Gates girls’ relationship better than ever

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/12/2016 (3207 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Amanda Gates described her younger sister Jen as feisty.

“She’ll always stand up for herself and she’s scrappy, too,” Amanda said. “She goes for what she wants and she’s feisty.”

When presented with same question about Amanda, Jen said, “She pretty much makes any situation fun. She has a pretty good talent of doing that so I think that’s what I would choose to describe her.”

Whether fiesty or fun, Amanda and Jen are always communicating with one another, except when it comes to playing in the same marquee curling events.

That includes this week’s Home Hardware Canada Cup of Curling at Brandon’s Westman Place.

“We’re on really different schedules this week, especially, so we don’t get to talk as much,” Amanda said. “Usually when we are playing in the Slams though we try to have a dinner together because … I don’t get to see her very often and my parents come to all the events. We usually try to fit in like a family dinner one night, which is kind of nice.

“In this schedule we haven’t spoken — I don’t think — once.”

The sisters — Amanda is 30, while Jen is 26 — grew up in Sudbury, Ont., but now live in different provinces and curl on different teams.

Amanda still lives in Sudbury and throws lead stones for Tracy Fleury’s Northern Ontario rink, while Jen now calls Edmonton home and is the lead on Kelsey Rocque’s up-and-coming team.

Like typical siblings, the Gates sisters still fight but remain close even after Jen moved west. 

“She’s my best friend so we’ve definitely become a little bit closer and have a little bit better relationship now that we’re not together 24/7,” Jen said. “I think it’s been pretty good for us to have separation.”

Amanda agreed.

“Growing up being four years apart it was hard because you’re kind of that age where when I was 16 she was 12 so that’s kind of a big age gap so growing up we didn’t have necessarily the best relationship but now that we are older it’s awesome,” she said. “We’re probably best friends. We usually don’t go a week now without talking on the phone, or Skyping.

“The relationship now is much better than it was when we were younger.”

But the ultimate question is who is the better curler?

“Looking at the stats she’s definitely higher than I am right now,” Gates said with a large laugh. ”We’ve had different paths in our careers. She took more of a university route and was very successful in that route whereas I’ve been to a couple of Scotties now so different successes for both of us.”

They actually went to the 2012 Scotties Tournament of Hearts together, although Jen went as the fifth. Amanda also went in 2015 as champions of Northern Ontario.

But for the second year in a row they met up at the Canada Cup. Last year in Grande Prairie, Alta, Jen and Team Rocque got the better of Amanda and Team Fleury with an 11-8 win. On Friday, Jen again got the better of Amanda as Team Rocque clipped Team Fleury 6-5, as they finally got to share a few words with one another.

They don’t have any issues playing against one another. It’s after the games that it becomes a little more emotional.

“During and before we’re kind of in game mode and we know that we’re not going out there necessarily to beat each other but you want to win,” Amanda said “It’s after where we are going to give each other a hug, especially after we played each other at the Olympic Pre-Trials last time and we beat them out.

“That was kind of tough to beat your little sister out in an Olympic process.”

But with Rocque’s 6-5 win over Fleury, the younger Gates paid her big sister back by knocking Amanda and her team from a tiebreaker at the Canada Cup, to which a spot in the 2017 Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings Canadian Curling Trials field goes to the winning women’s team.

It’s a good thing they live apart otherwise a good-natured, fun and feisty brawl might ensue between two sisters who continue to compete for the title of best curler in the family.

» nliewicki@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @liewicks