In 2010, 20 athletes from minnesota participated in the Winter Olympic games in Vancouver, 7 of which were curlers. Two of them, Allison Pottinger and John Benton, talked with MPR’s Cathy Wurzer abotu the upcoming Olympics and how they felt abotu representing their state.
ALLISON POTTINGER: It's a little overwhelming. I mean, it's fantastic. And we were actually named a year ago, so we've had all this time to settle in. We're the Olympic team. We're going to the Olympics. We're going to the Olympics. But my uniform showed up two days ago, and I was like, oh my gosh, we're going to the Olympics! So it's very real all of a sudden.
SPEAKER: For folks who are not familiar, now you are a lead, John, on the team.
JOHN BENTON: That's correct.
SPEAKER: That means what exactly?
JOHN BENTON: The lead throws to first two stones for their team in an inning or an end of play.
SPEAKER: OK. That's a key position, obviously.
JOHN BENTON: Yep. You have to set up the strategy, basically, for each inning or end in the game.
SPEAKER: And Allison, you're a vice skip.
ALLISON POTTINGER: Yeah. So I'm the person who throws the fifth and sixth stones of the end. So I'm the third person to throw. And after I throw, we make the transition to having our skip throw. So I also have the opportunity to stand in the house and be a little involved in calling line and working a little bit with strategy as well.
SPEAKER: Now the team, your team, John, the men's team, is made up of some pretty young guys, 20 somethings.
JOHN BENTON: Yeah.
SPEAKER: And you're 41? Is that right?
JOHN BENTON: I'll be 41 in June.
SPEAKER: OK. Now even your teammate, John Shuster, says we needed an adult on the team. What did he mean by that?
JOHN BENTON: Well, curling is a little bit unique in that-- when we're competing throughout the year, we're traveling a lot together. We're spending a lot of time on the road together. And young guys being young guys, they'll want to go out and have a good time. And that's not necessarily appropriate when you've got a 9 o'clock game. There are certain things that you need to do. You need to get your rest. You need to have good nutrition, all of the things that athletes do. And so John felt that they just needed somebody with a little bit more experience, somebody who might be a little more reserved to lead the team in that sense.
SPEAKER: Great thing about curling, as I have seen being at the St. Paul Curling Club, is that you can be any age and curl. There were some older, more mature individuals on the ice when I was out there. So for an Olympian, you can be in your 40s, and you're doing just fine. Is that right?
JOHN BENTON: Exactly. I mean, most of the top-level athletes in our sport, the people who are winning most often, are in their mid-30s to early 40s because of that experience factor, I think.
ALLISON POTTINGER: I think it's one of the things that keeps everybody involved with the sport as well. On Tuesday night, we play with some girls that are right now at junior nationals, so they're in their early 20s. And my husband and I are in our mid-30s. But when you're on the ice playing together, age really doesn't matter very much.
SPEAKER: Gender doesn't either because I noticed that men were playing with women.
ALLISON POTTINGER: Yeah. And you can be any size or shape. Like, I'm 5' 1, and John's significantly taller than that. And it doesn't matter. Do you know what I mean? It doesn't matter if you're tall or short or male or female. It's actually a very equalizing sport. It's nice.
SPEAKER: It's also very graceful. It was fun to watch the really good players as they were throwing the stone. The strategy was most interesting to observe just seeing these really good players. And I can imagine then how intense it must get on the ice for you when it comes to strategizing with your team.
JOHN BENTON: It really does get interesting, and that's one of the parts of the game that I love the most, is the finesse part of it, combining that with this strategic game-- a lot like chess, where you're trying to think a couple moves ahead. And you're basing your performance on where the other team is positioning themselves. It really, really gets interesting. And I'm hoping that during the Olympics, people get a better flavor for that and a better understanding of how intricate the game can be.
SPEAKER: Oh, best of luck. We're going to be watching you both. Thank you so much.
ALLISON POTTINGER: Thank you.
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