Canada Ousted From Final Four in Mixed Doubles Curling

Game of inches? Nope.

Game of millimetres? Normally, yes. But not this time.

It was a game of micrometres that tossed Canada out of the playoff picture at the Water Cube in Beijing. Rachel Homan’s last draw of the last round robin game—in an extra-end—was too heavy, and teammate John Morris dropped his head in anguish at the soft “clunk” of stones that confirmed it.

The measuring stick—which adds curling to the list of sports with devices that put American football’s chained measurement sticks to shame—revealed it for the worldwide television audience: Italy won 8-7—finishing undefeated at 9-0, Sweden was in at 5-4, and Canada was out with the same 5-4 record.

“I got your back,” Morris whispered to Homan, as they stood before the media prior to a locker room retreat. He gripped her in a one-armed hug. Despite the facemasks, they were clearly despondent.

“Yeah, obviously we left it all out there,” said Homan to CBC. “We fought hard for Canada. We missed it by an eighth of an inch.”

“I had a bad feeling about it,” Morris admitted, regarding his partner’s final attempt. “I knew we couldn’t come to that backing, and it was just a super-close measure. It just wasn’t meant to be this week.”

That was pretty clear to both curling stakeholders and casual fans alike. Beijing 2022 was a sweaty grind for Canada’s mixed doubles pair right from the start (a 6-4 loss to Great Britain) and Homan and Morris had to battle nonstop. The federation that appointed them in the wake of the Olympic Trials cancellation due to COVID-19 will no doubt feel the heat, fairly or unfairly, and pressure will grow to make legacy changes to the domestic program.

“I hope Canadian curling fans understand just how hard it is at the Olympics,” Morris wrote in a blogpost. “There’s never been a better field in mixed doubles curling, and all 10 teams here couldn’t have won a gold medal. There’s zero doubt in my mind of that. All credit to Italy; they’ve played extremely well and will be hard to beat in the playoffs. But the same goes for Great Britain, Norway and Sweden.”

Homan and Morris will stick around, at least until Canada’s four-player lineups—skipped by Jennifer Jones and Brad Gushue—are confirmed with no surprise testing issues, including Lisa Weagle and Marc Kennedy in place as alternates.

On neighboring sheets, Norway (6-3) defeated Switzerland (3-6) by a 6-5 score, Great Britain (6-3) beat USA (3-6) by an 8-4 count and the Czech Republic (4-5) came back from a 6-1 deficit to score seven unanswered points against hosts China (2-7 with Australia) for an 8-6 win.

The playoffs will involve all medal winners at the last world championships—gold, silver and bronze—with Norway also the sole medal holdover from PyeongChang 2018. 

Monday night’s semifinals will see Italy battle Sweden and Norway take on Great Britain.