Quietly remade Jones is right on the button

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Jennifer Jones celebrates after scoring two points in the third end Sunday night. (JONATHAN HAYWARD / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

VICTORIA -- It is as though nothing -- and everything -- changed for Jennifer Jones this winter.

On the ice, it was the same story as last year as the Winnipeg skip continued to rewrite the definition of the word Jonesing, walking a high-wire once again to a second straight Canadian title Sunday night.

The urban dictionary will tell you that you are 'jonesing' when you are desperately craving a fix. The curling dictionary will tell you that you are 'Jonesing' when the fix you crave is that feeling you can only get by throwing a last rock for the win while your heart is beating like a hummingbird.

It says here that no one, ever, in the history of the women's game has been more adept at throwing last rock with everything on the line, even if it's partly because no one, ever, in the history of the women's game has been more adept at always putting herself in that situation. Practise makes perfect, after all.

And so on the ice, it was the same old Jones this year, cementing her reputation and that of her remarkable team -- third Cathy Overton-Clapham, second Jill Officer and lead Dawn Askin -- as one of the greatest teams in the history of the game with their third overall Canadian title here last night.

But perhaps just as compelling this year has been the behind-the-scenes story of Jones, a tale of a woman who very quietly -- and yet in the most public way imaginable -- remade herself.

It is as though having finally realized that she will never be able to escape the public spotlight that she so detests as long as she continues to have the success on ice that she so loves, Jones decided this winter to fully embrace it instead. If you can't beat them, join them. And Jones always hated to lose.

And so it is that we have all been witness this winter to the second coming-out of Jennifer Jones, a confident, friendly, polished and even self-deprecating Jones.

Wisely

If it seems as though Jones is suddenly everywhere lately, it is because she is. She has wisely retained the services of a public-relations helper simply to sift the myriad requests for her time that she receives almost daily. That's in contrast to B.C. curler Kelley Law, who famously retained an agent out of hubris in advance of the 2002 Olympics and then never needed one as she stumbled to bronze.

Jones has done several commercials, including one for a credit card in which she is polished, funny and, seemingly, comfortable. The organizing committees here and for the Olympic Trials in Edmonton in December have raved about her generosity and selflessness in promoting their events. She has become a regular speaker all over Canada, favouring charitable causes.

And then there is her relationship with the media. The prickly Jones who once recoiled at anything even resembling a tough question has been replaced with a smiling, laughing and confident woman who has come to accept the media as her friend, even when they're not.

She has, all week, been the first one off the ice after evening draws, mindful in a way few athletes are of the deadlines faced by sportswriters working on the West Coast. She has tracked down teammates for journalists to interview, poked fun at herself and reporters and stood in, always, until the very last question.

It's all been this winter, on the ice and off of it, a dress rehearsal for what Jones hopes will be Olympic glory at this time next year.

She's looked very comfortable in the role.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 2, 2009 C1