HOG LINE: Olympic curling should be exciting despite lack of hype

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 31/01/2022 (1528 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

 

As I try to comprehend the fact the National Football League team I support (the Cincinnati Bengals) is headed to the Super Bowl for the first time since 1989, I was reminded by my younger brother that the curling competitions at the Winter Olympics in Beijing, China get started bright and early Wednesday morning.

Boy, that snuck up on everyone quick didn’t it.

Granted, this hasn’t been a typical lead-up to the games as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially since there haven’t been many major events since the Canadian Curling Trials in November due to the omicron variant and the regulations surrounding it.

However, the buzz around the Olympics seems way low compared to years past, though that might be because there are no National Hockey League players taking part once again.

Personally, I’m looking forward to spending a random evening freaking out over Ontario Hockey League alumni playing on the international stage, but that’s another story for another day.

Even though these games aren’t taking place at normal human hours for us here in Brandon, hopefully people do tune in, as the competition should be pretty interesting — barring a ton of lineup changes due to players having COVID-19.

Let’s begin with the mixed doubles event, which actually starts before the opening ceremonies get underway on Friday.

Although they didn’t have a trials to determine the tandem like the men’s and women’s rinks did, Canada’s squad of Rachel Homan and John Morris is a pretty darn good pair.

Morris of course is the defending champion of the event with Kaitlyn Lawes, who filled in for Homan as the three-time Scotties Tournament of Hearts champion took part in the women’s competition at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

If you remember those games, you’ll know that it left a lot to be desired for Homan, as her squad became the first Canadian rink to miss out on the medal round entirely since curling became an official medal sport in 1998.

Historically, Homan has bounced back to win her second go-around in her major event and I think she’ll be in the mix again this week.

However, that event does have some strong opponents in 2018 silver medalists Jenny Perret and Martin Rios of Switzerland, defending world champions Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat of Great Britain and the Swedish pairing of Almida de Val and Oskar Eriksson.

Eriksson will be using that event as a tune-up for the men’s competition, where he’s the third for Niklas Edin’s squad.

Edin — who might just be the best skip of all-time depending on who you ask — has come up short in his quest to win an Olympic gold during the last two games and this might be his last great chance at standing on top of the podium.

This time around, he might not be the favourite.

That honour might go to Mouat’s Great Britain rink, who won the European championships in November, pushed Edin to the limit at last year’s worlds in Calgary and took home three Grand Slam of Curling titles in the last 12 months.

Even though this is his first Winter Olympics, the 27-year-old Scottish product is at the top of his game at the moment and looks to be tough to stop.

There are a couple of other strong contenders to watch of course. Canada’s Brad Gushue won the event in 2006, Switzerland’s Peter de Cruz has been in the hunt throughout the last few years at international events and John Shuster’s American squad wants to prove that their 2018 gold medal performance was no fluke.

However, if you love drama and unpredictability, get your popcorn ready for the women’s competition.

With apologies to China’s Yu Han and Denmark’s Madeleine Dupont — who are now going to be in the final since I don’t have them in the mix — there are eight legitimate contenders that could be donning a gold medal in Beijing.

The headline acts are Canada’s Jennifer Jones and Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg, who stood on top of the podium at the last two Winter Olympics respectively and are trying to join Anette Norberg as multi-time winners.

Other than some misadventures at the World Championships in the current cycle, Hasselborg has been the team to beat on the women’s scene for the last few years, while those who bet against Jones do so at their own peril.

Plus, Lawes could win her third straight gold medal this month, which would put her in the discussions of the best curlers to ever take to the ice.

Besides those two squads, Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni has won the last two world titles, South Korea’s Eun-Jung Kim and Japan’s Satsuki Fujisawa were on the podium four years ago and Russia’s Alina Kovaleva and the United States’ Tabitha Peterson are coming off silver and bronze medal results in Calgary last spring.

Then there’s Great Britain’s Eve Muirhead — who I’m a slightly major fan of and will be rooting for all week — but that fandom will be explained another time or this column will end a 12-part series.

After a couple of years in the wilderness, the 2014 Olympic bronze medalist is back on track after winning the European championships and is coming in under the radar, despite competing in her fourth games.

If there isn’t a tiebreaker or two after the round-robin slate concludes, I’ll be stunned.

So who do I think is going to win the gold medals when it’s all said and done?

At the risk of being deported, I have Mouat capturing the men’s event, Hasselborg repeating in the women’s competition (look at me doubting Jennifer Jones like a foolish person) and the tandem of Perret and Rios edging out Homan and Morris in the mixed doubles final.

Although I don’t have Canada winning gold this time around, I expect Gushue and Jones to be legit contenders and be on the podium when it’s all said and done, especially since I don’t want to be deluged with curling is in crisis hot takes that will come from every angle if that happens for the second straight Olympics.

Though to be fair, I may be emotionally broken from the Bengals’ result in the Super Bowl by the time the curling events wrap up.

EXTRA ENDS: Curling Canada announced last week that the 2022 national wheelchair curling championship in Moose Jaw, Sask., and the U Sports and Canadian College Athletic Association championships and the national mixed doubles championships in Sudbury, Ont. had all been cancelled due to restrictions and health concerns surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. Both cities will host those same events in 2023. Curling Canada also revealed that they will be declaring their team for the 2022 world mixed doubles championships — which will be held in April in Switzerland — at a later date.