Mike Harris Interview
Our mini series on the great sport of Curling continues as we speak to one of the Olympic pioneers in the sport, the Silver medallist Skip for Team Canada in Nagano, Mike Harris. Mike tells us all about competing in the sport in it's inaugural games, and how late in the qualification process the hope of competing in the Olympics actually felt real to him. Mike also tells us the story about how sick he was during the Semi Finals and the Gold medal game, and how that effected their performance. We also cover how training and conditioning in the sport has changed over the years. Mike also carries us through his transition into broadcasting and how he's kept on the front lines of Curling for the last 20 years.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Please note this is an automated transcript that may contain errors.
COLIN HILDING: Welcome to Off The Podium, an Olympics podcast, as we continue killing time, let's just say that, on the way to the 2020 Tokyo Games, and we're bringing you a series of interviews, and today it's actually going to be our second interview in a row, featuring somebody from the great sport of curling. And if you listened last week, you heard our interview with Jill Officer, who was on the 2014 gold medal winning team in the women's curling in Sochi. We're going all the way back in time today to 1998, as we speak with Mike Harris, who was the skip of the Canadian men's team, that went on to win silver in Nagano, the inaugural games for curling. And you're going to hear it in a minute, but I mean, this is a fascinating discussion with somebody who was there, kind of at the birth of curling in the Olympics, and had quite a road through the Olympics. I mean, one of the most interesting stories you're going to hear here is about how he, through the semifinals and the finals, was actually battling a really bad illness and how that affected the play going into the gold medal match. Mike's also kept up with the sport of curling over the years. You can still hear him today commentating for the sport here in Canada. Really fascinating character, great information on the sport itself. Here's our interview with silver medallist from Nagano, Mike Harris.
COLIN HILDING: Last week, we got to speak to an Olympic curler from all the way back in 2014, and now we get to travel way back in time, even further than that, which is so exciting because we get to talk to a man who was there at the beginning of curling in the Olympics. Today, we have the Skip from Team Canada, silver medallist from 1998 Noggino, Mike Harris. Thanks so much for joining us today.
MIKE HARRIS: Happy to be here. Yes, I mentioned who were you speaking to from 2014?
COLIN HILDING: We had Jill Officer on last week.
MIKE HARRIS: Oh, cool. Yeah. Great. Jill's great. Jill's in the bubble here with me in Calgary.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, really?
MIKE HARRIS: That's cool.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah. When I last talked to her, she was in Winnipeg. So she's following one of us around all the time. But yeah, I mean, we always like to start off these interviews just by asking, you know, how you got into the sport that you're known for. And you know, I've mentioned here many times that at least I don't know if it's the same where you're from, but in Winnipeg, I mean, curling was part of our gym class. But I can imagine you probably got into it as a hobby. I mean, what age were you and how did you take up the sport?
MIKE HARRIS: Well, I think like a lot of young Canadians here, my parents curled. So I started when I was nine or 10 years old in Montreal, a little two-sheeter club that's not there anymore, St. Anne de Bellevue. And then I moved to Toronto when I was 12 or 13 and then just started practising. I got a job at the curling club helping do ice maintenance and whatnot and got into it then. And I always was a competitive athlete in other sports. I played a lot of volleyball in high school and I'm a golf pro is my day job. So there's always, it was a nice fit for getting into curling was a nice fit for the golf business and vice versa. So yeah, I mean, I just loved it when I was right from the time I was nine or 10 years old and competed Canadian juniors and then obviously worked my way up through the ranks and we ended up going to the Olympics in 1998.
COLIN HILDING: Now we talked a little bit with Jill about the different positions, if you want to call it that on a curling team, eventually you would become a skip. I mean, when you first start out, I'm guessing it's not your own team. You know, who did you play with originally?
MIKE HARRIS: I've always skipped, which sounds strange to say, and there's been a few players. You know, I think of a guy like, you know, one of the probably the best players up here is a guy named Wayne Madaw, who we grew up in the same hometown in Brampton near Toronto. And Wayne, when he came out of juniors, immediately started playing second for Russ Howard and won a Briar and World Championship with him, but I always skipped even after I got out of juniors, which made for, you know, learning things the hard way, I guess, is that you end up playing all these good teams. So we didn't have a lot of success immediately out of juniors, but we kind of learned our way. You know, we got mentored by some of the some of the greats of the game on the way up through the ranks. And so I've always skipped, in fact, so it's I'm kind of unusual in that sense. I think it's a lot like I think a lot of sports. We look at Major League Baseball players, for example, the ones that I've spoken with. I mean, the best athlete was always the pitcher. And then they kind of delved off into other sports. Once they got to levels, kind of went up a little bit. They end up playing different positions or whatnot. So I think a little bit of that in curling when you're the junior, when you're the best curler, you're the skip. And then once you get into the kind of the adult ranks and you see a lot of players kind of try different positions and and one of the reasons is you have more success, you know, when when you're playing against some more experienced, better, better players, you know, you end up switching positions. But I guess I'm one of the rare, the rare few who never play in anything, anything else.
