Debbie McCormick gives up control, earns Olympic berth

FARGO, N.D. – The winning stone by Erika Brown had not yet come to rest when Debbie McCormick, her teammate, leaped with joy. McCormick, a three-time Olympian, has seen enough curling to judge a good shot from a bad one. And as the stone slowed at Scheels Arena, McCormick knew it would stop where it needed to, for the point to send her to her fourth Olympics.

"I probably should have waited until it stopped," a smiling McCormick said after Team Brown's 8-7 victory over Team Pottinger completed a sweep of the best-of-3 women's championship series Saturday at the U.S. Olympic curling trials. "But I just couldn't help myself."

After more than three years of self-doubt and introspection, McCormick, 39, felt like celebrating.

A disastrous performance skipping the U.S. team at the 2010 Games left McCormick a wreck. The U.S. finished last in the 10-team tournament, going 2-7 in round-robin play. Several of the losses reduced the steely McCormick to tears. The unit that won four consecutive national championships from 2006-09 broke up after Vancouver, with Allison Pottinger, Nicole Joraanstad and Natalie Nicholson forming their own team.

"It was really hard, really tough," McCormick said. "We spent five seasons together and we ended up being really, really good friends.

"Last Olympics, obviously, did not go well for me. There were times that I wanted to quit this game, quite honestly. I was so frustrated, sad and everything, all the terrible emotions that go through it."

McCormick soon heard from Brown, a childhood friend from their days at the Madison (Wis.) Curling Club and a 1998 Olympic teammate. Brown had been trying to get back to the Olympics since Nagano, finishing second, third and fourth, respectively at the last three Olympic Trials. She sought out McCormick for one more try.

"When I heard that she was going to do something different after Vancouver, Annie (Swisshelm, her teammate) and I said, `Oh man, we've got to get on this,' " Brown said.

McCormick spent one season as Team Brown's alternate, playing sparingly, until Brown and Swisshelm convinced her to commit. "She took a year to take a break, and then she couldn't ignore us any longer," Brown said. "She buckled to the pressure and joined us."

First, McCormick had to adjust to playing "third," or vice skip, throwing the next-to-last rocks in an end and leaving the strategy to Brown, 40. That wasn't easy for someone who skipped the U.S. to its only women's world championship in 2003.

"I thought it would be a lot easier because I have played third in the past," McCormick said. "It's what I wanted to do, so I felt like it would be easy for me. It wasn't. It was hard to give up the control of being a skip and trust in our skip that she's making the right calls and she's going to make that shot. The second year, it got a lot easier."

Now, after beating her three former teammates in the Trials final, McCormick is glad she took that break after Vancouver.

"It helped me realize how much I still loved the sport, how much I felt I could still contribute to a team, and wanted to be a part of team, and just wanted to face my demons and keep going for it," she said. "I'm proud of myself and proud of my husband (Pete) for supporting me in that."

The men's Trials ended Sunday with a stunner, as Team Fenson conceded to Team Shuster after four ends trailing, 11-1, in the deciding game of their best-of-3. The first two games were each decided by one point.

Curling lacks a mercy rule, but a team may concede if a deficit appears insurmountable. USA Curling officials could not recall a similar outcome in any previous Trials or recent national championship. "It just doesn't happen very often," said losing skip Pete Fenson, the 2006 Olympic bronze medalist. "At that point in the game, it wasn't all that difficult. We were so far behind that was really no catching up anyway."

Team Shuster still needs to qualify for Sochi by finishing first or second in the final Olympic qualifier next month in Fussen, Germany.