[CofR]

I missed it earlier but here's an interesting piece from a few days ago about Kevin Koe's Father and how his experience in a residential shool shaped the way he used curling to keep his family together.

Standing in the middle of the ice at the Yellowknife Curling Club on a frigid December night, Fred Koe starts reminiscing about how he got his start in the sport.

"I was in Aklavik, Northwest Territories, growing up with dog teams, hunting, trapping and fishing. It was my life," he begins. "We had a two-sheet rink with natural ice, lamps hanging off the ceiling and a small club room with a potbelly stove."

They would use that stove to melt snow from outside to pebble the curling ice. Fred was eight years old when he stepped on that ice for the first time.

"Two feet in the hack and I shoved it as hard as I could. And that's how Kevin started in Inuvik at six years old," he says about his son.

It's been an arduous journey for Fred Koe, who now finds himself in the stands in South Korea watching his son skip the Canadian men's team at the Olympics. It's a moment he couldn't have imagined for much of his life.

Standing on that curling ice in Yellowknife, Fred reveals something he says he has never spoken publicly about before. Not long after he started curling, he was ripped away from his family and placed in a residential school for 10 months.

Fred points to that type of work ethic as a key to his son's success. He also says when someone from the North who is Indigenous is able to succeed on an international level, like Kevin has, it gives inspiration and hope for others.

"Now we have a Gwich'in boy, my son, showing the world his talents. And it shows all children, no matter who they are or where they come from, they can be the best."

https://olympics.cbc.ca/news/article...xperience.html