Six ‘Toban Olympians should medal

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This article was published 24/01/2018 (3133 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

She’s the past, present and — still just 29 years old — very much the future of women’s curling in this province.

Beginning two weeks from now, Kaitlyn Lawes will also be among Manitoba’s — and Canada’s — best medal hopes when the 2018 Winter Olympics get underway in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

“It’s all a bit of a whirlwind,” Lawes told reporters gathered at Fort Rouge Curling Club on Wednesday for what was her final media appearance before travelling to Korea.

“And also a dream come true.”

Already an Olympic gold medallist as the third for Jennifer Jones in women’s curling in Sochi in 2014, Lawes will lead a contingent of seven Manitoba Olympians to Korea. (There are also two other athletes who are headed to Korea who were born in Manitoba: mixed-doubles curler John Morris and figure skater Eric Radford, but both moved away at early ages and considering them Manitobans is a stretch).

It’s a slightly smaller than usual Manitoba delegation this time around. We sent 11 athletes to Sochi in 2014, 10 to Vancouver in 2010 and eight to both Torino in 2006 and Salt Lake City in 2002.

But what we will be lacking in slightly reduced numbers in Pyeongchang, Manitoba will more than make up with legitimate medal hopefuls.

There are two kinds of Olympic athletes: those who are just happy to get the participation ribbon and those who will be crushed with anything less than a medal.

This year’s Manitoba Olympic delegation is made up almost exclusively of the latter category.

The three women’s hockey players this province is sending — Ste. Anne’s Bailey Bram and Jocelyn Larocque and Mallard’s Brigette Lacquette — are stone-cold locks to medal in an event where Canada has won gold in each of the last four Olympics and never failed to win at least silver.

The two men’s hockey players we’re sending to Korea — Oakbank’s Quinton Howden and Morden’s Chay Genoway — will also be expected to medal for a Team Canada that most forecasters are still projecting to hit the podium even without the participation of NHLers this time around.

Lawes and her teammate (and fellow Olympic gold medallist) Morris, will be expected to medal in the fledgling discipline of mixed-doubles curling, which will make its debut in Pyeongchang as a full medal Olympic sport.

Add it all up and don’t be surprised if six of the seven Manitobans we send to the 2018 Winter Games return home a couple weeks later with medals, with speedskater Heather McLean the only Manitoban headed to Pyeongchang considered to be a medal long shot.

That would be an impressive contribution from a small prairie province that has consistently punched above its weight class when it comes to winning hardware at the Winter Olympics.

Our hockey players, from Jennifer Botterill to Jonathan Toews, have consistently played major roles on winning Canadian teams.

Our speedskaters, from Cindy Klassen to Clara Hughes, have put in hall of fame performances on behalf of Canada over the years.

With the Olympic breakthrough by the Jones foursome in Sochi and continuing with Lawes this time around, this province’s juggernaut of curlers are finally putting up results at the Olympics like they’ve been doing at the world championships for decades.

It’s all a remarkable achievement for a province that annually contributes a laughable 18 cents per person to the development of our high-performance athletes.

I visited this issue last summer during the Canada Summer Games but it’s worth revisiting again now: in a city that loves a bargain, our biggest one of all is our high-performance athletes.

For all the ridiculous expectations we place on our amateur athletes and the hand-wringing we do when they fail to perform nationally and internationally to the standard we expect, we spend infinitely more as a province supporting the billionaire ownership of the local NHL team — $13.5 million in public subsidies last year alone — than we do on the amateur athletes who actually need the help.

It tells you a lot that this province no longer has a single national-team centre based here since the Canadian women’s volleyball team packed up a couple years ago.

The harsh truth is the athletes who can move away from Manitoba, already have.

And the ones like Lawes who have remained — and succeeded — have done so despite our paltry help, not because of it.

It tells you something about her single-minded dedication to her craft that after winning the right to represent Canada in mixed-doubles curling at the Olympics earlier this month in Portage, Lawes banged off another Manitoba women’s curling title in Killarney with Jones.

Lawes told reporters she regrets she won’t be with Team Manitoba this weekend in Penticton, B.C. when the Scotties Tournament of Hearts gets underway and where Jones will be seeking her sixth Canadian title.

Lawes, you see, already has her Canada jacket for this winter. She was wearing it on Wednesday.

And hers has Olympic rings on it — again.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @PaulWiecek