We Know More Curling Things

We know more things, on this Monday after Hallows Eve.

We know the team that’s off to the Netherlands to try and win the U.S. a mixed doubles spot in Beijing.

We know Canada has qualified for the 2022 world men’s championship, courtesy of Brendan Bottcher defeating Brazil and Mexico at the final Americas Zone Challenge ever to be hosted. This one took place in Lacombe, Alta.—one of the Bottcher team’s home facilities—and the outcome was never in doubt.

There was a nice retort issued from Team Bottcher’s social media guy, too. Like I said, the outcome was never in doubt … but the games had to be played, and everyone was there to win.

The fact the games were live streamed (because there is always live streaming) and ticket revenue boosted the host club was mere icing on the cake.

We know The Sports Network returned to air a championship—and new commercial spots—as the field is finally complete for Canada’s four-player Olympic Trials later this month.

The Pre-Trials were hosted in Liverpool, N.S. and the Trials qualifiers are Winnipeg’s Jason Gunnlaugson and Tanner Horgan of Kingston, Ont. on the men’s side, and Ontarians Krista McCarville (Thunder Bay) and Jacqueline Harrison (Dundas).

Gunner is a known quality, whereas young Horgan might confound casual curling fans. The kid from Sudbury—he’s Tracy Fleury’s brother—now skips the former Scott MacDonald squad, and they’re clearly starting to jell. The team, which has Tanner’s brother Jacob as alternate, went undefeated until the A-qualifying loss to Gunnlaugson, and then fought back to beat Glenn Howard in the second qualifying finale.

Prior to this team being created, the Horgan boys also travelled quite a bit on Tour, paying their dues as Brad Jacobs continued his stranglehold on Northern Ontario men’s curling.

McCarville’s win is no surprise, whereas Harrison’s might be. Both teams finished 5-1 in their pool and McCarville beat Harrison 9-6 in the A final for the berth. Same as Horgan, Harrison recovered and took the second qualifier with a 9-2 victory over B.C.’s Corryn Brown.

I can’t help feeling badly for the teams that missed out on qualifying. This Olympic thing only comes by every four years, and these players put so much effort into the qualifying process.

Veteran Sherry Anderson made a run, but lost the B-semi to Brown 8-5. Anderson, of course, lost the 2001 Olympic Trials final to Kelley Law.

Brown came close and she is young, which means fans will say “Oh, there’s lots of time for them, they’ll make it back.” Mackenzie Zacharias’ Winnipeg crew is also young, but their Pre-Trials playoffs were simply devastating.

In their A-qualifier match against McCarville, the youngsters led 4-1 after four ends, 5-3 after eight and 7-3 after nine. Then, disaster ... a four-banger for McCarville, and the fateful steal in the 10th end for the 8-7 McCarville win.

Probably shell shocked, the 2020 world junior champions still led Brown 4-3 on the B-side until they dropped a deuce, a steal of two and then a steal of four to lose 10-3.

On the men’s side, we now say farewell to Mike Fournier, whose 3-3 pool record wasn’t good enough for playoffs. Pat Simmons’ team impressed enough at 4-2 and beat crowd favorites Paul Flemming in the B-side quarterfinal before losing the B-semi to Howard. Tyler Tardi’s B.C. youths also fared well, losing to Howard in a B-quarter.

Which brings me to Glenn Howard. Oh so close to a remarkable sixth appearance at the Olympic Trials—seventh if you count the 1987 trials for Calgary 1988’s demonstration event—but he didn’t make it. What’s next for the 59-year-old who simply loves this game?

We also know that China won another title in Wheelchair Curling—on home ice, at the Paralympic Games venue in Beijing—by beating Sweden in the world championship final. We know Russia (still known as RCF due to the Sochi 2014 doping scandal) won the bronze over the United States.

Most importantly, we now know all the nations confirmed for the Beijing Paralympics. Canada made it in, as did Scotland, plus Latvia and Slovakia, among others. Switzerland and Estonia grabbed the 11th and 12th berths to qualify. The lineup: