VANCOUVER, B.C. – To pursue her Olympic curling career more than 10 years ago, Nicole Joraanstad moved from Washington to Wisconsin, which the natives pronounce as Wis-CONN-sin.
“I used to say Wisconsin much differently,” Joraanstad admitted Friday. “I kind of lost my little Northwest accent.”
The Seattle-born Joraanstad grew up in Kent and graduated from Kentridge High in 1999. And although she insists she’ll always have “a special bond” with her native state, Joraanstad hasn’t had a chance to return – even for a visit – because her commitment to curling is 24/7.
By 24/7, we’re not talking 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
We’re talking about, oh, maybe 24 cities in seven months.
“I’m so busy with our travel schedule,” she said, “I don’t really get a lot of vacations that are actual vacations.”
Unlike most other Olympians, curlers are chosen for the Winter Games not through individual qualifications but as an established team.
The United States, for instance, is captained – or “skipped,” in curling argot – by Debbie McCormick, who put Joraanstad and teammates Allison Pottinger, Natalie Nicholson, along with alternate Tracy Sachtjen, on a whirlwind international schedule leading up to the Winter Games.
Over the past six months, Team McCormick, as it’s known on the ASHAM World Curling Tour, has competed in four tournaments in Canada and made two trips to Europe.
Add some promotional duties that required the curlers to take a couple of trips to New York – as well as to Vancouver, for the Nike Media Summit last October – and it’s easy to understand why Joraanstad hasn’t come back to the Puget Sound area.
But she certainly isn’t lacking for support up here.
Joraanstad estimates as many as 70 friends and relatives are in Vancouver – including her father, Gary, whose job with Boeing required the family to relocate to Ohio. It was in 1995 that Gary Joraanstad, an accomplished curler himself, introduced his middle-school-aged daughter to the sport at the Granite Curling Club in Seattle.
Fifteen years later, Nicole Joraanstad owns a business degree from the University of Wisconsin and a job in the human resources department at Telephone & Data Systems, Inc. in Madison, Wis. It’s full-time work, or as full time as work ever gets for an Olympic athlete who regularly competes throughout Canada and Europe.
In many aspects, Joraanstad is enjoying a Winter Games that has gone perfectly for her team. The $39 million curling venue, seating 6,000, is intimate and yet appropriate for a world-class stage. Off the rink, the curlers are being lodged on the penthouse level of the USA House, providing them with what might be the most gorgeous view of any city in North America.
Joraanstad participated in the Opening Ceremonies last weekend, and had a seat for the already legendary short track race remembered for a last-lap crash – and medals for Americans Apolo Anton Ohno and J.R. Celksi.
“I’m having the time of my life,” Joraanstad said. “The first day until now, this definitely is an experience that will probably be unmatched for me.”
About all that’s gone wrong for the American women’s curlers in these Winter Games has been, well, the games. Defeated by Japan, 9-7, in their round-robin opener, they lost to Germany (6-5) and Denmark (7-6) before finally beating Russia, 6-4, on Friday. The game was decided when the USA went into the 10th with the hammer – curling’s version of the last at-bat – and McCormick made one open hit on the button.
The victory kept alive the USA’s tenuous hopes of advancing beyond the round-robin, which resumes today against Great Britain and still promises such tough matchups as Canada (the home team) and China, the 2009 world curling champions.
“It’s a long two weeks,” Joraanstad said. “You can’t get disappointed with a couple of losses, because nobody is going to go undefeated. There’s a lot of games to play. We knew if we continue to play a smart game and execute, the games would start going our way.”
And even if the games don’t go their way, Joraanstad and her teammates will know you don’t necessarily need an awards platform in Vancouver to appreciate a view from the top.
Sometimes, it just takes an elevator.
