Kevin Ray Martin (born July 31, 1966), nicknamed "the Old Bear" and "K-Mart", is a Canadian retired curler originally from Lougheed, Alberta and residing in Edmonton. He is an Olympic, World and four-time Canadian champion and a member of the World Curling Hall of Fame. He is considered by many commentators and former and current curlers to be the greatest curler of all time. He is also known for his rivalries with Randy Ferbey/David Nedohin, the best Alberta provincial rivalry ever as the two teams were generally regarded the best in the world from 2002 to 2006; his rivalry with Jeff Stoughton, perhaps the most famous all prairies rivalry ever which spanned over 2 decades from 1991 to 2014; with Glenn Howard from 2007 to 2014, perhaps the best two team rivalry in Canadian curling history, and his rivalry with Sweden's Peja Lindholm from 1997 to 2006, perhaps the best ever men's Canada-Europe rivalry.
Over his 30-year curling career, he won four Briers, a gold medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics, and one world championship. He went to a total of three Winter Olympics and four World Championships, and won a total of two Olympic medals and three World Championship medals. He won 15 Grand Slam titles on the World Curling Tour (the media count 18, including three Players' Championships won prior to its inclusion as a Grand Slam event), which includes a record eight Players' Championship titles. Over the course of his career, his teams won around $2 million. He was the first skip to win a "career Grand Slam," winning a title in each Grand Slam event, after he won the Players' Championship Grand Slam event in April 2005. Martin also holds the record for the most Olympic victories, with 20 total wins at the Olympics.
During his career, Martin also served as a major influence in the development of the sport of curling, establishing the competitive tier in the sport and setting the groundwork for the management of curling teams and the creation of high-level competitive curling events. He is also known for contributing to the growth of curling, long known as a recreational and participant-based sport, as a spectator sport. Martin retired from competitive curling in 2014. In 2019, Martin was named the greatest Canadian male skip in history in a TSN poll of broadcasters, reporters and top curlers.
In 2024, he was named as a member of the Order of Canada.
Career
Junior career Martin began curling when he was six years old. He took up the sport because his father was the vice president of his local curling club. Martin first came on the curling scene in 1985 when his Alberta team of Richard Feeney, Dan Petryk and Michael Berger won the 1985 Canadian Junior Championship in their first year together as a team. The rink (a group of players) finished the round robin in second place, with a win–loss record of 7–4, behind Prince Edward Island's Kent Scales. This forced them into a semifinal against the third place Quebec rink, skipped by Steve Gagnon. They beat Quebec 5–4, earning a spot in the final against Prince Edward Island which they won with a score of 6–3. After winning the championship, he accompanied the Canadian team as an alternate at the 1985 World Junior Curling Championships.
By winning the 1985 Canadian junior championship, the team qualified for the following season's . The team went undefeated through the round robin and won their semifinal match against Sweden. However, in the final, they came up short, losing 7–6 to the Scottish team skipped by David Aitken.
Early career Five years out of the World Junior Championships, Martin had formed a new team and won his first provincial championship. This qualified him and his team of Kevin Park, Dan Petryk and Don Bartlett for the 1991 Labatt Brier. At the 1991 Brier, Martin finished the round robin with an 8–3 win–loss record, tying Saskatchewan for first place. Martin knocked off British Columbia in the semifinal, and then beat Saskatchewan (skipped by Randy Woytowich) with a score of 8–4 in the final. The rink was then off to the 1991 Canada Safeway World Curling Championships in Winnipeg. Martin turned the tables, going undefeated through the round robin. After beating Norway's Eigil Ramsfjell in the semifinal, Martin's team lost in the final, losing to Scotland's David Smith with a score of 2–7.
His 1991 Brier victory also earned him a spot at the 1992 Winter Olympics, where curling was just a demonstration sport at the time. Martin won all three of his round robin games before losing the semifinal to Switzerland with a score of 4–8 and losing to the United States with a score of 2–9 in the bronze medal match.
In 1992, Martin won his second provincial championship. His team went 8–3 once again at the 1992 Labatt Brier, tying them in second place with Ontario. However, in the semifinal, the Ontario rink, skipped by Russ Howard, defeated Martin's team by 7–4.
Martin's first World Curling Tour event was the 1993 Players' Championship, then known as the "Seagrams VO Cup". His first WCT event win came the following season at the 1993 Kelowna Cashspiel. Later that season he won the 1994 Players' Championship, which has been retroactively considered his first Slam win, even through the event occurred long before the Grand Slam series began.
1995–1999 After his two Brier seasons, Martin did not win the provincial title again until 1995. In the meantime, he had made some line-up changes in his team, and by the 1995 Labatt Brier, he had settled on James Pahl as his second, retaining Park and Bartlett as his third and lead, respectively. At the 1995 Brier, he placed in third after the round robin with a 7–4 win–loss record, tied with Ontario and Prince Edward Island. Martin knocked off Ontario's Ed Werenich in the page playoffs 3 vs. 4 match, but lost to Kerry Burtnyk's Manitoba rink in the semifinal with a score of 9–3.
