Canadian curler E.J. Harnden to retire from competition at end of season

Canadian curler and Olympic champion E.J. Harnden is calling it a career.

Harnden announced Sunday in an Instagram post that he is playing his final full season of competitive curling.

The 42-year-old from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., currently plays second on Matt Dunstone’s Winnipeg-based team alongside his brother and lead Ryan Harnden.

The Harnden brothers won Olympic gold at the 2014 Sochi Games on a team skipped by their cousin Brad Jacobs.

Tirinzoni tops Fujisawa to win women’s curling final at HearingLife Canadian Open

SASKATOON - Switzerland's Silvana Tirinzoni defeated Japan's Satsuki Fujisawa 7-1 in the women's final at the HearingLife Canadian Open in curling action on Sunday.

Tirinzoni jumped out to a 2-0 lead after the first end before Fujisawa trimmed the deficit to one in the second.

After a scoreless third, Tirinzoni's rink scored five points across the next three ends, including a triple in the sixth.

The second-seeded Tirinzoni defeated Japan's Sayaka Yoshimura 5-4 in Saturday's semifinal to advance into Sunday's final.

Schwaller to play Whyte, Fujisawa to face Tirinzoni in Grand Slam finals

SASKATOON - Yannick Schwaller of Geneva, Switzerland, punched his ticket to Sunday's final at the HearingLife Canadian Open with a 7-5 win Saturday night over John Shuster of Duluth, Minn.

Schwaller, who defeated Marc Muskatewitz of Germany 7-1 in Saturday's earlier quarterfinals, scored three in the opening end against Shuster. He went up 4-1 in the third with a single, but Shuster scored a deuce in the fourth, and stole one in the fifth to tie the game 4-4 after five ends.

But Schwaller counted two in the sixth, held Shuster to a single in the seventh, and scored one in the eighth to seal the deal in the Grand Slam of Curling competition at Merlis Belsher Place.

Schwaller will face Ross Whyte in the final after he knocked off Bruce Mouat 6-4 in an all Scotland semifinal. Whyte beat Brad Jacobs of Calgary 8-6 in Saturday's quarterfinals.

World’s first professional curling league set to throw first stone in April

The world’s first professional curling league is hoping to change the future of the sport.

The Curling Group — the owners of the Grand Slam of Curling — announced back in the spring their intentions to start the Rock League and, on Tuesday, they revealed the 30 men and 30 women from around the globe who will make up the six teams of 10 (five men and five women) who will compete.

Curling legends and competition advisors Jennifer Jones and John Morris were tasked with selecting the 60 players and splitting them into their respective groups.

“It’s been over the course of a year where we’ve gone back and forth in trying to formulate the teams with new, energizing talent, and some names that have been around for a long time,” said Jones in an interview with the Free Press.

Grand Slam of Curling continues to tweak shootout, extra end experiment

The Grand Slam of Curling continues to tinker with a draw-to-the-button shootout to replace extra ends, but the latter is making a comeback in Saskatoon this week.

A shootout was implemented for the preliminary round and tiebreakers at the season-opening AMJ Masters in September, and then expanded to include playoffs in October's Co-op Tour Challenge and November's Kioti GSOC Tahoe.

The change produced dramatic moments in big games. Swedish skip Anna Hasselborg drew to the button in a women's semifinal in the Tour Challenge, but Canada's Rachel Homan covered the pinhole to advance in Nisku, Alta.

Scotland's Bruce Mouat outdrew Canada's Matt Dunstone by three millimetres to take the men's final in Tahoe.

An uninhabited Scottish isle is home to the golden granite used in Olympic curling stones

AILSA CRAIG, Scotland (AP) — If you’re looking to strike gold — silver or bronze, too — look to Ailsa Craig.

This uninhabited isle 10 miles (16 kilometers) off the coast of southwest Scotland is the source of the super-dense granite used to make curling stones for the Winter Olympics.

Jim English, co-owner of Kays Curling, took a few seconds to evaluate a boulder during a recent visit. He assessed it for big cracks and large specks on the surface.

“It’s not just a case of landing a boat and then looking for granite. There’s a particular type of granite we’re looking for,” he said in the shadow of a 19th century lighthouse that is no longer manned. “We look for ones that have got really tight surface pattern.”

Gallant Strides: Curling double duty has its advantages at the Winter Olympics

Brett Gallant will make history at the Milan Cortina Olympics when he becomes the first Canadian curler to compete in two disciplines at the same Winter Games.

It's a development that should also negate the advantage some other countries have enjoyed at previous Olympics when their athletes played in mixed doubles and four-player competitions.

Curling Canada changed its policy for this quadrennial to allow players to compete in both events. In addition to giving curlers an opportunity for two chances at the podium, it gives teams valuable insight into the ice, rocks and conditions in game scenarios.

"We would love to have our training camp on the Olympic ice ahead of the Olympics," said Team Jacobs coach Paul Webster. "Brett just gets to do that for us. So we're super excited."

