Kevin Martin (curler)

Kevin Martin (born July 31, 1966 in Killam, Alberta; nicknamed "The Old Bear" and "K-Mart") is a Canadian curler from Edmonton. He is the current World Champion and Brier champion skip.

Martin is one of the most successful curlers in the world, especially in the World Curling Tour, where his teams have won almost $2 million in his career. Martin first came on the curling scene in 1985 when he won the Canadian Junior Championships. This qualified him for the 1986 World Junior championships, where he won the silver medal. Five years later, he qualified for the 1991 Labatt Brier, which he ended up winning and going on to the World Championships where he won the silver medal. In 1992 Martin qualified for the 1992 Winter Olympics in which curling was a demonstration sport and finished fourth. He would then play in the 1992, 1995 and 1996 Labatt Briers before winning the Brier again in 1997. That gave him a berth at the World Championships where he would again fall short of gold, finishing fourth. He would not return to the Brier until 2000 where he finished with a disappointing 6-5 record. Martin once again went to the Olympics two years later for the 2002 Winter Olympics, the second Olympics where curling was a full-medal event. At the 2002 Olympics, Martin had an 9–1 record before losing to Pal Trulsen of Norway in the final, missing a presumably "easy" draw in the last round.

On April 26, 2006 Martin announced the break up of his long-time team Olympic silver medalist team of lead Don Bartlett, second Carter Rycroft and third Don Walchuk. Those three would be replaced by 2-time World Junior Champion skip John Morris now playing third, Marc Kennedy at second and Ben Hebert at lead.

Martin is known for his ability to pull off near-impossible shots in complex situations, to the degree where other curlers have been using the expression "to do a Martin", meaning to attempt such a shot.

Martin has won a career eight Grand Slam victories. He was the second skip (after Wayne Middaugh) to win a "career Grand Slam"—winning a title in each Grand Slam event. He did this after winning the National Grand Slam event on March 25, 2007.

On March 13, 2008, Martin's team from Alberta became the first time since 2003 to go through the round robin at the Tim Hortons Brier undefeated. They finished with a perfect 13-0 record. With that perfect finish, Martin won his third Brier title. [Curling Scoops [http://www.curlingscoops.com/events/brier08.html The 2008 Tim Hortons Brier] ]

Martin finally won his first World Championship at the 2008 World Men's Curling Championship in Grand Forks, North Dakota. After a 10-1 record, he lost to Scotland, skipped by David Murdoch, in the 1 vs. 2 game, only to beat them in the rematch in the final. This was the first time Kevin Martin won a gold medal at an international curling event [Curling Scoops [http://www.curlingscoops.com/stories/april13082.php Gold at last!] ] .

Due to his Brier and World Championship win in 2008, the Canadian Curling Association selected Kevin Martin's team (along with Jennifer Jones, Kevin Koe and Stefanie Lawton to be Canada's representatives on "Team North America" at the 2008 Continental Cup of Curling [Curling Scoops [http://www.curlingscoops.com/stories/july1008.php World Champs Headed to Continental Cup] ]

=Grand Slam Titles=

*Masters of Curling: Jan. 2003
*Canadian Open: 2002, 2005, 2007
*The National: 2006, 2007, 2008
*Players' Championship: 1998*, 2000*, 2005, 2007*pre-Grand Slam era

Teams

Awards

*WJCC All-Star skip: 1986

References