In 1995, Martin replaced Park and Pahl with Don Walchuk and Shawn Broda, respectively. Martin won his fourth provincial title, sending him to the 1996 Labatt Brier. The team placed first after the round robin, finishing with a 10–1 win–loss record. However, in the page playoff 1 vs. 2 game, he lost to Manitoba's Jeff Stoughton. In the semifinal, Martin rebounded with a win over Quebec, but the rematch against Stoughton in the final resulted in a loss in an extra end, which Stoughton stole after a light draw by Martin to win the game 8–7.
In 1996, Broda was replaced by Rudy Ramcharan on the team. With his new team, Martin won another provincial title, and at the 1997 Labatt Brier, he once again finished the round robin with a 10–1 win–loss record. His only loss came to the undefeated Vic Peters rink of Manitoba. However, Martin met and defeated Peters twice in the playoffs, including winning the final with a score of 10–8. With this win, Martin won his second Brier and the right to go to the 1997 Ford World Men's Curling Championship. Martin topped the round robin at the Worlds, with a 7–2 win–loss record, but lost to Sweden in the semifinal with a score of 6–4 and then to Scotland in the bronze medal match with a score of 8–4.
In 1997, Martin looked to represent Canada at the Olympics once again. The 1998 Winter Olympics would mark the first time curling would be an official medal sport at the games. At the 1997 Canadian Olympic Curling Trials, Martin's rink finished with a 6–3 win–loss record, tied in second place with Ed Werenich. Martin knocked off Werenich in the semifinal but lost to the then little known Mike Harris in the final with a score of 6–5. For the next few years, Martin would fail to make it back to the Brier. In 1998, Martin won his second Players' Championship of his career, then known as the "Apollo World Curling Tour Championship".
1999–2006 In 1999, Martin dropped Ramcharan, who was embroiled by a scandal where he botched organizing a bonspiel, and replaced him with Carter Rycroft, an upstart junior curler. In 2000, Martin won his sixth provincial title, defeating Frank Morissette 4–2 in the final. However, the 2000 Labatt Brier would be a flop for the team, which finished with a 6–5 win–loss record out of the playoffs. A week later, Martin capped the season off by winning his third Players' Championship.
Following a failed bid to win the 2001 Alberta championship, the team then boycotted the Brier, as prominent curling teams of the day wanted to focus more on the World Curling Tour, while the Canadian Curling Association scheduled events conflicting with major WCT events. In the meantime, however, Martin still had his sights set on an Olympic championship. The team went to the 2001 Canadian Olympic Curling Trials and finished first after the round robin with a 7–2 win–loss record. That gave the team a bye to the finals, which Martin won by defeating Kerry Burtnyk with a score of 8–7.
At the 2002 Winter Olympics, Martin lost just one round robin matchup and qualified for the playoffs. In the semifinal, Martin knocked off Sweden's Peja Lindholm by a score of 6–4, breaking a long losing streak to his main nemesis. In the final, Martin faced Norway, skipped by Pål Trulsen. Early on Martin fell behind 3–0 with Trulsen's team taking steals of 1 and 2, forcing Kevin into extremely difficult final shots due to their dominant and aggressive front end play. Team Martin steadied themselves and climbed to 5–5 with hammer going into the final end however. In the final end, Martin had a simple draw against one Norway rock to win, identical to his successful draw in the Olympic Trials final vs Kerry Burtnyk, which he missed, giving Trulsen the win with a score of 6–5. As a result, Norway clinched the gold medal, and Martin, representing Canada, won his third international silver.
Due to the boycott, Martin's rink would not win another provincial title until 2006. In the meantime, the team had amassed five Grand Slam titles and won the 2005 Canada Cup of Curling.
Martin played in his third Canadian Olympic Trials in 2005. The event was a disappointment for the team, which finished with a 4–5 record. However, later in the season, the team won the 2006 Alberta provincials, defeating Mark Johnson in the final. This put the team in to the 2006 Tim Hortons Brier, Martin's first Brier appearance in six years. The team finished the round robin tied in second place with an 8–3 record. However, in the page playoff 3 vs. 4 game, Martin's rink was edged by Nova Scotia's Mark Dacey 8–7. The team would later win the 2006 Canada Cup of Curling.
2006–2013 On April 26, 2006 Martin announced the breakup of his long-time, Olympic silver medallist team of lead Don Bartlett, second Carter Rycroft and third Don Walchuk. The team had disappointed at the 2005 Trials, had not won a single Grand Slam title in the 2005–06 season, and topped it off by finishing fourth at the Brier. Martin replaced Walchuk, Rycroft and Bartlett with World Junior Champion skip John Morris at third, Marc Kennedy at second and Ben Hebert at lead. His new team won the 2007 Alberta provincials, defeating Team Kevin Koe in the final, 9–7 after Team Koe fourth Blake MacDonald missed two draws to win. This sent the team to their first Brier, where they finished the round robin with an 8–3 win–loss record in second place, tied with Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador. The new team struggled at the 2007 Brier in Hamilton, and lost in the 3 vs. 4 game to Jeff Stoughton, 6–3. Despite their Brier failure, however, the season was a success on the World Curling Tour, where they won three of the four Grand Slams. During the 2006–07 and 2007–08 curling seasons, Martin and his team won an unprecedented five consecutive Grand Slams, three in the 2006–07 season and two in the 2007–08 season.