One man’s ‘ridiculous’ push to turn Australia into a curling nation

This was published 1 year ago

One man’s ‘ridiculous’ push to turn Australia into a curling nation

By Eryk Bagshaw

Beijing: Hugh Millikin was half-a-point away from becoming Australia’s first curling Olympian. Twenty years of practice came down to a matter of centimetres in 2010, when Australia was last within grasp of an Olympic berth.

“You never get over it,” he said “I think you know all athletes around the world when they’ve been close to achieving a goal, you know, it’s always in the back of your mind. The pain and agony of not making it never goes away.”

Australia’s Tahli Gill, directs her team mate, during the mixed doubles curling match against Norway on Saturday February 5. Credit:AP

Now, more than a decade on, with Australia’s mixed-doubles pair Dean Hewitt and Tahli Gill facing their final round in Beijing against Switzerland on Sunday afternoon as Australia’s first Olympic curlers, Millikin is relishing seeing the duo put his sport in the spotlight.

“It’s been a great satisfaction to see them there,” he said. “It’s all the team members and all the infrastructure that’s had to happen to get them there.”

Millikin is not just any curler. The 64-year-old is vice-president of the World Curling Federation. Millikin helps run the sport’s peak body from Australia, a country where no dedicated curling facilities even exist.

Hugh Millikin at the Beijing Games.

Gill and Hewitt, stuck in lockdown in Melbourne and without a rink to go to, had to use what they could to get their practice in – their kitchens.

“It’s all pretty surreal – a lifelong dream – and to have it happen now is unbelievable,” said Gill.

Long term, the kitchen is not a viable solution to a problem that has long bedevilled the sport in Australia, which requires athletes to slide and then furiously sweep rocks along the ice down into a circle target known as the house, while knocking out their opponents’ rocks from the same target.

The more rocks within the target, the higher the score. It’s been labelled lawn bowls or chess on ice, but it is more of a spectacle than either and matches often come down to a single point at the end of eight rounds – or ends as they are known in the sport.

“The secret to curling is having dedicated ice,” said Millikin. “This moment in time is where I think it’ll push us over the edge and get us closer to that goal.”

Not just any old ice rink will do. Transforming an ice hockey rink to one capable of hosting curling takes four days.

The current vice-president of the World Curling Federation, Hugh Millikin, competing in 1992. Credit:Tim Clayton

“Curling ice is very, very specific. It has to be perfectly flat. The temperature of the ice is very important. We actually prepare the ice by scraping it and then putting these little bumps of water on it called pebbles.”

The pebbles, made with water and calcium, are needed to reduce the friction on the rock. If both the ice and rock are perfectly flat, the friction is too great for the rock to move smoothly. The pebbles allow the rock to glide across the ice so that it can travel up to 45 metres.

“Then what happens is, as the curling rock goes down, and you turn it, this leading edge grabs the ice and it makes a curl,” Millikin said. “Then sweeping reduces again by melting the water on the top of the surface just ever so slightly. And that reduces the friction again, and then the curling rock will curl less, and will go further.

“If you have a sheet of ice, which is dedicated for curling, then you can use all those things. Otherwise you could just be just throwing in your backyard on a frozen pond.”

Millikin grew up in Ottawa, Canada – one of the world’s curling capitals – moved to Australia in his 30s and never left. He had already picked up a Canadian mixed championship and was in the Olympic demonstration event at the Albertville Games in 1992. While other countries including China, Sweden and the US built up their curling facilities, when Millikin needed dedicated ice to train on he had to travel to New Zealand to practice. There was only one Monday night curling competition in Australia at the time, in Oakleigh in south-east Melbourne.

“I phoned them up and I said ‘listen, I’m only here for a little while. I’m not eligible to play, but you could put a team at the World Championships. And the woman who was the president at the time hung up on me and said I was being ridiculous’.”

Millikin does not sound ridiculous anymore.

“Having a dedicated facility is, really, I think, the end game for everybody,” he said. “And we’re close, we’re really close.”

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