Multi-sport athlete steps into Cheryl’s shoes
Former curling competitor and budding triathlete Joanne Courtney is returning to television coverage of the Roaring Game.
But she won’t be stuck in a glass-paneled closet.
Courtney will join Canada’s The Sports Network for national coverage of the Canadian women’s curling championship, the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, which kicks off Feb. 17 from Kamloops, B.C.
Courtney’s previous television gig came for CBC during the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games. No domestic commentary crews were allowed on site due to China’s COVID-19 policies, which left Courtney and her fellow commentators stuck in cramped broadcast booths at CBC headquarters in Toronto.
The 2018 Olympian echoed a TSN news release with a TikTok-style video on her social media feeds.
The first female analyst position has been vacant since 2010 Olympian Cheryl Bernard left to focus on her full-time role in charge of Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in Calgary.
Cathy Gauthier, who usually handles morning draws with play-by-play commentator Bryan Mudryk and makes “desk” appearances during other draws, handled all the draws for TSN’s coverage of the PointsBet Invitational in September.
It remains to be seen where Gauthier and Courtney end up, as play-by-play commentator Vic Rauter and male analyst Russ Howard have historically worked the afternoon and evening draws.
TSN’s curling coverage will continue with the men’s championship, the Brier, beginning Mar. 3 in London, Ont.
