How John Morris and Rachel Homan's childhood bond could be key to Olympic glory

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He remembers meeting her when she was just a year old and she remembers being ‘shaky’ in his presence when she was a little kid

He remembers meeting her when she was just a year old and she remembers being ‘shaky’ in his presence when she was a little kid because he had already become a famous curler at a young age.

Yes, it’s fair to say John Morris and Rachel Homan go back a long way.

“Rachel and I have known each other since I was about 11 and she was one,” Morris said. “We go back pretty far and we have a good family connection.”

Morris and Homan were selected to represent Canada in mixed doubles curling at the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, starting on Feb. 3.

While they haven’t played a ton of games together — just 49 over six years — they certainly know each other well and have found a lot of success when they do get on the ice. They have a 45-4 overall record and have won four tournaments.

The Morris and Homan families both hail from the Ottawa area and know each other well. John curled with Rachel’s brother Mark for a few years and remembers seeing her around the curling club.

“I remember when I was playing with Mark, there was this little rink rat around the RCMP Curling Club in Ottawa,” Morris said. “It was Rachel, she was just a toddler and didn’t want to have anything to do with curling ice. That was my first experience seeing her at the rink.”

Fast forward a decade and Homan was already making a name for herself, at age 11. Few people who saw her play could believe how hard she could throw the rock, despite her age and physical stature.

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She and her teammates caught the eye of legendary curling coach Earle Morris, who happens to be John’s dad.

“I remember him talking about coaching this great young junior team, Rachel Homan, from Ottawa,” Morris said.

“He was like ‘John, you’ve got to watch these girls. They’re gonna be the next big thing in curling.’ I’m like ‘Sure dad.’ I was thinking ‘This is just my dad being a coach and pumping up his team,’ so I didn’t think much of it.

“When I saw them in junior I remember thinking ‘Holy smokes, my dad was right. These girls can really curl.’ What I remember from Rachel at a really young age was she could bring the heat. I remember my dad saying she could throw it harder at 13-14 than most women could already in the game.”

Homan certainly knew who John was, even when she was just starting out in the game.

“I remember at the Carleton Heights Curling Club, he was like ‘John Morris famous’ and I was practising and he came out on the ice,” she said. “I was so nervous, even though I knew him when I was younger. He was super famous now and a phenomenal curler and I was just trying to focus on my practice, but I couldn’t. He was throwing rocks beside me and I was a little shaky.”

(Photo: Courtesy of John Morris)

Morris is now 43 and has a sparkling curling resume that includes two Olympic gold medals (in 2010 as third for Kevin Martin and in 2018 in mixed doubles with Kaitlyn Lawes), a world championship, three Brier championships and two world junior gold medals.

Homan is 32 and has done pretty well for herself as well. She’s skipped in the Olympics (finishing sixth in 2018), won a world championship (2017), won the Scotties Tournament of Heart three times and been runner up three more times.

“There’s no one else in the world I’d rather have as my mixed doubles partner than Rachel Homan,” said Morris, who won gold in the first ever mixed doubles competition at the Olympics four years ago.

“She’s one of the best curlers on the planet. I have a ton of respect for her. I love the competitiveness of Rachel. To me, you don’t have to tip-toe around a lot of things with Rachel. It’s just ‘Let’s get this thing done and how do we do that?’”

Although Canada won gold in Pyeongchang, the country is not exactly a powerhouse in mixed doubles. The top Canadian mixed doubles team in the world rankings came in at ninth and that was the father-daughter team of Robert and Emilie Desjardins.

Homan and Morris are currently ranked 17th in the world and they’ll surely be in tough against the top-ranked teams from Norway (Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten), Switzerland (Jenny Perrett and Martin Rios) and the Czech Republic (Zuzana Paulova and Tomas Paul).

What the pair does have going for it is a ton of overall curling experience and, Morris especially, a strong understanding of the mixed doubles game.

“Being named to the Olympic team is phenomenal, but then to be able to do it with someone you’ve known your whole life, it’s just another amazing feeling,” Homan said. “It’s just so cool to know John and watch his career and see how talented and how amazing an athlete he is. It doesn’t matter who he curls with, he’s always in playoffs, always in finals. He just brings the best out of his teammates. It’s just amazing to be able to go to Beijing with a lifelong friend.”

Homan would surely love some personal redemption after having such a rough showing with her four-player team at the last Olympics.

This is her chance to get that medal she missed out on last time, her opportunity to bring something home for Canada and to make some magic with an old friend.

“I want to get him his hat trick,” Homan said of Morris and his gold medals. “I know everything that John brings to the game and how dedicated he is and how much this means to him. It means the same to me but I want to go out there and get a gold medal for him just as much as I want to get a gold medal for Canada.”

And, of course, Morris would like to see Homan get a chance to share in the glory as well. “For me, a strong factor in mixed doubles is playing for Rachel, winning with Rachel,” Morris said.

“That’s a large motivation.”

Twyman@postmedia.comTwitter.com/Ted_Wyman

MIXED DOUBLES CURLING At National Aquatic Centre, Beijing

TEAMS Canada — Rachel Homan, John Morris Australia — Tahli Gill, Dean Hewitt China — Fan Suyuan, Ling Zhi Czechia — Zuzana Paulova, Tomas Paul Great Britain — Jennifer Dodds, Bruce Mouat Italy — Stefania Constantini, Amos Mosaner Norway — Kristin Skaslien, Magnus Nedregotten Sweden — Almida de Val, Oskar Eriksson Switzerland — Jenny Perrett, Martin Rios United States — Vicky Persinger, Chris Plys

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