Brad Jacobs went through same event before winning gold in Sochi
By Devin Heroux, CBC Sports
When it comes to finding the two teams who will represent Canada in curling at the Olympics in February, the country has an embarrassment of riches on its hands.
Nowhere else in the world is the talent pool so deep that a separate tournament is held to finalize the rinks who will have the right to compete for a spot at the Winter Games. That’s right, in this curling-crazed country, there are trials just to get to the Olympic trials.
John Morris, who won Olympic gold in 2010 as the third on Kevin Martin’s team, is now trying to skip his own rink to the Games via the Canadian pre-trials. (Andrew Vaughan/Canadian Press)
Fourteen women’s and 14 men’s teams are in Summerside, P.E.I., this week to compete in their respective pre-trials tournaments (an event Curling Canada calls the “Road to the Roar”). By the end of the week, two teams of each gender will have won a spot in the Canadian Olympic trials (the “Roar of the Rings”) in Ottawa at the beginning of December.
It’s a field laden with talent, involving past national and world champions and Olympic medallists.
“You’re not going to get a team that’s not ready. Most of the teams at this event are very competitive,” says Mike Harris, a 1998 Olympic silver medallist and now colour commentator for CBC Sports.
Under the pressure
“Can these teams deal with the pressure? That’s the big question for teams that haven’t played in big events like this,” Harris says.
And should anyone scoff at the idea of a pre-trials survivor having a shot at beating the top teams who have already qualified for the trials, all you have to do is go back four years to when Brad Jacobs and John Morris both made it through the preliminary event and ended up facing each other in the trials final. Jacobs won that matchup and went on to capture Olympic gold in Sochi.
2006 Olympic bronze medallist Shannon Kleibrink hopes to get back the Canadian trials. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)
Teams to watch
Harris admits there are some teams at the pre-trials who are hoping to get hot at the right time but are probably not prepared for the pressure and intensity. On the other hand, he sees a handful of teams on both the women’s and men’s sides who have been preparing for this moment since the last Olympics.
“There are some teams that have done the hard work,” Harris says. “Do they believe? They have to… They also have to take some confidence in knowing Jacobs and Morris qualified from this event.”
Harris says the most important factor is how well teams have been playing leading up to this week.
On the women’s side, he points to Kerry Einarson, Krista McCarville, Kelsey Rocque, Sherry Middaugh and Shannon Kleibrink as skips who will be in the mix for a spot in the trials.
On the men’s side, Harris looks for John Morris, Glenn Howard, Jason Gunnlaugson and Pat Simmons to be in contention.