COLIN HILDING: And obviously you were there when the Olympics introduced in Nagano. I mean, it had been a child sport prior to that. But as you were starting to come up, do you remember when the talk first came out? Hey, this is going to be an Olympic sport in Nagano. Do you have your sights set on that?
MIKE HARRIS: Well, yeah, I think so. I mean, it's funny up here. And I think for any sport that's new to the Olympic family, you don't really get into it because of the Olympics. I think kids nowadays, like when you see curlers who are competing to go to Beijing, they started knowing they can go to the Olympics. So that's a totally different mindset than when Jill and I started years and years ago. And our goal is always just to win a Canadian championship or a world championship, represent Canada. But yeah, when it first became an official sport, I think, you know, again, just because we were kind of learning our way up through the ranks, it really wasn't on our radar necessarily. We're, you know, our goal was to win our provincial championship. You know, we had we had Russ Howard and Ed Werenick, who, if you're a curler, those are two of the all time greats living in Toronto. We were like the third or fourth best team in Toronto, but, you know, maybe the 10th best team in the world, but that didn't get you very far. So we weren't we didn't really have the Olympics on on the minds per se. But once we qualified for the Olympic trials, we won, we won an event up here, significant tournament they held in Ottawa. So the winner of that got into the Olympic trials and all of a sudden, OK, this is our opportunity on the national stage to kind of do something special. So, yeah, I mean, we to say that we thought about going to the Olympics right away when it was announced would be would be a lie. But certainly it's the forefront of everyone's mind right now.
COLIN HILDING: And when you were in those first Olympic trials, I mean, at that point, were you thinking, hey, we have a shot of this? And as you start progressing and you're getting all the way to the end, at what point did it sort of sink into you? Hey, we have a shot of the Olympics here. What was that like?
MIKE HARRIS: Well, you know, for our team, I can only speak about our team because I don't know how every other team was thinking about it. But we had been kind of frustrated bridesmaids, I guess is the best way to put it. We'd lost several Ontario finals, too. Like I said, we had three of the top five teams in the world playing against us on a daily basis. So we, like I said, we felt like we were like the fourth best team in Toronto as we got to the trials. But that made made us one of the top seven or eight teams in the country. So, you know, but we went into those trials with very good records against all the teams that were there. So we were confident, but we were certainly not on anyone's list of favourites going into the event. But we had winning records against everyone over the past two seasons. So, but we also knew until you won the final, until you win something big, you're never sure you can, I guess is the best way to put it, right? You know, it's like, you know, the golfer who's never won, the best golfer to never win a major. You know, until they do it, you know, you're just never sure if you can do it. So we were that team. You know, we even, I can tell you when I thought about going to the Olympics, it was after the last rock stopped in the 10th end of the final. We just had, we, well, we had, we had lost a heartbreaker, uh, in the Ontario, I don't have to go too far back, but in the Ontario finals, one year we were leading, playing the last end. We had a bad break, a rock hit some debris. The rock was off the side of the sheet. The team we lost to goes on, wins the Canadian championship, wins the world championship. So we knew we got to the 10th end of that final. And I said to my team, let's not get ahead of ourselves. We were tied with last rock, which in curling up here is a huge advantage. Um, you know, 95% chance of winning, but you still have to make that last shot to win. So until we got through that last end, we really were able to not get ahead of ourselves. And that to me is one of the big keys for any athlete, not just curling, but they talk about it all the time, you know, just staying in the moment. So I can honestly say we never thought about winning because we just hadn't, you know, it was just one of those things where we had so many close calls, that, you know, we were, we didn't dare believe it was gonna happen, I guess is the best way. And then when it did happen, you know, obviously life changing for us.
COLIN HILDING: And I had seen some Olympics prior to this as I was growing up, and I feel like Nagano was the first one, at least for the winter games, where I really had like my full focus on. I think curling was one of the big things about that. I mean, at least here in Canada, there was so much media hype, because this is one of our national sports. Did you feel like in Japan, there was that interest? Like what were the crowds like when you got there?
