'She had to buy the coffee': Stranded traveller scores ride with Canadian Olympic curling champion

The thick, soupy fog hanging over Edmonton this week has been a pain for travellers and airline staff alike, but for one B.C. woman it led to a cute story she'll never forget.

Giselle Goulet lives in Victoria and on Tuesday was trying to fly to the Alberta capital to meet up with her sister before taking off for a Mexican holiday.

But low visibility due to fog meant her flights kept getting cancelled.

"However, they did say if you go to Vancouver and then to Calgary you might have a better chance," she explained to CTV News Edmonton.

So Goulet followed the advice of airline employees and caught a flight to Calgary. The problem then became a lack of cars she could rent for the drive to Edmonton.

That's when she decided to ask a complete stranger for help.

"I go up to him and I said, 'Is it OK if I get a ride?' And he said, 'Where are you going?' I said Nisku and he said sure," she recalled.

"It turns out, this fellow is Kevin Martin. And if you don’t know who he is, he’s a gold medallist in curling."

Not just any gold medal, and not just one either.

Martin skipped teams that won the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, the 2008 world championships, four Tim Hortons Briers and two Olympic curling trials.

He has a collection of other medals too and is widely considered one of the greatest curlers who ever lived.

CTV News Edmonton met up with him in Camrose, Alta.

"Can you help me? My sister and I are flying to Mexico tomorrow out of Edmonton," Martin recalled Goulet asking him.

"Of course! Sure, whatever, let's go," he told her, telling the story with a laugh. "So we went and her name is Giselle, super nice person."

With little to no knowledge of him or all of his prior briers, Goulet said she was not only ecstatic to be headed to Mexico, but also to have met a Canadian sporting legend along the way.

"It was so wonderful to meet him and a fabulous experience and I am just so grateful he was willing to help a total stranger and give her a ride," she said.

And what did Martin get in return, besides the joy of helping a fellow traveller?

"The deal was, and it was a pretty harsh deal though, she had to buy the coffee in Red Deer. That was the deal," he said with a laugh.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's David Ewasuk