By Ryan Flaherty for Sask Sport
Ben Hebert has won virtually everything there is to win in the sport of curling but competing at the Olympic Games just hits different.
The five-time Brier winner and two-time world champion who is considered by many to be the greatest male lead in Canadian history is set to represent the country in his third Olympics at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Games and he understands how precious the opportunity is.
“I think all of us probably dreamt of going to the Olympics maybe once or going to a couple of Briers and to be going three times is a little bit surreal,” Hebert said.
“So, you know, I don’t take it for granted. I’m really excited, and there’s not too many things that get the old butterflies and nerves going these days for me in curling, but this is one of them.”
Hebert has experienced the full spectrum of Olympic emotions, from the thrill of victory to the agony of defeat. After winning gold at the 2010 Games in Vancouver on a squad skipped by Kevin Martin, he returned with Kevin Koe’s team eight years later in Pyeongchang, South Korea, but came home empty-handed following a fourth-place finish.
Now he’s getting another shot at the most elusive title in the sport, this time on a team featuring Brad Jacobs at skip, Marc Kennedy at third, Brett Gallant at second, plus fifth Tyler Tardi. While Hebert has gained perspective in the years since that first Olympic gold, his competitive fire still burns just as hot.
“I’m a pretty nice guy off the ice but when I get on that ice, I’m a psychopath. I really want to win and that’s what made me successful my whole career,” he said.
“We’re all married. We have kids. We know what’s the most important thing in our life is, no questions asked. I know. But for 10 days, I’m going to be dialed into curling, and that’s going to be the most important thing for me.”
The seeds of Hebert’s competitive drive were planted, fittingly, in the country’s agricultural heartland. Born and raised in Regina, he grew up playing a variety of sports including baseball, football, hockey and lacrosse. But it was curling that rose head and shoulders above the rest.
Once he had focused his athletic attention on the pebbled ice, success soon followed. Hebert got his first taste of international glory while playing out of his home province, winning the 2003 World Junior Men’s Championship as the fifth on a team skipped by Steve Laycock. Two years later he made his Brier debut, playing lead in the first of back-to-back national championship spiels with Pat Simmons and Team Saskatchewan.
While he subsequently moved to Alberta, where he’s made his home and enjoyed a Hall of Fame-worthy career ever since, Hebert never lost touch with his roots.
“I still get messages today from my high school football coaches, my coaches that coached me at North Regina Little League, they still keep in touch. And to this day, probably outside of these five guys (on the team), because we spend so much time together, all the people I met along the way are still probably my best friends in my whole entire life,” he said.
It’s not just emotional support that Hebert has received from Saskatchewan. The province also provided him with a financial boost in those early years through the Sask Lotteries Trust Fund, Sask Sport and Canadian Sport Centre Saskatchewan, which helped facilitate his pursuit of curling excellence.
“I’ve been doing some stuff with them through Level 10 (Fitness) at the gym, covering my gym costs, even from way back in the day when I worked out at the Sask Hotel at the Crown Club in the basement,” he said.
“They’ve been super supportive to me all the way up, and there’s no better province for me that I could have chosen to grow up in.”
It’s provided the foundation on which Hebert has built a championship career, one that he’s hoping will still produce at least one more moment of triumph. He’ll be representing not just Saskatchewan or Alberta but all of Canada this time and a second Olympic gold medal would feel all that much sweeter given the journey he’s taken to get there, and the teammates with whom he hopes to share it.
“Win or lose, we’ve had great careers. You know, you’re going to see some of these guys in the Hall of Fame. (They’re) some of the best curlers Canada’s ever seen. But that’s not going to take away from the level of intensity and focus and desire we have to come home with a medal for, you know, not just each other, but obviously our country.
“It’s going to be hard on the gas.”
Follow along Ben’s schedule and results.