MIKE HARRIS: It was oddly quiet. I hate to say it that way, but you have to remember this is before social media. If people can go back into their memory banks before everyone had a cell phone. And we used to get our news. There was a dial-up internet, one computer, but really people didn't even communicate that way. Like it was just, you read the newspapers and you kind of heard about things, word of mouth. Big, big, big event at that Olympic Games was Ross Rabaigliati testing positive for marijuana. We only heard about it from another coach. We never actually saw any media coverage of it, if you know what I mean. So we never really were swept up in the hype. So the first, our first impression was odd. We come from playing the Olympic Trials Final in Brandon, Manitoba at the Keystone Centre there. You would know that building well if you're from Winnipeg. And there's seven or 8,000 people to the rafters, and then we go to the Olympics and there's like 1200 people. The arena is full as it can be, but there's only 1200 people there. So it felt oddly quiet and maybe a little bit smaller than we expected. And certainly we didn't have the appreciation of the global impact of what the Olympic Games is now. I mean, I think, like you said, that curling has a huge part of the Games. I mean, after that, since 98, 2002 onward, I've covered every Olympics broadcasting. So I know how much airtime curling gets. It gets a lot of airtime up here in Canada and around the world. I mean, they get the biggest audiences watching curling. So we really didn't have an appreciation of it at the time, I guess is the best way to put it. And, but it certainly didn't diminish our experience as athletes. I mean, it was great, just great to be involved there and meeting all the other athletes on the bigger team. That's kind of the fun part.
COLIN HILDING: And I think one of my biggest memories about that was, A, I don't think I had ever watched curling on TV prior to the Nagano Olympics. And I remember, of course, the time zones are all over the place, and I couldn't sleep one night and came out and my brother's watching curling. And he's like, hey, have you ever seen this before? Like, it's really incredibly intense to watch. And we just started following it like every single day that that was kind of our go-to, you know, snowboarding and curling being kind of the new sports. But there was so much attention. And I remember very distinctly, a lot of talk with Sandra Schmerler, it was almost like, okay, well, it's a given. We're gonna do well. But you guys were kind of the underdogs going into that. And it was probably only once we started getting closer to the end that your name and your team really started getting dropped. And we're like, hey, we have a shot at two medals here.
MIKE HARRIS: Yeah, and I mean, we went in as, I mean, if you're representing Canada back then, especially you were the favourite to win the gold medal. So we knew that going in, but again, not trying to get ahead of ourselves. You know, we had a lot of work to do when we were there. But again, we had good records against all the teams. And that's one thing I think in any sport, they would talk about, you know, familiarity with the international competitors. I think any sport, you know, snowboarding you mentioned, like the athletes know who the good teams are. And I think the athletes that were there knew we were a good team. And you don't kind of sneak your way through the Olympic trials in Canada. You know, you have to run the gauntlet against the best of the best. So yeah, we played very well. We went, we lost our last game of the round, Robin, but it was meaningless at the time. We already had a secured first place. So yeah, we had played very well. I got very, very sick for the final, which it's one of those things, you know, timing is everything. I actually had to end up having viral pneumonia. And I was quite sick for the semi-final as well. So, but I basically didn't show up for the final. I was so sick, but you know, you're not going to stay out of the gold medal game. So I actually played very poorly. You know, it's one of those things like, you know, you feel like you have let your teammates down. And, you know, it's still, I'm almost over it. You know, it's 23 years ago. So I'm almost over it. But, you know, it's one of those things where you just don't get a second chance at it. So, but, you know, it's just, like I said, it was a life-changing moment on so many levels. And, you know, you mentioned Sandra Schmerler, you know, we lost Sandra up here shortly after, you know, a couple of years later, she was gone, sadly. But, you know, when we were on the podium accepting our medals in Brandon, I turned to Sandra, I said, your name's gonna get mentioned a lot with us. And they'll say, who the hell are those guys with Sandra Schmerler? And that's basically, that was basically our legacy going into that games. And so they were great, great teammates, great fun to be around. And, you know, and the second on that team, Joan McCusker, I've worked with her at CBC Sports since 2001, basically. So she's one of my dear friends. And, you know, it's just, like I said, it was just a great experience. And, you know, it really brought, it made us as curlers understand, excuse me, how much bigger curling is than just the curlers. You know, the Olympics changes everything. It becomes a worldwide phenomenon.
COLIN HILDING: I can imagine, obviously, you have a greater appreciation just for where you are and what you can achieve when you're in the Olympics. But what about the pressure? Like, are you the type of athlete where the pressure doesn't necessarily get to you and you can sort of, you know, whether it's in a world championship or, you know, just a provincial championship, you just sort of separate it, or when you're on, like, the biggest stage and it's the Olympics, was there any point where you start to think, hey, this is the Olympics, I really don't want to blow this, especially if you start getting sick too.
