Team Canada was at the Prince George Golf & Curling Club Thursday morning doing a bit of warm up in preparation for the start of the BTK Tires & OK Tire World Women’s Curling Championship at CN Centre from Saturday until March 27.
Team Canada’s first game will be against Italy on Saturday at 2 p.m.
Team Canada includes Kerri Einarson, skip, Val Sweeting, third, Shannon Birchard, second and Briane Meilleur, lead, all former skips who came together to create this superpower of a team in 2018. Einarson, Birchard and Meilleur are from Manitoba and Sweeting is from Alberta.
The team felt very welcomed back in Prince George after having arrived here to participate in the Women’s World Championship in 2020 only to have it cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’re really pumped to be back here,” Birchard said. “We’re loving it so far, we’re set up really nice at the hotel and we can’t wait to get out on the arena ice.”
“We had a really warm welcome, had some really nice goodies in the room, some coupons for around town to use and we’re super excited to be here in Prince George,” Sweeting said. “We hope the fans fill the building. We hear the fans here are amazing and we’re so excited to compete here in Canada as Team Canada.”
During the 2019-2020 season, Team Einarson won The Scotties Tournament of Hearts national championship. They were unable to compete as Team Canada in the 2020 World Championship due to COVID. Team Einarson finished the 2019-2020 season ranked second in the world for a second year in a row and took the win as Team Canada for the 2021 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, which gave them the spot to represent Canada at the 2022 Women's Curling Championship here in Prince George.
When it comes to rising above the pressure of the World Women’s Curling Championship stage, these women have the experience to come through in the crunch.
“We’ve had a lot of experience in games now and that’s really helpful when we play in these big events,” Meilleur said. “We’re excited to have another chance to play at the world’s so it’s good to have that experience behind us and know what to expect and bring our ‘A’ game every game and we’re excited to get out there.”
Skip Einarson said the team is feeling very confident going into the world tournament.
“We’re very relaxed and that’s when we play our best,” Einarson said. “We’re going to embrace every single moment out there and we’re excited to put that maple leaf on our backs and perform like we can.”
Italy is Team Canada’s first opponent.
“We played Italy last year and they’re a great team,” Einarson said. “We’re going to be in for it so we know we have to bring our ‘A’ game every single game and keep building.”
She added that competing at the world championship is a very special time.
Is there a breakfast of champions to start their day off right?
“There are cookies of champions that were sent our way,” Sweeting laughed. “So I’ll probably have a couple of those.”
“We listen to our pump-up tunes on the way to the arena,” Einarson said about how they prepare themselves for such a huge competition. “I’m superstitious too, so…”
She wouldn’t share her secrets so just know she’s got it covered.
As for the whole team, they spend a lot of down time together, having fun.
“That off-ice time is really special to us so we’re playing games in the room and just making it fun,” Meilleur said.
Team Canada will make sure there’s time to laugh and be kind to themselves if things go wrong, Einarson added.
“We’re going to keep it easy on ourselves and just enjoy the experience,” Einarson said.
“One game at a time,” Meilleur laughed.
