ST. JOHN’S — Brad Gushue bowed out of his final Canadian men’s curling championship without a storybook ending, but as a folk hero of the sport.
The 45-year-old from St. John’s N.L., wanted to go out a winner with a record seventh Brier title to bookend the first he won in his hometown in 2017.
But his team was ousted by reigning Olympic champion Brad Jacobs in a 7-5 playoff loss Saturday.
Every draw involving Gushue’s team in St. John’s packed the arena to the gills, and required ice technicians to compensate for the swing in temperature.
The love the city has for their native son crescendoed in the building as Gushue made his way down Brier ice one last time Saturday.
“I’m thankful for the amount of appreciation and love that I was showed,” Gushue said. “That’s a memory I’ll have for the rest of my life.
“The disappointment of a loss and being knocked out still hits hard, but to see that sort of love, I am not sure how to describe it. I feel very fortunate. I’m going to miss this, but I’m also excited about what’s to come, so a lot of emotions.”
Olympic gold medallist in 2006 and bronze medallist in 2022, world champion in 2017, six-time Brier champion, world silver medallist four times and winner of 15 Grand Slams is a stellar career by any measure.
Doing that from a small-population province that wasn’t a curling power before him made the odds long.
St. John’s is geographically closer to London, England, than Edmonton, the financial and time cost of running a contending team out of Newfoundland and Labrador was a barrier to success because tour events were concentrated in Ontario and the prairie provinces.
“When he sat down and wrote out his list of goals he wanted to do, there were never any excuses of where you’re from, where you grew up, the cost or the travel, all those things that you could use as an excuse for being from Newfoundland,” said Mark Nichols, whose been Gushue’s teammate for 26 years.
“He changed the way people viewed curling in our province, and I would argue, across the country.”
Nichols of Labrador City has been integral to Gushue’s success with timely big-weight runbacks and finesse shots to support his skip.
“We’ve had quite the relationship over the course of our careers,” Nichols said. “I’m not sure we ever could have imagined the things we did accomplish over our career, but we did push each other to just get better and better and better. I’m going to miss it.”
Gushue and Nichols were fresh-faced, 20-somethings in 2006 when they captured Canada’s first Olympic gold medal in men’s curling with Russ Howard and Jamie Korab in Turin, Italy.
“I wanted to be the best and coming from the province that we did, there were a lot of obstacles and not the abundance of talent that some other provinces have, but we found a way and a big part of that was I got some really good teammates early on like Mark who’s been with me for a long time,” Gushue said.
Gushue’s storybook moment was winning a first Brier after 13 tries in his hometown of St. John’s in 2017.
That catapulted the skip and his team to the next level.
Gushue, Nichols, second Brett Gallant and lead Geoff Walker won the world championship that year, three more Canadian titles, an Olympic bronze medal and pair of world championship silver medals over the next five years.
Gallant departed for the Brad Jacobs foursome in 2022. E.J. Harnden came on board. Gushue’s team continued to roll with back-to-back Brier wins in 2022 and 2023 and another pair of world championship silver medals.
Gushue holds Brier records in appearances (23), playoff appearances (17), playoff wins (21), playoff games (39), career wins (198), career games played (279).
“The Brier is probably going to be the thing I miss the most,” Gushue said.
He threw his final rock in competitive men’s curling Saturday, although Gushue is open to curling mixed doubles with his daughters if they want him as a teammate.
“Whether that’s at a competitive level I’m not sure, but we’ll see,” Gushue said. “They’ve got their own little careers going and they probably don’t want to be touring around with their dad.”
His daughter Hayley’s team reached the final of the provincial women’s championship this year.
“It’s a fun stage and I’m looking forward to helping them whether it is coaching or just being a dad that used to curl to help them along,” Gushue said.
Gushue isn’t inclined to run for political office in his home province, despite popularity.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “If you looked at our team’s approval rating and my approval rating in the province, it’s pretty high and I know as soon as I go into politics, I’m going to be down to 50 per cent at the most and that’s if I’m doing a good job.
“I’m not sure if my ego can handle dropping from 70, 80, 90 per cent down to 50.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 7, 2026.
Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press
