Laurance - Striking Viking

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Billard-Index
Ausgabe 1
Dezember 2012
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Laurance
Ewa
Laurance
Ewa Laurance is one of the most successful
female pool players in the world. And yet her career
began by chance, more than thirty years ago, in a
small Swedish town. She left the town while she
was still a teenager, intending to live her dream in
America. Her dream is billiards.
S
Story und interview by Dagmar Harrold
Photos: Jerry Forsyth and Achim Gharbi
She was fourteen years old when – due more
to boredom than interest – she followed her
older brother Mats into the pool hall. There in
Gävle, the hometown of the family and the oldest community in the northern part of Sweden,
Mats meets with his friends. Originally, Ewa only
accompanied her brother to watch. Instead, this
day set the tone for her whole life.
Foto: Achim Gharbi
From this day on, Ewa becomes caught in a
maelstrom of passion, as if afflicted with a virus.
She’s a regular at the pool hall; six to ten hours
a day the pool table is now the center of her life.
Homework, friends, social life: it all becomes trivial and subordinated to her new obsession. Soon
it becomes clear: Ewa is an absolute natural.
That same year the tall, blonde teenager plays
her first major billiards-tournament and finishes
a remarkable fourth. Her first major title comes
the following year: at the age of only fifteen, Ewa
plays in the Swedish 9-ball Championship and
wins.
51 Billardmagazin Touch
„They
knew
how
stubborn
i was“
Two years later, at seventeen, she travels to Berne in Switzerland to participate in the European
Championships and comes home the winner.
That was in 1981 and from then on, the world is
at her feet: she’s asked to represent Europe at the
New York City World Championships. An incredible stepping-stone towards a worldwide career.
And so the attractive, courageous 17 year-old
sets out for the big, wide world with the dream
of playing billiards for a living. Her parents are
far from happy about her plans. „Especially my
father was very upset“, she tells Touch-Magazine.
Her parents quickly realize that Ewa‘s love for
billiards is so powerful, that they can’t keep her.
„They knew how much I loved billiards and also
how stubborn I was, so they let me follow my
dream.“
However she’s still a long way from being a billiards celebrity. „When I arrived here there wasn‘t
much going on – especially for women“, she tells
us. Ewa plays tournaments, wins titles - even the
9-ball World Championships - gets married, has
a child. Her husband is the famous pool player
Jimmy Mataya who appeared in the cult movie
„The Color of Money“, the legendary Hollywood
Movie every pool player knows inside out. Mataya has a huge influence on his wife‘s game. She is
more interested in competing with and learning
from the guys anyway.
Despite her achievements in billiards she’s still
struggling to pay the bills. Until 1988. That year
she wins the International 9-Ball Championship,
becomes 8-Ball World Champion and wins the
9-Ball US Open. She is at the height of her career,
beats all records - she is the world‘s best female
player, stays on top for years. Her winning streak
catches the attention of America‘s leading billiard table manufacturer, Brunswick Billiards. „ My
life really changed in 1988, when I signed with
Brunswick Billiards, the relationship is still ongoing today”, she says proudly. „My daughter was
just a baby and I had to support myself, and her.
That sponsorship turned out to be a great thing
for both me and for Brunswick.“ Aside from playing tournaments she started to make well visited
nationwide public appearances and trick shot
exhibitions for Brunswick and other companies.
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Ewa
„Don‘t be
intimidated by
the guys!“
Laurance
After her divorce, she marries actor and sports
commentator Mitch Laurance in 1994. They both
share great interest for billiards and later golf.
Ewa begins to work as a sports commentator on
ESPN, a renowned sports channel on American
Television, also commentating along with her
husband Mitch. She also writes a monthly column for Pool&Billiards Magazine.
Additionally, she has written four books. One
has an amusing title: „The Complete Idiot‘s Guide
to Pool & Billiards“. Her bestseller.
In 2004 a dream comes true: Ewa is one of only
six women inducted into the legendary Billiard
Congress of America‘s Hall of Fame.
In 2005, the Women‘s Trick Shot Challenge in
Las Vegas marks another victory. She defeats the
world‘s elite in women‘s billiards: Allison Fisher,
Dawn Hopkins and Gerda Hofstätter.
Ewa even does more to promote her sport.
„I was one of the players involved in creating a
joint tour association with the male players in
1990, the PBTA, with the intention of creating a
tour and promoting the game“, she tells Touch
Magazine. But a couple of years later they had
a falling out with the MPBA (Men‘s Professional
Billiard Association), „So we decided to take our
future in our own hands“. The WPBA (Women‘s
Professional Billiards Association) Classic Tour is
created in 1993. This Tour is still going today, with
national sponsorships and television.
Years later a tournament director names her
„The Striking Viking“, although she’s not a fan
of nicknames. The word ‚striking‘ offers various
possibilities of interpretation, though. „As a Swede, I wear the name proudly now,“ she says.
„The
Complete
Idiot‘sGuide to
Pool &
Billiards“
Although she still plays actively, the 48-year
old has not won an important WPBA title in the
last fourteen years. There may have been some
who thought that Ewa was already passed the
peak of her impressive career. Instead, at the beginning of this year, she surprises the crowd in
Mount Pleasant, Michigan. On January 29, she
leaves her opponents far behind at the Soaring
Eagle Casino - winning the WPBA Masters Championship 2012. The media celebrates her: „The
Striking Viking is back“!