MIKE HARRIS: Right, well, again, I got sick at the end of the week and we were playing really well. But I think, I mean, my view on it is that most highly competitive, high performance athletes put far more pressure on themselves than any external force could possibly put on them. So if you're being, I would use the term distracted by the pressure of being at the Olympics, you're not going to be successful. We went in there completely prepared for the games. We were completely prepared to perform our best. Certainly, like again, we didn't have the distractions of social media that the teams have. You see a lot of teams going to social media cocoons now. They don't engage in any of the social media platforms while they're at the games. And I understand why, because it can be so distracting I just think back to Rachel Holm, who was our Olympic team in 2018 in Pyeongchang, and she, they were not successful. And I sat on the plane with them flying home, and I said, how was your experience? And they just said it was hard, just because they start reading everything. You know, it's funny, my lead that year in 1998 did an interview with international media. And I can only speak to this because I only found out about after the fact, but he said something along the lines to the media that the team we played in the final, this team wouldn't be ranked in the top 40 in Canada or something, something along those lines, something you don't say, right? Well, the old story, bulletin board material for your opponents. But I didn't know anything about it because the only place that got published was in the newspaper, which we didn't see. And of course, I got asked about it in our post-game news conference, and I had no idea that it even had been said, nor did our opponents for that matter. So the Swiss team that we played against had no idea either. So if something like that happens now, of course, the whole place would blow up and you'd have people in your face before the game. Media would be all over you, and then you'd have your PR person kind of toning down the rhetoric and whatnot. So, you know, times have changed. You know, it's only 20 some odd years ago, but it's a lifetime when it comes to the media and the exposure of, you know, of sport in general. But the Olympics, everything's heightened even more.
COLIN HILDING: One of the things that I actually find is one of the benefits, at least as a viewer with social media, is being able to appreciate what the athletes actually go to, because we talked a little bit with Jill last week about this. There's sort of this perception for the longest time that's like, oh, you know, curling is like the bowling of, you know, winter sports. But then you start seeing on social media, like the athletes, the workouts they have to go to, you know, the shape that they get their bodies in. Can you tell us just a little bit of what the training regimen was like and what the conditioning needed to be in order to compete in the Olympics back in the 90s?
MIKE HARRIS: I should show you my room full of beer and vodka.
COLIN HILDING: Twenty-something years later.
MIKE HARRIS: Commentating is easier. No, I mean, the Olympics changed everything. You know, again, we at the time thought we were in shape, you know, but we weren't certainly doing the workouts that they are now. And then we had teams after us really start to change rules. Kevin Martin's team really was the first team to kind of go super heavy into, you know, full-time training, full-time weights. The thing of people and one of the endearing things about curling is that the people who curl generally have jobs, generally have day jobs, generally have families. You know, Sandra's team, the appeal of Sandra's team is that they were all mums, right? They're all parents of kids and young kids at that. I think Sandra had just had a baby. So, you know, it's one of those things where, yes, you can still do that, but it's becoming more and more difficult all the time. You know, our, the best, one of the best teams, well, two of the best teams in the world right now, Rachel Holman, who was our team in Pyeongchang, just competed in the Scotties, eight months pregnant. That was month ago. She just had her baby yesterday. So think about that. So she's, she lost the final, but could very well have won and gone. She would have then had a baby between the Scotties, held in February, and the Worlds in May. It's like, what other sport can that happen? So only the Skip, by the way, can do that, not the sweepers. But yeah, the training regimen back then, for us, it was just getting on the ice as often as we can. Nowadays, it's about, you're in the gym a couple hours a day. You should, again, the people you should have on next are Team Jacobs, who were the Olympic gold medallist in 2014 with Jill Officer. You look at those guys and what they do, their regular workout routines. But they also, that's their job. They're funded to a point where they can actually take time off work. And I think only EJ actually works for a company. The others are kind of professional curlers, I want to call it that. So the Olympics have really changed the dynamic of everything. The other one is Anna Hasselborg, who's the Olympic gold medallist from Pyeongchang. She just had a baby. She's coming to the World Championships here in a few weeks. I know her husband and baby are coming with. So it's one of those sports where I liken it to golf a little bit in that sense, where hand-eye coordination and talent goes so far, goes a long, long way in curling. Obviously, the fitter you are, the more durable you're going to be. People get what you need to be jacked up for curling for. You're not jacked up for curling for one shot or one time sweeping down the ice. You're jacked up so when you have 13 games in a week, when you get to the final and game 14, you're not exhausted.
COLIN HILDING: You go two to three hours for even a single game, right?
