(By: Paul Wiecek)
(Oct. 27)) Winnipeg’s Cathy Overton-Clapham is playing a rare home game at home this weekend.
If that sounds confusing, that’s because so is Overton-Clapham’s life right now.
The winningest female curler in the history of Manitoba has taken her show on the road this fall, setting up shop in Alberta and curling third for Calgary’s Crystal Webster in a last-ditch effort to qualify for the Olympic curling trials that will be held at the MTS Centre in December.
RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Photo: Cathy Overton Clapham is back in her hometown, curling in the Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries Classic at Fort Rouge.
The Olympics is the only major curling event in which Overton-Clapham hasn’t played during a hall of fame career that’s seen her win five Canadian women’s championships and a world women’s championship.
And so at the age of 44 and with the window quickly closing on her Olympic aspirations, the mother of two has left behind her family in Winnipeg this fall to move to Calgary and take one final shot at Olympic glory with the Webster foursome.
“But it’s all about the Olympic trials and hopefully getting there. And we have the pre-trials next week, so we’ll see what happens.”
The pre-trials to which Overton-Clapham refers is more formally known as the Road To The Roar. It’s being held in Kitchener, Ont., Nov. 5-10 and Webster’s is one of 12 teams that will be vying to become the final two women’s teams to qualify for the Roar of the Rings in Winnipeg, where Canada’s curling representatives for the 2014 Winter Olympics will be determined.
The team also includes at second a former Canadian women’s finalist, Geri-Lynn Ramsay, who as a member of Team P.E.I. lost the final of the 2010 Scotties to Overton-Clapham when the latter was still playing with Jones.