Gushue continues his curling candour in memoir “Gushue: The Making of a Champion”

Gushue achieved that despite the geographic disadvantage of living in Newfoundland and Labrador, and competing in a sport that requires constant travel elsewhere across the country to compete at the highest level.

He and journalist Stephen Brunt began working on Gushue’s memoir in September of 2025, when Gushue declared he would retire at season’s end.

Gushue doesn’t gloss over friction with teammates or competitors, or hard decisions he made in his ceaseless pursuit of excellence in a sport he loves.

“I didn’t want it just to be a glossy, fluff piece,” Gushue said. “That’s not the way I felt my career was, and I didn’t want it to be articulated that way.”

His wife Krista urged him to be vulnerable in the book. Working with Brunt made him feel comfortable to do so.

“I went through that for a large stretch of my career, where I was worried about what people thought, and that’s why I didn’t share some of those things,” Gushue said. “I’m quite content where I’m at and who are central figures in my life and just wanted to tell my story, like the warts and all.

“There might be some pushback on it, but you know, it is what it is. It is my story. If it changes people’s opinion of me, this is who I am, so it’s probably not a bad thing.”

Gushue skipped Canada to its first Olympic gold medal in men’s curling in 2006 in Turin, Italy.

But it took him 14 tries to win his first Brier, which he did in storybook fashion in his hometown of St. John’s in 2017.

He and his teammates went on to claim a world title a few weeks later in Edmonton.

A feat that he says ranks third in his career behind Olympic gold and the 2017 Brier victory is winning a fourth Canadian title in Lethbridge, Alta., in 2022 in unprecedented circumstances.

He played a three-man team through the playoffs and the final less than three weeks after earning an Olympic bronze medal in Beijing amid exhausting COVID-19 restrictions.

Athletes weren’t tested after the round robin concluded in Lethbridge, but Gushue’s longtime vice Mark Nichols fell ill with the virus before playoffs and isolated in his hotel room.

Gushue, Brett Gallant and Geoff Walker continued as a trio to win the Brier.

Gushue wrote that Gallant likely had COVID while playing in the final, but after making the mistake of not bringing an alternate player, the threesome’s competitive instincts took over.

“He hid it very well, but it’s not something we’re super proud of,” Gushue said. “When you’re in that moment, you’re so competitive, but you also know that he’s not feeling great, so it’s a moral dilemma that you’re fighting with.”

Gushue also wrote that he was served with a lawsuit by John Epping’s team the day after his return from Beijing and before the Brier in Lethbridge.

That team argued Curling Canada changed the rules to allow Gushue to compete in Lethbridge when no other Canadian men’s team had previously competed in both the Olympic Games and the Brier in the same year.

Gushue had the top-ranked men’s team in Canada at the time and was in the Brier field as the high seed among three wild-card teams. The matter went to arbitration and was dismissed, Gushue said.

“The funny thing was, when I was served, I thought it was actually a fan coming to look for an autograph. This happens occasionally where people will come up to my house,” he said. “So I see the envelope and I’m like ‘oh, he’s got a picture he wants me to sign.’

“I got quite the shock when he said I’d been served.”

Despite his international successes and Grand Slam victories, Gushue’s favourite curling event remains the Brier.

Nothing will top playing in it, Gushue said, but he’s still in the game as a television commentator, the high-performance director of USA Curling and supporter and coach of daughters Hayley and Marissa in the sport.

Gushue said he needed a healthy ego to battle the odds that were against him having the kind of success he did in curling.

“It’s a strong belief in yourself and sometimes the belief is beyond what the reality is and I’ve been guilty of that too, but I think that’s sometimes what drives people to go that little extra bit,” Gushue said. “They just have a little bit more belief in themselves than what they should have.

“That helped propel me to where I am. It didn’t make me feel like I was better than someone as a person, but I felt I was a better curler.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 22, 2026.

Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press

by The Canadian Press

Gushue continues his curling candour in memoir “Gushue: The Making of a Champion”

What's Trending