a lot of bad things about it, but it’s made us a better team. In that moment, we had each other’s backs, we were passionate, and we almost recommitted ourselves to what we had to do. So it gave everyone a lot more motivation and emotion to get out there and do what we needed to do. So, despite all the bad things that came with it, the good thing was that it made us a better team and in the end, that might have helped us win the gold medal.

Did you find humor in the many memes that sparked controversy?

What have you learned about the Cortina team that you are using to your advantage here at the Brier?

Oh my. I think we need to show how resilient we are. For example, were we mentally strong enough to deal with what happened? And for everyone to show up the way they did afterwards, for no one to break down, for the whole support team, you know, (Team Canada coach) Jeff Stoughton, (Curling Canada’s high performance director) Dave Murdoch, (Coach Tim Jacobs) Paul Webster, everyone in our inner circle, to deal with the situation the way they did afterwards was really impressive. And when we won, the people around me said they had never been happier with what they had accomplished in the midst of it all.

We learned a lot about each other, how much we care about each other, and what that means to everyone. And again, it brought us really, really close. When you go through an experience like the one we just had, you go from being a really close team to almost a close family. We were forever bonded by those few weeks and I couldn’t be happier.

In response to the double touch controversy, we’ve heard many people in the curling world explain what happened on the ice. How do I explain it?

You can’t do it yet. And I’m not going to do that just yet. I think there is a time and a place for clearer and more conversation. To be honest, we’ve never really had a chance to come here and discuss what happened. So we’ll have to cross that bridge another day.

You headed here almost immediately after an emotionally charged event. What’s it like to feel all the emotions as you travel from your hometown to Newfoundland for Brad Gushue’s finale?

I think it’s the best place. The crowd was amazing. They were really great to us and we appreciated it. We’ve been booed in this building before. So it’s really cool to have them rooting for us and being very Canadian and probably still hoping we don’t win, but ultimately feeling their respect and appreciation. And Brad (Gushue) got his reward this week: a standing ovation, cheers and congratulations. What I mean is, let’s celebrate one of the greatest curling careers of all time. Seeing it in first person is very interesting and special, and it only gets better as the week goes on.

What can you tell us about the future of your career?

We’re not done yet. That’s all I can tell you. We started having conversations this week about what that might look like. There will be more conversation and more details to come. However, I don’t think you can expect a retirement announcement from our team any time soon.

I won an Olympic gold medal in 2010, and again in 2026. As the oldest member of Team Canada at the Olympics, how different did it feel this time around?

I don’t think we intend to play the sport at this high a level. (laugh). There were a lot of emotions and different feelings. You know, the same appreciation for your teammates and the journey you’ve been on, but as you get older, you get a different perspective. Being outside Canada gave me a different perspective (compared to winning in Vancouver in 2010). Having a family there and a teenage daughter… You see, that was the benefit of being an older Olympian. I was one of those rare athletes there whose teenage daughter really remembers everything from start to finish, good and bad. Celebrating with them afterwards was an incredible feeling of relief, emotion, joy and excitement.

When I first won, I think you were a little naive, to be honest. You think, ‘Oh, this is going to be one of many.’ You don’t realize how hard it is to get there. And listen, the level of the team this time doesn’t even compare to how good these teams are, how well we had to play, how much better we had to do to compete for a gold medal. So this one was much, much more difficult. This was very special.

so…Wouldn’t it be possible to try curling again if I play curling for 4 more years?