MIKE HARRIS: Right. Is being jacked up going to help you on one particular shot versus a guy who's not? Not necessarily, but over the course of a week or a season now, they play so much more now than we used to. Just out of necessity, there's World Curling Tour events and the Grand Slam of Curling, which I broadcast up here. It's just such a grueling schedule. And the guys, by the time the season's over, they're exhausted, men and women. They're all just exhausted. And it's just, you know, you're working out so hard for the long haul, not for that one particular shot, if that makes sense. And that's a little bit the same way in golf in that sense.
COLIN HILDING: Another thing I think is unique with curling, and I guess you could, like in the same thing with hockey, is that you walk away with silver medal. I mean, if you're a speed skater, if you're a track star and you win the silver medal, you've won, but you kind of have to... Yeah, exactly. But you kind of have to go from a loss to accepting a gold medal. I mean, when that happens, which one kind of overpowers? Is it the disappointment of I didn't get the gold medal, or is it the appreciation of I'm a silver medallist in Olympics?
MIKE HARRIS: Well, the worst time to get the silver medal is immediately when it happens, and it just keeps getting better after that. I guess it's the best way to describe it. You don't really appreciate, and I really didn't appreciate it until the next Olympics in Salt Lake when I was there, and I saw how difficult it was to get there. When you're going through it as an athlete, you don't really worry about how you're getting there. So I really began to appreciate it more after the fact, certainly after 2002, and now all these years later. You know, it's just really hard. You know, curling's, it's not like any sport. It's just really hard to kind of get to that top level. But I don't think I appreciated it at the time. You know, you're just younger, and you're more focused on what you're trying to do and what you're trying to accomplish. And you know, you only see the target at the end. You don't see all the stuff that you have to, all the hurdles you need to jump to get there. So I definitely appreciate it more now than I did then, and I'll appreciate it more tomorrow than I did today. So it's kind of, you know, that's the way it is.
COLIN HILDING: And you mentioned, I mean, you made a transition from the sport into commentating, which is something we find more and more common. People either go on to become coaches or they go on to become commentators. How did that transition happen? Were you approached by CBC? Did you sort of, you know, get an agent and say, hey, I really want to do something on camera?
MIKE HARRIS: Yeah, no, I just got a call. I was, you know, I called it quite young. I mean, I was 30, I think, when I started working for them. 32, I guess. I started in 2000. And, you know, I still, in curling years, that's quite young, actually. So I got a phone call to audition. I didn't really think too much of it at the time, thinking. And it's funny, when I got the job, I said to Joan McCuster, who was on that great Sander Schmurlucham, I said to Joan, well, if we get through Torino, or excuse me, get through, yeah, Torino 2006. So I said, that would be a good run. You know, that would be five or six years of doing this commentating thing, and maybe I'll compete again. But, you know, here we are all these years later. And, you know, it's fun, once you kind of get your taste of commentating. I've never really tired of it. I still feel I can get back on the ice. My daughter wants me to play mixed doubles with her. That's a young person's game. But I think I could, you know, for a couple of events next year, I might, you know, blow the dust off the shoes. But, you know, yeah, I got a phone call, auditioned and got the gig. And like I said, I've been happily doing it ever since. It's a real privilege to watch the best of the best. And I still get my fix. You know, one of the things when you become a commentator is you kind of you miss what you miss as the athletes. You don't really miss the hard work of practising and everything else, but you do you do miss, you know, having having that postgame beer or beer in the evening with the players. And certainly right after when I started commentating, it was much more friendly, I suppose, because I really knew the athletes that were competing back then. So nowadays it's, you know, it's been 20 years really since I've competed seriously. So I don't know the athletes quite as well. And there's not that same sense of camaraderie, I guess, with the current athletes. But I still think because we see them all the time, multiple times over the season, there's definitely, like I said, I have a great admiration for all the curlers now, because I know how hard they work and how difficult it is to kind of take that step to represent your country, whether it's Canada or the US. And, you know, we should talk a little bit about John Schuster breaking through in Pyeongchang, like how that could have changed the game in the US. I mean, we always thought it would be such a great thing for the US to win a gold medal. You know, you never wanted it to be when you were competing against them, but the fact that they won the gold medal for the United States in 2018 was spectacular. And again, these guys, again, you're friends with these people off the ice. So, you know, I'm friends with all the, most of the curlers, in fact, off the ice. So it's one of those things where, yeah, you're not cheerleading. You're just trying to make sure you present the best show to the audience and be helpful and informative. And like I said, it's a privilege to go to the Olympics, not only as an athlete, but also as a broadcaster. It's a real treat for me especially. I love it.
COLIN HILDING: And have you been able to attend all the Olympics since Nagano as commentator?
