Friendship forged on ice leads to international curling success for Marc Kennedy and Ben Hebert

Ben Hebert has damaged a brush or two during his long, illustrious curling career. Marc Kennedy has probably never even thought of breaking his stick.

Kennedy has always been the quiet, calming influence on the ice. Hebert is a self-described psychopath.

Yet somehow the two Albertans have forged a deep friendship that has enabled them to become two of the best ever at their playing positions and that has translated into Olympic and world championship gold medals and a string of Canadian men’s curling titles.

“Yeah, we’ve been lucky to have had a lot of success together,” says Kennedy, a 44-year-old St. Albert, Alberta native who still lives in his hometown. “You know, Ben and I, it comes from a foundation of friendship.

“We’ve known each other since we were late teenagers, early 20s. You could argue we grew up together. And I think as time has gone on, we’ve really learned to appreciate each other’s differences.”

As the pair prepare to take to the ice at the 2026 Olympic Games in Cortina, Italy as part of Team Canada – along with skip Brad Jacobs and second Brett Gallant – it’s worth looking back at their incredible achievements that will ultimately put both of them into the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame.

They first got together for the 2006-07 season as members of the Kevin Martin team that went on to win the 2010 Olympic gold medal, going unbeaten in the event. With Hebert at lead and Kennedy at second, the team won back-to-back Brier titles in 2008 and 2009 and added a world championship to their resumes in 2008.

Hebert and Kennedy joined skip Kevin Koe for four seasons, winning the Brier and world championship in 2016 and making another Olympic appearance in 2018 where they finished fourth. The pair were separated for four seasons before reuniting on a newly formed team skipped by Brendan Bottcher. Jacobs took over as skip for the 2024-25 season.

“We didn’t play together for four years, and I think that’s where you really appreciate the friendship and what each other bring to the team and it’s pretty special to have him back and be able to finish our careers together,” says the 43-year-old Hebert. “We’ve changed a lot, you know, families, teams, teammates, but there’s appreciation of being able to play with someone like that your whole career. Really lucky for me.”

Hebert recalls that when they won the world and Olympic titles with Martin, the assumption was that Martin and third John Morris were the keys to success.

“At the time I didn’t know it was going to be because of Marc,” says Hebert, who has played lead his entire career. “I mean Marc showed at an early age that he was a, you know, superstar in the making. Playing second, he changed the game at second stones, what you had to be to be a second. I think everybody kind of knew during those years he was a back-end player dressed as a second.

“Then, when the opportunity was there for him to go to third stones, he did and he’s been in Olympics and won Briers at third and he’s going to do down as one of the best players ever in curling.”

While they have their differences in personalities, they have a lot more in common. Both married family men, both with strong ties to their communities and still, after more than two decades at the elite level of curling, that burning desire to succeed.

“Yeah, I want to win,” says Hebert. “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.”

Of course we want to win, agrees Kennedy, and “of course we love curling and all these things that we have in common. We definitely have some differences personality wise, attitude wise. We bring different things to the team. And I think what made us successful is realizing that we’re better together than we are apart. And you know, I think the people around us, we make them better and it’s correlated to a great dynamic, great teamwork and great friendships.

“And it’s led to a whole bunch of successes. So, I wouldn’t want to go to battle with anyone else other than Ben.”

Team Canada is an experienced Olympic team with Jacobs, Kennedy and Hebert having already won Olympic gold and Gallant winning bronze in 2022 as a member of the Brad Gushue team.

Team Canada begins its pursuit of a gold medal Wednesday evening against Marc Muskatewitz and Team Germany.