Kevin 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.[3] 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 Ferbe 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 poll of broadcasters, reporters and top curlers.
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