Burgess eyes gold after silver streak

Karlee Burgess isn’t interested in adding to her collection of silver.

She’s reached the last three finals at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts — twice with Jennifer Jones and again last year with Kerri Einarson — and on each occasion it ended with her having to watch the opposition celebrate with gold hanging from their necks.

“I’ve had really good success at the Scotties in the past and I’m just kind of feeling like there should be a breakthrough for me here soon,” said Burgess.

“Maybe this year I break through, but if not, I’m going to continue to still dream about that and work hard at it.”

Burgess, who plays lead for Team Einarson, will try to write a different ending next week in Mississauga, Ont., at the 2026 edition of women’s curling nationals (Jan. 23-Feb. 1).

With Rachel Homan — the reigning, back-to-back champion — occupied with the Olympics and not able to defend her crown in her home province, Einarson, third Val Sweeting, second Shannon Birchard, and Burgess will play as Team Canada and, more importantly, be the favourites to end the week on top of the podium.

Being in a position like this is why Burgess, a 27-year-old Nova Scotian who now calls Winnipeg home, accepted Einarson’s offer to join the team midway through last season. Burgess, an accomplished third, held down the fort at second in early 2025 while Birchard was out with a knee injury. Now with Birchard healthy and Krysten Karwacki back to being an alternate, Burgess signed on to play lead this season despite not having any prior experience at the position.

“I’d love to get back to the back end, but being given the opportunity to play with some of the best curlers in the world, I’m super flexible and I just want to be a good teammate to the other girls,” said Burgess.

“Not a lot of people get the opportunity to play with people that have won four Canadian (titles) before, so, sign me up for whatever you guys need. I’ll be the cheerleader, I’ll be the energy on the team, and I’ll try to master myself at the lead position. I’ve been enjoying it, and it’s been kind of fun.

“I’ve played every position in my curling career at high levels and the last one is the skip so maybe that’ll come in the future.”

A year ago at this time, Burgess had only been with the Gimli-based rink for a month after leaving her previous squad that was skipped by Chelsea Carey. Before recruiting Burgess, Einarson relied on three different fill-in players — Laura Walker, Dawn McEwen and Joanne Courtney — throughout the season. She also made the difficult decision to move on from former standout lead Briane Harris who just had her provisional anti-doping ban lifted.

Despite all that, they still managed to make it to the Scotties final in Thunder Bay where they lost to Homan.

“Last year was kind of a roller-coaster and a bit of a blur. We were kind of just surviving,” said Sweeting.

“I definitely feel a lot more stable this year and Karlee’s such a treat to play with… She’s so eager to learn, and especially after playing with Jennifer Jones then playing on our team, she really embraces any opportunity to learn and get better… She’s got such a toolkit that she’s building for herself. She’s going to go a really long way in the sport.”

Team Einarson is headed to nationals on a much better note this time around. Morale is high thanks to last week in Steinbach where they played some of their best curling en route to the final of the Grand Slam’s Players’ Championship where they fell just short against Swiss powerhouse Silvana Tirinzoni.

“I think (momentum) does carry over,” said Sweeting, a 38-year-old who resides near Edmonton.

“We hadn’t made it past a quarterfinal at that point in a slam (this season) so making it back to a slam final was confidence boosting for us.”

A similar showing in Mississauga and they can earn the right to wear the maple leaf all the way to the World Women’s Curling Championship in Calgary (March 14-22). Einarson, Sweeting, and Birchard have two bronze medals to show from their three trips (would’ve been four if the 2020 event wasn’t cancelled owing to COVID-19) to the worlds.

With this being the final year of the quad, there will be no shortage of roster shakeups across the country this off-season. So, win or lose, could this be the last hurrah for this edition of the team?

“Our team hasn’t had any conversations yet. I think we’re all really focused on winning the Scotties, and being that worlds are in Canada, and in Alberta, I’d love nothing more than to play there and I feel like we have a little bit of unfinished business at worlds as well,” said Sweeting.

“So, that’s definitely our main focus right now. Maybe it’s in the back of some people’s minds, like, I’m not sure what’s next. But we’ve been through a lot together, and it would be really nice either way to win the Scotties and get back to the international stage and get the gold together.”

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