Brad Gushue reached the pinnacle of his sport almost 20 years ago when he stood on the top step of the Olympic podium at the Turin Games.

The last hurdle in his quest to return to Italy for the Winter Olympics starts Saturday in Halifax.

Gushue will skip one of eight men’s team entries at the Montana’s Canadian Curling Trials. An eight-team women’s field will also play down at Scotiabank Centre for the right to represent Canada at the Milan Cortina Games.

The nine-day playdowns will be held at the same venue where Gushue stunned the field to win the 2005 Trials before taking Olympic gold in 2006.

“It seems kind of nice that they’re both in the same place,” said Gushue, who plans to retire after the season. “But that doesn’t give us any advantage or mean anything when it (begins) and we

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