Homan and Morris to join Gushue, Jones in Beijing

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Canada’s Olympic styling teams were finally complete

Stones beginning traveling in Beijing in 20 days, however it took until this morning for Canada to mention their best admission. John Morris and Rachel Homan will defend the blended increases gold medal that Morris won in 2018 with former teammate Kaitlyn Lawes.

Homan and Morris happened to be on the list of 16 teams that have been designed to vie for Canada’s spot into the Olympic tournament at nationwide blended doubles trials in Manitoba ahead of the occasion got terminated last thirty days. A Curling Canada-led panel spent the previous couple of months choosing which duo to transmit to China, evaluating points like recent mixed-doubles results along side worldwide achievements in old-fashioned curling. Another showy pairing inside the running got reigning Scotties champ Kerri Einarson and 2014 Olympic men’s gold medallist Brad Jacobs. There seemed to be furthermore substantial lobbying from players exactly who devote on their own to combined doubles and genuinely believe that should depend.

But, in the long run, skill claimed aside. If the goals is submit the team with the greatest ceiling, then your option panel decided from the most obvious choose. Morris, 43, was a proven Olympic musician who won a men’s silver medal while the third for Kevin before you take the mixed increases concept with Lawes in 2018. The 32-year-old Homan the most effective curlers ever before, with three Scotties titles and some sort of championship inside her trophy case. And theirs isn’t any shotgun partnership. Homan and Morris have actually played mixed doubles together since 2015. Morris turned to Lawes four years ago after Homan won the Canadian ladies tests, which generated the woman ineligible for Olympic combined increases as a result of the styling Canada coverage prohibiting people from fighting much more than one curling occasion in one Games.

As for Lawes, she is maneuvering to Beijing too as a part for the Jennifer Jones-skipped rink that claimed the Canadian ladies’ studies in won the men’s room. In Gushue and Jones, Canada could have a former Olympic silver medallist at avoid in of this traditional styling competitions in Beijing.

Since we at long last discover anyone that’s playing for Canada, let’s capture an instant look at the three Olympic curling competitions and just what Canadian teams are facing:

Initial, let us appreciate the efficiency with the Olympic straightening competitions. All three events focus on a 10-team round robin, and the best four advance into the semifinals. The semifinal champions wager silver. The semifinal losers wager bronze. No Page playoffs, no unusual triple-knockout brackets to discover. Easy.

In 2018, when mixed doubles produced the Olympic first with an eight-team show, Morris and Lawes are a wrecking baseball. After losing their own opener to Norway, they reeled off eight right victories to capture gold, such as a 10-3 demolition of Switzerland for the final.

The silver-medal Swiss duo of Jenny Perret and Martin Rios become straight back for Beijing. So will be the Norwegian pairing of Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten, who had been granted bronze following people in the Russian personnel that beat all of them unsuccessful a doping test. Besides Homan, the only additional big-name miss mixed up in combined doubles competition is very good Britain’s Bruce Mouat, a two-time European men’s room champ who took gold from the men’s room worlds a year ago.

A large storyline in Beijing should be Homan’s try to get herself from a disastrous showing into the ladies show in 2018. The lady group moved 4-5 and became the first Canadian rink to miss the playoffs in the Olympics.

The mixed increases occasion will get underway Feb. 2 at 7:05 a.m. ET, and Homan and Morris perform her earliest game that nights at 8:05 p.m. ET vs. Great Britain. The semifinals take the morning of e will be the following day at 7:05 a.m. ET.

Canada furthermore flopped inside show in 2018, with Kevin Koe’s staff losing in semifinals to ultimate winner John Shuster of this U.S. following acquiring upset by Switzerland within the bronze-medal video game. Before these Games, no Canadian styling team have ever before didn’t winnings a medal. In Pyeongchang, both old-fashioned groups did.

For Gushue, lots has evolved since the guy acquired his Olympic gold medal in Italy 16 years back. Back then, he had been a gifted but still significantly raw child who put fourth rocks but leaned on the famous Russ Howard to contact video games through the 2nd place (into the formal Olympic data, Howard was noted due to the fact avoid). Now Gushue is perhaps all grown-up – a 41-year-old daddy of two who’s completely in order of his craft. He seized three Brier brands from 2017-20 and a world title in ’17. Gushue got care of companies given that favourite within Canadian studies in e en route to beating Jacobs during the best.

Your competitors in Beijing might be hard. It includes Shuster, Mouat and five-time world champ Nik Edin of Sweden, that’s finding 1st Olympic gold after getting bronze in 2014 and gold in ’18. The contest opens up Feb. 8 at 7:05 a.m. ET, when Canada faces Denmark. The semis would be the early morning of e are Feb. 18 at 1:05 a.m. ET.

Jennifer Jones try curling royalty – the winner of a record-tying six Scotties, a two-time globe champ and an Olympic silver medallist in 2014. But their success within Canadian studies is a bit of a surprise. At 47, Jones is considered to be past this lady perfect, and a lot of observers rated the lady behind Homan, Einarson additionally the red-hot Tracy Fleury. Sure enough, Jones destroyed to all ones inside the round robin. However when the chips comprise down she came through, trouncing Krista McCarville from inside the semis before taking the last from an undefeated Fleury in an additional conclusion.

In Beijing, Jones should be up against all three medallists from 2018: defending champ Anna Hasselborg of Sweden, southern area Korea’s Kim Eun-jung (sterling silver) and Japan’s Satsuki Fujisawa (bronze). There’s also the winner with the latest two community titles – Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni – and 2013 globe champ Eve Muirhead of good Britain, who got Olympic bronze in 2014.