MIKE HARRIS: I have, yeah. CBC has been the rights holder in Canada, as you know, for most of them. The only one we weren't the rights holders or was Vancouver. But I was there on the media bench working with the camera crews. So there's host broadcast teams that, you know, every sheet gets broadcast in full at the Olympics. So if you're in Sweden, you want to watch your team play, whomever they're playing against the Olympics, you have to be able to cover that game. So I work with the host broadcast team there. And yeah, and I've been there. And I was lucky enough to actually go to Rio as well. I think I mentioned briefly, I'm a golf pro, was my day job. So I actually got to go to Rio and do some golf commentating, which was fantastic. I love that. And then I'm hoping to go to do something in Tokyo as well. Although COVID, I think I'll be stuck here at home, I think, unfortunately. Yes, I've been to the last... Well, I think I've worked seven Olympic Games, including Rio. It feels like I'm not that old, but I guess I am.
COLIN HILDING: You started very young.
MIKE HARRIS: I guess that's the thing, right? Yeah, I was only 32 when I went to... I was only 30 when I went to the Games. So yeah, I mean, it's something. It's a treat. So like I said, I love it. And like I said, I find it a real privilege to be able to bring the Games to our Canadian audience here.
COLIN HILDING: And regardless of where you are around the world, obviously there's going to be some countries where it's a little bit different. I mean, Jill was talking about in Sochi, just the crowd. There was a lot of enthusiasm, but not a lot of understanding of the game. But overall, would you say that the appreciation for the game and the crowds that come out worldwide, has this increased a lot since Nagano?
MIKE HARRIS: Oh, for sure, without a doubt. I think, like I said, in Nagano, there was 1,200 people there. The only people who really knew what was going on were the families of the athletes. So, you know, they're so curling now. I said, it is a worldwide sport. I think in Sochi, when the home team was playing... And Vancouver was the same. I mean, you talk about... It's not just in, I call it non-curling, non-traditional curling countries. You know, but in Sochi, the loudest crowd was always for the Russian team. That makes sense, right? And in Korea, it was for the Korean team. The Korean women, to me, was the story of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. It was just absolutely incredible. You know, I actually had a set of conference call with some of my CBC people, and Korea played Japan in the semifinals of that Olympic Games, and it was probably the best women's game I've ever seen from a drama standpoint, from an execution standpoint, to the crowds, and then they had 175 million people in Korea and Japan watching that game. If you can imagine that. We're happy when the Briar gets 2 million or 3 million people, right? So 175 million people in Korea and Japan watched that game. That's crazy.
COLIN HILDING: That dwarfs Tanya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan.
MIKE HARRIS: Crazy, crazy numbers, right? And it still makes me emotional, because at the end, the girls are bowing to the crowd as a sign of respect for the crowd for coming out. It was just awesome. The garlic girls turned the game around. It was just fantastic.
COLIN HILDING: Before we get into our final series of questions, there is something we ask every medallist that we have on the show. What did you do with your medal? Do you keep it somewhere special?
MIKE HARRIS: Good question. It's funny. After we won, got home, and I kind of had it on display. It's one of those things when it's silver, you're not having it out about as much. I said I got the job at CBC pretty quickly, and then they put us on this, I call it a medal tour. So when we went to the school, we go into the Scottish or the Briar or whatever, and we would go to talk to schools. So Joan and I would bring our medals along with us, and we would kind of do a presentation. So my silver medal literally was in tens of thousands of hands over the number of years that we worked only for CBC. And then as we were going through that, we kind of had kids and stuff. So my kids played soccer. So I always joked that my medal was right beside the kids' soccer medals, right? On display. But I would just kind of basically take it with me. So I didn't really have a special spot for it. And then just recently, I moved within the last month. So we're building a bookcase next to kind of a built-in bookcase. And I'm finally going to display my medal for the first time in my life. So 23 years later, I'll have it on display. Right now, it's sitting in a drawer, in the box, in a dresser, in one of the bedrooms of the home we just moved into. But we're building these shelves, and I intend to put it on display for the first time in 23 years. So there you go. There's a good story.
COLIN HILDING: It's funny because I feel like most athletes we interview, they don't put it on display. And a lot of it, they're just nervous. Oh, I don't want to lose it or whatever. I don't want to draw attention to it in case somebody snatches it. But one of the most common answers is just, you know what, I have it in my drawer. Actually, tease for next week. If people want to tune in next week, we're going to talk to Tessa Virtue, and she may have one of the best answers for where her medal is just sort of stowed away.
MIKE HARRIS: And she's got plenty of gold.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, exactly. She's going to need a couple of drawers for her, I guess.
