A curler's broom snapped while sweeping in an opening night match at the Canadian men's national championship tournament.
It happened during the 6th end of Friday's Draw 1 match of the Montana's Brier between Newfoundland and Labrador (led by Brad Gushue) and Quebec (led by Jean-Michel Ménard). While sweeping a rock for Quebec, second Martin Crete swept so aggressively that his carbon fiber broom snapped in half. Although Crete broke his fall with his elbows, the stone was thrown off course.
we have a broken broom situation at the brier pic.twitter.com/tiyJ5jXwt3
— Sickos On Ice (@SickosOnIce) February 28, 2026
Crete (and his teammates) managed to get a good laugh out of it. He raising his broken stick in the air as he walked off the ice to give himself a moment to recover, and the crowd gave him a round of applause.
We seen broken sticks in hockey all the time, but hockey is a physical sport where the possibility of sticks breaking is much higher. You don't expect to see equipment breaking in a non-contact sport such as curling. We certainly didn't see any broken brooms at the Winter Olympics which just wrapped up in Milan.
Despite the broom snap, Quebec managed to score a point to tie the match. However, NL-G pulled away with 4 points in the 7th and 8th ends to close out the match early with a dominant 10-2 victory.
Moonlighting as a blogger to pursue my interest and enjoyment of sports. Former high school and Division I athlete (now a "retired" family man) that loves watching and discussing all sports. Follow me on Twitter (@HoldoutSports).
