Kaitlyn Lawes to curl for Canada in mixed doubles

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This article was published 30/01/2018 (3133 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Local curler Kaitlyn Lawes is hoping to return to Winnipeg in two weeks’ time with another Olympic medal to her name.

Lawes will represent Canada in the first ever Olympic mixed doubles curling event in Pyeongchang, South Korea this February.

The 29-year-old, who won gold in women’s curling with Team Jennifer Jones at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, qualified for the competition after winning the Team Canada trials with partner John Morris of Canmore, Alta., in Portage la Prairie, Man., earlier this month. 

“To be going back for a second time just four years later and part of the first mixed doubles, it’s all been a little bit of a whirlwind, but it’s amazing and a dream come true,” Lawes told reporters gathered at the Fort Rouge Curling Club before heading to Korea.

Lawes, who hails from the Tuxedo area, has been curling as third with Jennifer Jones and teammates Jill Officer and Dawn McEwen out of the St. Vital Curling Club since 2010. Together they won the 2015 Canadian title, silver at the 2015 world championships, and have five Manitoba provincial titles on top of their Olympic gold.

In December, the Jones team lost to Ontario’s Rachel Homan in the semi-final of the Canadian Olympic trials.

“It’s going to feel different as I don’t have my girls there with me,” Lawes said of the upcoming mixed doubles competition. “But, I mean, what an honour to be part of the first ever mixed doubles in the Olympics and I can’t wait to get there.”

Canadian Olympic mixed doubles coach Jeff Stoughton, himself a former Canadian and world champion, said Lawes and Morris are still working out some kinks in their on-ice chemistry ahead of the Olympics. The qualifying trials in Portage was the first time the two had played together in years, Stoughton said.

“Whenever you put a new team together you always sort of play better at the beginning because you want to impress the other person,” said Stoughton, a Charleswood resident. “So I think we’re sort of in what we’ll call the honeymoon stage where everything is great and everything is going and I think that’s going continue on.”

Lawes said both are bringing big game experience to the Gangneung Curling Centre.

“We’ve let each other know what we need to be able to have success on the ice,” she said. “I think it’s fun to be able to have that dynamic — he’s a very talented athlete, he’s a fierce competitor and very intense but I thrive on that as well, so I think it will be a good mix.”

Lawes said she’s expecting a tough field of competitors in Pyeongchang and that there’s no clear favourite.

“I think anyone can win a medal and anyone can take home that gold, but we’re going to fight hard to try to bring it home to Canada,” she said.

Lawes and Morris will throw their first stone against Norway on Feb. 7 at 6 p.m. CST.