(by Marcel Vander Wier)
Team Canada’s curling team will face the Czech Republic in the quarter-finals at the Youth Olympics today in Austria.
The rink, which features O’Leary’s Emily Gray, won its final two games of the preliminary round on Tuesday, toppling first-place Japan 9-4 and Germany 6-4.
The wins improved Canada’s round-robin record to 5-2, and see the squad finish second behind Sweden (6-1).
Emily Gray is shown at her O’Leary home recently. She is a member of the Canadian curling team for the 2012 Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria. Transcontinental Media photo by Eric McCarthy
“Throughout the games, this sense of calmness has definitely carried, and hopefully it will last until (Wednesday) when it really matters,” she said via e-mail Tuesday.
Gray is in Innsbruck along with her parents, Randy and Shelley Gray, her grandparents, Richard and Wanda Livingstone, and her younger brother Alex.
Gray said the P.E.I. contingent is staying in brand-new apartment buildings in the athletes’ village.
“Athletes are the first ones to live in them, so the accommodations are absolutely great,” she said.