After his team came up short qualifying for Olympic Trials in late January, Pete Fenson was noticeably absent from the finals of curling's 2010 Olympic Trials. He was there, but rather than skipping his own team, the 2006 Olympic bronze medalist was an alternate and coach for Team Greg Romaniuk, where his friend Doug Pottinger plays lead.

"(Doug) phoned me up and asked if I'd come along (with Team Romaniuk) as an alternate-slash-quasi-coach and help them out as much as I could," Fenson explained. "I didn't expect a whole lot of ice time. I was along for what they needed."

When Romaniuk's team failed to make the play-offs and finals at Olympic Trials, Fenson watched the action from the sidelines.

Team Fenson had high hopes of qualifying for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. But in the Challenge Round, held Jan. 28-Feb. 1 in Bismarck, N.D., Team Fenson came up one game short, finishing fifth. The top four teams advanced to the Olympic Trials, held in Broomfield, Colo., Feb. 21-28.

"We're obviously disappointed," Fenson is quoted as saying in an Associated Press story on ESPN.com. "We expected not only to go (to trials), but to be one of the teams to beat to qualify. ... We put ourselves in that situation. We lost more games than we expected to lose."

Fenson said that his team hadn't been playing particularly well before the loss.

"It's hard to put our finger on why not," he said. "If we knew what it was, we would have fixed it."

So does the Olympic medalist plan to try again in 2014?

"I'm only 41," Fenson said after the finals of Olympic Trials. "I feel like I've still got one good one left in me."

"Curling is a game you can play at a high level for a long time," he added, pointing out that Mark Haluptzok, who played in the Olympic Trials finals on Team George, is 57. "As long as I can keep myself interested, I'll probably play it."

No matter what he decides, Fenson indicated that he might take off next year. He owns two Dave's Pizza restaurants - one in his hometown of Bemidji and another one 100 miles away in Brainerd, Minn. - and he also misses his family.

"I have two boys at home," he said. "They're 14 and 9. They deserve a little more of my time."