Helping hand from Stoughton

Medals don’t get handed out to coaches at the Olympics.

Heck, they don’t even get one of those stuffed animals that the Canadian men’s hockey team begrudingly accepted after their heartbreaking overtime loss to the Americans.

But even though Jeff Stoughton didn’t get to bring a highly sought after souvenir from Milano Cortina back to Winnipeg, he’s not complaining. He was more than just happy to play a role in helping Brad Jacobs win gold in men’s curling for Canada.

“We just get handshakes and pats on the back, and that’s more than enough,” said Stoughton, the head of Curling Canada’s men’s national program.

“It’s rewarding if you help them that one or two per cent that maybe helped them win.”

One or two per cent might be an understatement considering all the hats Stoughton wears. If you followed their run on TV, you saw him next to the team’s head coach Paul Webster providing additional on-ice support. Away from the rink, the 62-year-old takes on countless tasks to ensure the team can just focus on playing.

“Anything from making sure we’ve got our facilities ready, to making sure they got their accrediations. All these stupid little things that you don’t think of,” said Stoughton, a two-time world champion and a three-time Brier-winning skip.

That wasn’t so simple. In case you live under something that resembles a curling stone, Team Sweden accused the Canadians of cheating during the round-robin for double-touching. Team Canada third Marc Kennedy responded with the some colourful language, and the whole ordeal quickly became one of the hottest stories of the entire Olympics.

“Marc, at the end of the day, probably felt he didn’t handle it that well. He clearly could’ve spoken in different ways… I think what bothered them the most was the accusation of cheating. There was never any intent to cheat,” said Stoughton.

“I think to go to the extent to call us cheaters was a little extreme and I think Sweden probably regrets doing that as well.”

Stoughton did his best to help Jacobs, Kennedy, second Brett Gallant, and lead Ben Hebert avoid all the negative attention that came from the situation.

“It didn’t go away in a sense because after you have a game, you go through what they call a mixed zone which is a big lineup of press people. Well, you can imagine what the first question was all the time,” he said.

“So, we just tried to shelter them from all the bad stuff or the noise. Any time they wanted to talk about it, we did. But it was a good rallying point in a perspective where it was like ‘This is getting ridiculous. Let’s bond together as a team and make sure we take care of our teammates and what we’re here to do and that’s to win a gold medal.’”

Jacobs did just that by outlasting Great Britain’s Bruce Mouat in a 9-6 thriller on Saturday to secure the top spot on the podium.

It was the first major international victory for the Canadian men since Brad Gushue won the 2017 world championship, and the first Olympic gold since 2014 when Jacobs first accomplished the feat.

A long drought, sure, but it should come as no surprise. There’s a long list of disadvantages for Canadian shot makers and sweepers.

Just take a look at Team Mouat, for example. The skip from Scotland and his No. 1-ranked squad receive enough funding where they can curl and train together full-time. Over in The Great White North, most competitive foursomes are spread out across the country which means they only practice together on the eve of major events.

“Whenever I talk to the teams, I say ‘What’s something we can do to help you achieve all your goals?’ And I always stop them and say ‘But you can’t say you just need more money.’ But my answer to you is, we need more money,” laughed Stoughton.

“It would be great to get more funding from the government and Sport Canada, that way we could provide that to the teams and maybe get them closer to being self-sufficient as a curler where they only need to work part time, or maybe they only need to work in the summertime. If that doesn’t happen, we have to convince our players to consolidate and come together in a city and start practising and playing together that way.”

Stoughton never made the Olympics during his illustrious playing career, but he’s now been to three in his coaching role. He helped Kaitlyn Lawes and John Morris win mixed doubles gold in 2018 and then assisted Gushue on his path to bronze in 2022.

Stoughton is home to catch his breath for a few days before heading out to St. John’s, N.L., for the back half of the Brier. He’ll join the winning side in Ogden, Utah for the 2026 World Men’s Curling Championship (March 27-April 4).

“I’m pretty lucky and proud to be able to help out in any way that I can to support our curling athletes. It’s been a ride and I just love doing it.”

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