To Ewa, this win is a special triumph since it
proves that even after more than thirty years in
billiards, she can still dominate her opponents.
Some of them are only half her age; while she
trains an average of four hours a day, they practice ten to twelve hours daily. And Ewa wants more,
as she reveals in Touch-Magazine: „I am not ready to retire yet, but I do need to set new goals
for myself. I have always performed best that
way. Perhaps shoot for the number one ranking
again...”
Ewa is a charismatic magnet in female billiard
sports. Her appealing and captivating nature
sparks people‘s interest in pool playing. Her attractiveness soon has her doing modeling jobs
and appearances in television commercials. In
1992 Ewa receives a special honor: She’s the first
pool player ever to appear on the cover of „New
York Times Magazine“.
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Billardmagazin Touch 52
EWA LAURANCE
The Interview
Touch: What do you feel was your big fascination with billiards at the young age of 14?
Laurance: I was just amazed at the difficulty
and the challenge of it. After watching and
speaking to a couple of the better players in the
poolroom, they explained what they were doing
on the table and why, and I couldn‘t believe how
much knowledge they had, and how much there
was to learn about this game...
Touch: At what point in your career were you
in the position to support yourself well as a
professional player?
Laurance: My life really changed in 1988, when
I signed with Brunswick Billiards. Before that, I
was trying to decide if I could keep playing. My
daugther was just a baby and I had to support
myself and her. That sponsorship turned out to
be a great thing for both me and for Brunswick.
The relationship is still ongoing today, 25 years
later...
Touch: Which do you think are the fundemental differences in the way men and
women play pool?
Laurance: On a professional level, I don‘t think
there is much difference anymore. I guess,
some of the men have better breaks, and are
a bit more consistent, but that‘s about it. For a
long time, there just hasn‘t been anywhere near
as many females playing seriously, but that is
changing big time. Especially in Asia, but also
in Europe and in the US. Female players have a
totally different attitude toward the game than
they did before, and simply because there are
more players, odds are that more strong players
will come forward.
Touch: Which advice would you give players
in general, especially women, if they decided
to want to become billiards professionals?
Laurance: Play because you love it. Practice
harder than anyone else (remember, that when
you aren‘t working on your game, someone else
is working on theirs.) Learn by watching videos,
reading books, take lessons. Make sure to spend
a lot of time on your fundementals. Act the part:
If you want to be a professional, act like it.
Don‘t be intimidated by the guys!
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Ewa
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Laurance
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Touch: Which of your personal characteristics
do you believe lead to your immense success?
Laurance: Dedication and being stubborn.
Touch: Have you reached all the goals you
aimed for? Is there anything more that you
want to achieve?
Laurance: I have been lucky to reach the goals I
have set for myself. It‘s been an amazing ride so
far...I have won every major in our sport, have
been ranked number one in the world, won the
Player of the Year Honors and am also inducted
in the BCA and WPBA Hall of Fame. Recently I
set another goal for myself: To win one more
tournament before I retire. I did that earlier this
year, by winning the 2012 Masters Championship. I am not ready to retire yet.
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„But we certainly
have our place
in the sport!“
Touch: Do you feel that women are furthered equally well as men within the billiards
community?
Laurance: Yes, I do. We have had a very successful Tour here in the US, something the men
have never been able to achieve. Because of
that, more women than men players are more
recognizable and many of us have sponsorships
and perform exhibitions, etc. There are still more
men than women playing the game, but we
certainly have our place in the sport.
Touch: What was the funniest moment you
had in billiards?
Laurance: Tough to choose, there been many
through the years...But one of the funniest was
when I was playing in the finals of the 1993 US
Open on Television, I made the final 9-Ball to
win the title, and jumped up in the air, and when
I did, my shoe fell off. I heard about that one for
quite a while...
Touch: Do you have any events, tournaments
or exhibitions planned in Europe or perhaps
even Germany within the near future?
Laurance: Not right now, but that may change in
the near future...
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Ewa´s Gallery
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4
5
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Billardmagazin Touch 54
1 Performing during halftime at
the Cleveland Cavalier pro basketball playoff game 2008 2 Ewa
Laurance induction into Hall of
Fame 2004 3 Interview in Barcelona,
Spain 4 Ewa playing Women‘s Trick
Shot Challenge 2005 5 Ewa with husband Mitch Laurance on ESPN 6 In
Kaiserslautern, Germany at Brunswick
Meeting October 2012(from left
to right: Mikael Kopriwa, Ewa
Laurance, Roland Murray and
Jürgen Beckmann) 7 Ewa
Laurance and Tiger Woods 8
Ewa at WPBA Masters Championship 2012 9 Induction into
Hall of Fame Karen Corr October
2012 10 Ewa playing US Open 2010
11 Winner of Women‘s Trick Shot Challenge 2005 12 Performing during halftime
at the Cleveland Cavalier pro basketball
playoff game 2008 13 Promotional poster for
TV show „Ball Breakers“ 14 Brunswick ShowPerformance
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