After a good shed-cleaning, Team Gushue's Olympic banner is finally on public display
Hanging in Jamie Korab’s shed for the past five years or so was a commemorative banner marking Team Gushue’s 2006 Olympic Games gold medal win. The banner is now hanging in the St. John’s Remax Centre. (Team Gushue/X)
A mystery of Olympic proportions has finally been solved, and a banner commemorating Team Gushue's Olympic Games gold medal win is finally on public display, nearly two decades after their 2006 victory.
And it's all because former Team Gushue lead Jamie Korab, who's had it for the last several years, finally got around to "cleaning out the shed."
The banner is now hanging in the St. John's Remax Centre, Korab told CBC News on Monday.
"It's back where it finally belongs."
It's there now after a rip, a repair — and an anonymous phone call.
What happened to the banner?
Seventeen years ago, Team Gushue — at the time, made up of Brad Gushue, Jamie Korab, Mark Nichols, Russ Howard, Mike Adam and coach Toby McDonald — won gold at the Olympics in Turin, Italy.
The win is still "a bit of a blur," said Korab. "Almost 18 years later, it still hasn't really, really truly sunk in."
Korab says the team didn't get the chance to see the commemorative banner, as it was sent to the Remax Centre to be put on display.
Jamie Korab says the banner should have been on display 'long before now,' but that it's back where it finally belongs. (Jessica Singer/CBC)
But the banner was accidentally ripped when it was opened by the centre's manager, said Korab, so it had to be repaired.
Although it was fixed shortly after, he says, the teammates still hadn't seen the Olympic banner.
Fast-forward seven to eight years, Korab received an anonymous phone call.
Anonymous caller
Korab says the caller told him they overheard somebody at a restaurant "bragging to their friends" about having Team Gushue's Olympic banner buried in their backyard.
He says he told his teammates, and their coach, McDonald, chuckled, telling him he had the banner.
Korab says he finally saw the banner in person in 2013. The team planned to give it to the Remax Centre, says Korab, but Team Gushue also practised a lot at the Bally Haly Curling Club, so they offered to get another banner made so both clubs could display the honour.
Korab said the plan never went anywhere, and the 1.2 metre-long banner had sat in Korab's shed ever since.
A few weeks ago, he asked Harold Walters, the manager of the Remax Centre, if they'd like to display the banner — and it hangs there now.
"It's a pretty proud thing, and should have been on display long before now," said Korab.
The Team Gushue account on X, formerly called Twitter, announced the banner was finally on display at the centre, a special shoutout going to Korab "for finally cleaning out the shed."
Download our free CBC News app to sign up for push alerts for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador. Click here to visit our landing page.