With Homan’s team preparing for Games, Einarson’s rink gets Canada entry at Scotties

With Team Rachel Homan preparing for the Milan-Cortina Olympics, Team Kerri Einarson will wear Canada colours at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts next month in Mississauga, Ont.

Homan, who won a second straight Scotties crown last season, will not return to defend her title, Curling Canada said Tuesday in a statement. Einarson will instead assume the title of Team Canada at the Jan. 23-Feb. 1 playdowns since her team took silver at the 2025 national playdowns.

"We are thrilled to be wearing the (Maple Leaf) at the Scotties! It’s always an honour to represent (Canada) and we’re excited to compete in Mississauga soon," the team posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Einarson, a four-time Scotties champion from Gimli, Man., and teammates Val Sweeting, Shannon Birchard and Karlee Burgess had already earned one of three pre-qualification berths for the Scotties based on last season's rankings.

Powerhouse teams skipped by Homan and Jacobs lock up Olympic spots by winning trials

HALIFAX - Two powerhouse curling teams emerged from a tweaked playdowns format designed to send Canada's best possible representatives to the Milan-Cortina Olympics. 

Call it mission accomplished for Curling Canada.

Rachel Homan skipped her Ottawa team to the women's title and Brad Jacobs guided his Calgary rink to the men's crown at the Montana's Canadian Curling Trials over the weekend.

"At the end of the day, I think that's our two hardest-working, most dedicated teams," Curling Canada CEO Nolan Thiessen said Sunday. "And it showed."

More heartbreak for Dunstone

HALIFAX — It’s turning into a recurring nightmare for Matt Dunstone.

Make the final, lose in heartbreaking fashion, shed tears.

It happened at the 2023 Brier, again at 2025 nationals, and once more on Saturday in Halifax in the Canadian Curling Trials final.

Brad Jacobs outlasted the 30-year-old skip from Winnipeg 6-5 to sweep the best-of-three series to earn the right to wear the maple leaf at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy.

‘They are the best team’

HALIFAX — Four years ago Tracy Fleury suffered one of the most devastating losses in Canadian curling history.

Playing out of Manitoba at the time and boasting the top-ranked team, Fleury’s final stone rubbed on a guard to allow Jennifer Jones to steal a 6-5 extra-end victory to represent the country at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

The loss has hung over Fleury ever since, but on Saturday afternoon in Halifax, the weight was finally lifted. Fleury and Team Rachel Homan steamrolled Halifax’s Christina Black 12-3 to sweep the 2025 Canadian Curling Trials best-of-three final.

Fleury, who now plays third, fought back tears as she stood beside Homan, second Emma Miskew, and lead Sarah Wilkes in their newly minted Canada jackets and gold medals while the national anthem was sung.

It’s do or die for Dunstone

HALIFAX — It wasn’t always pretty, but it was certainly entertaining.

There were plenty of haymakers thrown and more than a few uncharacteristic mistakes, but when the dust settled on 10 memorable ends, it was Brad Jacobs who prevailed 9-8 over Winnipeg’s Matt Dunstone to claim Game 1 of the best-of-three series to decide the Canadian Curling Trials champion.

“There’s a lot of weird things that happen in big events, especially at the Olympic trials, and we were witness to that tonight,” said Jacobs.

Dunstone took an early beating but fought back to score a pair in the ninth to take an 8-7 advantage into the final frame. Four misses on five shots at the end handed the contest to Jacobs who didn’t have to throw his last stone.

Homan survives late push from Black

HALIFAX — With her hometown crowd roaring, Christina Black was grinning ear to ear as she slid down the ice to take her final shot.

Trailing by two with the hammer, the underdog from Halifax stared down a cluttered house that featured a narrow opening to score three to steal Game 1 of the Canadian Curling Trials from heavily favoured Rachel Homan.

But Black ran out of magic. The misfire allowed Ottawa’s Homan to escape the scare and win 5-4.

Game 2 is set for 11 a.m. CT on Saturday.

Winnipeg team advances to Olympic-qualifier final by prevailing in rematch with McEwen

HALIFAX — Twenty-four hours earlier a dejected Matt Dunstone thought he blew it.

He had just lost his third consecutive game — a 9-5 loss to fellow Winnipegger Mike McEwen — which ripped his playoff hopes at the 2025 Canadian Curling Trials in Halifax out of his hands. It looked so dire he packed up his curling gear and took it back to the hotel to get it ready for the trip home.

Fortunately for Dunstone, he had to unpack.

Brad Gushue and Kevin Koe also closed out the round-robin on Wednesday with losses, which meant the 30-year-old from Winnipeg was able to squeak into Thursday night’s semifinal as the No. 3 seed in a rematch with McEwen. It was a second life and Dunstone made the most of it by bouncing back with a clutch 9-5 victory.

An Olympic trip continues to elude curling's Einarson

Kerri Einarson has always taken care of business against Christina Black.