Homan and Morris to participate Gushue, Jones in Beijing

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Canada’s Olympic straightening groups become eventually complete

Rocks beginning traveling in Beijing in 20 weeks, however it grabbed until today for Canada to mention their best entryway. John Morris and Rachel Homan will defend the combined increases gold medal that Morris obtained in 2018 with previous teammate Kaitlyn Lawes.

Homan and Morris were among the 16 groups that were supposed to compete for Canada’s place within the Olympic contest at the national mixed doubles trials in Manitoba ahead of the occasion had been cancelled latest month. A Curling Canada-led committee spent the previous couple of days determining which duo to deliver to China, weighing factors including previous mixed-doubles efficiency alongside intercontinental profits in standard styling. Another flashy pairing within the running was reigning Scotties champ Kerri Einarson and 2014 Olympic men’s room silver medallist Brad Jacobs. There clearly was also substantial lobbying from people which dedicate on their own to mixed increases and think that should rely.

But, in conclusion, skill won out. When the objective is deliver the team using finest ceiling, then your choice committee settled on most apparent pick. Morris, 43, try a well-known Olympic performer which won a men’s silver medal once the 3rd for Kevin before you take the mixed doubles concept with Lawes in 2018. The 32-year-old Homan the most effective curlers actually ever, with three Scotties titles and a global title inside her trophy situation. And theirs is not any shotgun partnership. Homan and Morris have actually played blended doubles along since 2015. Morris turned to Lawes four years ago after Homan acquired the Canadian ladies trials, which generated the girl ineligible for Olympic mixed increases due to the straightening Canada policy prohibiting any person from contending much more than one curling occasion at the same video games.

For Lawes, she’s going to Beijing also as a member with the Jennifer Jones-skipped rink that obtained the Canadian women’s studies in won the men’s. In Gushue and Jones, Canada could have a former Olympic gold medallist at avoid in on the conventional curling competitions in Beijing.

Given that we finally understand anyone that’s playing for Canada, let us get a quick look at the three Olympic curling tournaments and precisely what the Canadian teams is experiencing:

First, let’s value the simplicity regarding the Olympic straightening competitions. All three happenings begin with a 10-team game robin, and best four advance with the semifinals. The semifinal winners wager silver. The semifinal losers play for bronze. No Page playoffs, no unusual triple-knockout brackets to discover. Easy.

In 2018, whenever mixed increases produced their Olympic introduction with an eight-team event, Morris and Lawes are a wrecking basketball. After dropping their opener to Norway, they reeled down eight directly gains to grab gold, such as a 10-3 demolition of Switzerland during the best.

The silver-medal Swiss duo of Jenny Perret and Martin Rios include back for Beijing. So could be the Norwegian pairing of Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten, have been awarded bronze following people regarding Russian personnel that beat all of them were not successful a doping examination. Besides Homan, really the only additional big-name skip mixed up in blended doubles tournament is very good Britain’s Bruce Mouat, a two-time European men’s champ just who took silver on men’s planets last year.

A large storyline in Beijing should be Homan’s make an effort to receive by herself from a disastrous exhibiting inside the women’s occasion in 2018. The girl professionals moved 4-5 and became the most important Canadian rink to overlook the playoffs from the Olympics.

The combined increases celebration becomes underway Feb. 2 at 7:05 a.m. ET, and Homan and Morris perform their unique first games that night at fling review 8:05 p.m. ET vs. britain. The semifinals take the early morning of e will be the overnight at 7:05 a.m. ET.

Canada additionally flopped within show in 2018, with Kevin Koe’s group shedding inside the semifinals to ultimate champ John Shuster of U.S. right after which acquiring upset by Switzerland into the bronze-medal online game. Before these Games, no Canadian curling professionals got actually ever neglected to victory a medal. In Pyeongchang, both traditional groups did.

For Gushue, a lot changed since the guy obtained his Olympic gold medal in Italy 16 in years past. Back then, he had been a skilled but still significantly raw child who threw 4th rocks but leaned on the renowned Russ Howard to contact video games through the 2nd place (during the formal Olympic registers, Howard is actually detailed because skip). Today Gushue is perhaps all grown up – a 41-year-old father of two that is completely in command of his craft. The guy captured three Brier titles from 2017-20 and some sort of title in ’17. Gushue took care of company given that favorite on Canadian studies in e en route to defeating Jacobs inside the final.

Your competition in Beijing should be hard. It provides Shuster, Mouat and five-time industry champ Nik Edin of Sweden, who is looking his first Olympic gold after using bronze in 2014 and silver in ’18. The event opens up Feb. 8 at 7:05 a.m. ET, when Canada face Denmark. The semis will be the morning of elizabeth is actually Feb. 18 at 1:05 a.m. ET.

Jennifer Jones are curling royalty – the champ of a record-tying six Scotties, a two-time globe champ and an Olympic silver medallist in 2014. But the girl success from the Canadian tests had been a bit of a shock. At 47, Jones was actually regarded as past their prime, & most observers ranked this lady behind Homan, Einarson therefore the red-hot Tracy Fleury. As expected, Jones missing to all of those inside the round robin. Nevertheless when the potato chips were down she emerged through, trouncing Krista McCarville in the semis before taking the last from an undefeated Fleury in an extra end.

In Beijing, Jones is against all three medallists from 2018: defending champ Anna Hasselborg of Sweden, South Korea’s Kim Eun-jung (gold) and Japan’s Satsuki Fujisawa (bronze). Addititionally there is the champ regarding the latest two industry championships – Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni – and 2013 world champ Eve Muirhead of Great Britain, whom grabbed Olympic bronze in 2014.