Apparently unfazed by the gaggle of onlookers on the other side of the glass, and the collection of blue and white Torch Relay-clad folks slipping about the Re/Max Centre ice, the seniors immersed in a good ol' afternoon curling game were forced into a fourth-end timeout yesterday.

After all, it's not every day the Olympic flame drops by for a fling up the ice.

In his first trip back to the St. John's Curling Club in almost two years, Mike Adam crouched into the hack and delivered the flame halfway up the ice - there was no hogline violation - during Day 15 of the Relay.

Perhaps not as folksy - but just as gimmicky - as the passing of the torch among Royal St. John's Regatta crews on Quidi Vidi Lake, and the spin through Petty Harbour in a dory Friday, the curling club stop with Adam at least brought a palpable athlete image of the pending 2010 Vancouver Olympics to St. John's.

"Torino seems like yesterday and 10 years ago, at the same time," smiled the affable Labradorian, who was a part of history three years ago when the Brad Gushue curling team won gold at the last Winter Olympics.

"Standing on that podium, with your buddies, and the Canadian anthem playing ... that moment is forever sealed in my memory."

A lot has changed since that golden, late February Friday evening three years ago. Russ Howard returned to his native New Brunswick to curl with his son, Toby McDonald - who was at yesterday's curling club ceremony - promptly retired from coaching and the Gushue team underwent a bit of an acrimonious shakeup, with Adam and Jamie Korab hooking up with Mark Noseworthy for a year after the Olympics.

Korab has since returned to the fold with Gushue and Nichols, but Adam's game is now reduced to skipping a bunch of Mountie neophytes every Thursday night in a rural Nova Scotia beer league.

He's engaged now, to Katie Greene of Mount Pearl, and the two are building a house in New Glasgow, N.S., where she's posted with the RCMP.

Next week, Adam takes on a new job, managing the John Brother MacDonald Stadium in New Glasgow.

Things couldn't be better, except ...

"We're curling for fun, which is the way it should be instead of the cutthroat competitive game," he said. "We're having a blast.

"But at the same time, I'm starting to get the competitive itch. I've had a few offers and next year I'm going to get back in the competitive game. But by no means will I ever look at the Olympics again. There will be no gold medal on my radar."

Adam was the fifth on Gushue's team during their glorious run, taking it like a man when Howard, the Hall of Fame skip, was brought aboard for the Halifax Olympic Trials, supplanting Adam at second stone.

He was the consummate team player in Halifax and in Torino, not even a hint of complaint uttered from his lips as he sat and watched from the sidelines on the world's biggest stage.

He made a token appearance, subbing for Korab in a 9-1 win over New Zealand.

Funny, but it would turn out to be a warmup for Adam as Korab was felled by what the boys dubbed, "an explosive lower body injury," unable to go for their final round-robin game against the U.S.

"Looking back, aside from the actual medal, the one lasting image I have of Torino is that game against the States," he recalled Friday, before delivering the torch after accepting it from another curler, Logy Bay's Stacie Devereaux, the Canadian junior women's champ a few years back.

"After I played against New Zealand, I thought that was it. I mean, you never want to see someone get sick. But when Jamie couldn't go, I remember everything that happened that day, right from that morning.

"And that was a big game. If we had lost, we're in tie-breakers. A win and we go directly to the medal round.

"That was my moment."

Adam, by the way, curled well, outshooting his American opponent 83 per cent to 75 as Canada won 6-3.

He still keeps in touch with his former mates, and like many is surprised they are facing a do-or-die situation at the Olympic Pre-Trials in Prince George, B.C., having to win - entering Friday's game with Quebec's Jean-Michel Menard - their remaining three games just to reach the Trials next month.

"No disrespect to the other teams, but given the season they're having, I figured they'd be a lock to at least get to the Trials," he said of Gushue, Nichols, Korab and Ryan Fry.

The torch brought back a flood of memories for Adam yesterday, in what maybe is his last official Olympic role. Regardless if Gushue goes all the way through the Pre-Trials and Trials, Adam won't be going to Vancouver.

"That whole experience is something that will never be forgotten," he said. "Here we were, good friends, a bunch of kids from Newfoundland at the world's biggest spectacle.

"And the camaraderie wasn't just amongst our team, but of the whole Canadian Olympic team. It was pretty neat to be part of all that.

"And really, how do you top that?"

Robin Short is The Telegram's Sports Editor. He can be reached by e-mail at rshort@thetelegram.com