MIKE HARRIS: Exactly.
COLIN HILDING: Well, we've got a final series of questions here. Now, this predates your time in the games, but something that the Team Canada started doing, I believe it was in Rio, is they give a series of questionnaires to the athletes. And some of them they fill out in their own handwriting. Some of it was like draw a picture of this. Some of them serious sports related questions. Some of them just goofy questions. So we'll give you a set of questions here, which we're going to use the base of Denny Morrison. So you'll get Denny's questions here, and you can try to top his, I guess. So first question, which is pretty much always the first question here, my favourite Olympic moment is?
MIKE HARRIS: For me, I'm watching Midori Ito light the flame in Nagano. As far as watching an athlete, I'll go back to Greg Joy. That's an oldie, a goodie, 1976. I lived in Montreal back when the Games were there, so I watched him win a silver medal. So those are my two favourites.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, and Greg Joy, I mean, how many? I mean, that's before I was born, and yet you'll tune in to CBC anytime they have Olympic coverage, and you're going to see clips of Greg Joy there. That's one of the big ones. Second question. As a kid, my favourite sports team was?
MIKE HARRIS: Not even close for me. Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Canadiens. Still, still. So I said I grew up in Montreal back in the 70s. We had a Stanley Cup parade every year.
COLIN HILDING: And still the last Canadian team to have a Stanley Cup parade.
MIKE HARRIS: There you go. There you go.
COLIN HILDING: A couple others have had some Stanley Cup riots, but no parades.
MIKE HARRIS: Fair enough.
COLIN HILDING: Defending Canadian champs. If I could be any superhero, I would be.
MIKE HARRIS: Oh, good one. Probably a Superman can do everything, right? I think Superman would be the one. Yeah, for sure. Who doesn't want to fly?
COLIN HILDING: That's my personal favourite, too. My favourite music artists are?
MIKE HARRIS: Oh, interesting. I have a weird one to start. I simply read. I loved Simply Read back 10 or 12, 15 years ago. They're kind of passe now, but I've seen some great concert last few years. Been lucky. Justin Timberlake was amazing. Big country fan. Now Chris Stapleton's a big favourite of mine right now. And yeah, there's a bunch. I'm really, really enjoying country at this time. I'll put people on to some. A guy named Chris Clafford, K-L-A-F-F-O-R-D. And he's one of his YouTube guys. And I think he won Norway's Got Talent or something like that. And the guy's amazing. I saw him on America's Got Talent. I'm kind of obsessed with him right now. Wow.
COLIN HILDING: You know what? If you end up doing the mixed doubles at any point, you get your own walk-up music, it could be Chris Clafford.
MIKE HARRIS: There you go.
COLIN HILDING: Your favourite place to compete is?
MIKE HARRIS: Well, I mean, Brandon, Manitoba. I've got great memories from there. Like I said, I won the trials there. I played the Canadian Mixed Championship there in that same arena as well. Yeah, and I don't really compete much anymore, so I'll say anywhere I'm playing mixed doubles with my daughter. That's my current favourite.
COLIN HILDING: How about one thing I've always wanted to do is is that play mixed doubles with your daughter. Who knows?
MIKE HARRIS: Yeah, that was kind of fun. I've got three kids, and she's the youngest, and she's the only one of the girls. I guess that's something, again, not something I ever thought I would have a chance to do. But yeah, and I love coaching too. So yeah, one thing I thought I never could do. Well, I never thought I'd go to the Olympics, so that's the one. There's still a chance to go again. Right, and now I just like I said, I'm happy to just keep going back. But yeah, anyway, I love travelling, so anything that's involved with travel, I'm happy to do.
COLIN HILDING: Your favourite movie is?
MIKE HARRIS: Ooh, I have a couple of favourites, but one of my favourites is So I Married an Axe Murder, Mike Myers. Oh yeah. And then I Love American Treasure, that one and Da Vinci Code, those are probably my three favourites.
COLIN HILDING: Your favourite cartoon to watch growing up was?
MIKE HARRIS: Yeah, I watched a lot of Bugs Bunny, I think. Bugs Bunny and then Flintstones at Noon, we come home for lunch and Flintstones beyond, right? So those are the two big ones.
COLIN HILDING: Flintstones and Jetsons back to back.
MIKE HARRIS: I'm dating myself. Oh yeah, the Jetsons were great too, that's right.
COLIN HILDING: I mean, Flintstones was like 20, 30 years it was around. Even my generation, we were still watching the Flintstones.
MIKE HARRIS: There you go.
COLIN HILDING: If I had to do karaoke, I would sing.
