Vernon’s Jim Cotter made the 8,100-kilometre flight to Pyeongchang, South Korea safe and sound.
Cotter will be coaching the Korean entry of Jang Hye-ji/Lee Ki-jeong in the Olympic mixed doubles competition – a new Olympic sport – which begins Thursday. Cotter met the duo just a few hours after arriving.
While Cotter, a 43-year-old father of three, will be talking strategy with the Korean team, he will also be chatting with several teammates and opponents he knows well.
Cotter’s World Curling Tour teammate John Morris, a Calgary firefighter, will play with Kaitlyn Lawes of Winnipeg. They are coached by veteran Jeff Stoughton. Morris/Lawes take on Norway’s Kristen Moen Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten at the Gangneung Curling Centre at 9 a.m. local time (Wednesday, 7 p.m. ET).
Both Lawes and Morris will be attempting to become the first Canadian curlers ever to win two gold medals; they won previously with traditional four-player teams. Morris was the vice-skip with Kevin Martin’s gold-medal team at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, while Lawes was the vice-skip for Jennifer Jones’s gold-medal team in 2014 at Sochi, Russia.
Eight countries qualified for the Olympic mixed doubles tournament; the teams will play a round-robin draw Thursday through Sunday, with the top four teams going into the semifinals (1 vs. 4, 2 vs. 3) on Monday, Feb. 12, and the bronze- and gold-medal games on Tuesday, Feb. 13.
Cotter lost his bid for a fifth straight B.C. men’s title last Sunday in Parksville. He has been in seven national Brier championships.