Joan (Gushue) Byrne is an amazing and passionate supporter of curling, especially Team Gushue! Her dedication to the sport and enthusiasm for following Brad and his teammates is so fun and lively. From volunteering at events held here in Labrador City, NL- home to Mark Nichols; when Team Gushue won the olympics and brought their gold medals to our town! To watching every rock thrown, even in the middle of girls’ nights, she is on FaceTime with her husband so she doesn’t miss a rock! At any moment while the game is on, she may be texting her sister in law to see if she just saw that shot! Or she is on her landline with her 90 year old Father chatting about each end and how their favorite teams are playing during the commercial break! She truly embodies the spirit of a superfan. She’s a wealth of knowledge about the curling world, with insights into the skips and all the drama of the game. She lives for curling and talks about the game with passion and excitement to anyone who will listen.
She has travelled from Labrador to Kamloops and various places in between to attend 6 curling tournaments and is always like a kid on Christmas morning; so excited as she waits for the tickets to go on sale to see them play live. While attending various games, she gets to catch up with old friends but also meet new ones at the patch! She enjoys going to the live games alone so she doesn’t miss a second of the game by distractions. She also plans vacations around the curling season. You may catch her taking a nap during the day to make sure she can stay awake until the wee hours to make sure she doesn’t miss a beat while games are being played in different time zones! She also watches old games that are being aired in the off season- even though she already knows who won!
No matter where she is, or what she was doing, once a game starts you will find her glued to a screen (sometimes even on a iPad screen when the game isn’t televised) day or night until the last rock hits the ice!
Covid didn’t even stop her from being at a game- she was still in the stands cheering!
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