MIKE HARRIS: Oh, I actually don't do a terrible Alan Jackson Chattahoochee.
COLIN HILDING: Really?
MIKE HARRIS: It's not terrible. It's not terrible. It's not good, but the rest of them are terrible. And it really depends on the level of alcohol by both myself and the people listening.
COLIN HILDING: You know, it's funny because all my memories of Alan Jackson is... Well, one, he had a guest spot on my favourite TV show as a kid, Home Improvement. But secondly, aside from when we would do curling in gym class in the winter, our summer activity was line dancing, and our teacher loved having us line dance Alan Jackson.
MIKE HARRIS: Oh, there you go.
COLIN HILDING: I have that song memorised from weeks upon weeks of line dancing. Final question here. If I could be an Olympian in any sport other than my own, it would be, I'm guessing, golf.
MIKE HARRIS: Golf now, yeah, for sure. I joke a lot with people who are in other sports saying, oh, you're curling, you're Olympics, you must be doing very well. I said, any other sport other than curling would have been great. You would have been able to make a good chunk of money, but no. But yeah, I think if I could choose now, I'd go back and try to get there as a golfer. But I was never remotely good enough at golf, even though I can teach you how to swing a golf club, but that's different than playing.
COLIN HILDING: Swinging the golf club and sweeping, a little bit of similarity there. You got some of the same form.
MIKE HARRIS: No, what it's like, the putting has some similarities, just kind of the feel and the touch. Curling at the end of the day is a field game, and so is golf. I think that's where they... And in Canada, a lot of our curling clubs up here have golf courses attached in the summer as well, right? Or vice versa, depending on how you look at it. So a lot of golfing country clubs in Toronto where I'm from that have curling and golf.
COLIN HILDING: We've already mentioned people can tune in and see you, listen to you almost weekly if you're living in Canada. Anything else you want to plug that you're up to right now? What can we watch you on? What are we going to watch you covering in the next couple of weeks?
MIKE HARRIS: Well, yeah, we're in this bubble here starting... I think the Women's World Championship wraps up on May 10th, so I'm in the bubble until then doing that. World Curling Federation is a YouTube channel that... Kevin Martin, Jill Officer, Melissa Sulego, who went to the Olympics back in Alverville as well, and Luke Coley, the five of us, are doing all the games on there. So if you go to the World Curling Federation channel on YouTube, you'll be able to watch us. And then if you live in Canada, of course, Sports Centre Grand Slams are coming up as well. And then next season, we're looking forward to, let's get everyone vaccinated, get everyone back on the ice, and make sure that we're ready to go for Beijing. So we're very excited about that.
COLIN HILDING: Well, it's been an absolute pleasure having you on here today. If you ever get bored with CBC and you want to come on, we've been known to, during the Olympics, do a little bit of commentary ourselves. We would gladly welcome you on to educate us and join us in our commentary efforts.
MIKE HARRIS: I'd be happy to. You know where to find me now. This is good.
COLIN HILDING: All right, thanks so much for being here today. We hope to talk to you soon.
MIKE HARRIS: Cheers.
COLIN HILDING: And fantastic chat there with Mike as we wrap up our mini-series of two interviews that we have on curling. And we're sort of, and if you haven't noticed, we're sort of trying to check the boxes right now on all these sports that we've never actually had the opportunity to talk to anybody on. So being able to bring you not only one, but two curling interviews was absolutely fantastic, especially for a Canadian who, I mean, this is essentially one of our national sports along with hockey. Again, big thanks to Mike for being on the show with us here today. And next week, we actually have a very big interview lined up for you. It's not somebody who is in a sport we've never discussed before. We have actually talked to somebody who's in figure skating before we spoke to Jamie Soleil back in the summer. But next week, we're gonna bring you one of the biggest athletes in the history of figure skating, not just Canadian, but in any sport. Next week, you're gonna be able to hear our interview with Tessa Virtue. And Tessa, along with Scott Moore, I believe the most decorated figure skaters in the history of the sports, in the history of Olympics. So stay tuned for that. And we're gonna have some more interviews. We're gonna slowly plug away here as we get closer and closer to our 100th episode, which is crazy to think that we're almost at 100 episodes for a show that originally was just meant to only run during the Olympics. We've been able to fill so much extra time with all these interviews here. And we're getting closer and closer to the Tokyo Games as well. So as we continue to bring you these interviews, keep in mind, Tokyo is right around the corner. And when that does come, we're gonna have tons of coverage, daily coverage, as we usually do during these Olympics. So make sure to subscribe to our show on iTunes, Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, wherever you can find us. Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and join us next week as we chat to Tessa Virtue, here on Off The Podium.
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