Jennifer Jones wasn't always Canada's greatest female curler.
She didn't always know her way around a courtroom as a corporate lawyer.
And it took 10 years of trying before she became pregnant and took on another full-time job as a mother.
Long before she became a household name in the sporting world, Jones was a painfully shy little girl who used to sneak out of the daycare at St. Vital Curling Club in Winnipeg to watch her mom curl. She caught on quickly and by the time she was 11 she was ready for the ice and starting tuning up her game two years before most kids were allowed to join.
Curling gave Jones confidence and a sense of belonging and the rest, as they say, is history. She climbed the junior ranks and won three Manitoba provincial titles and one national championship before she broke through as an adult and won six national titles, two world championships and Olympic gold in 2014.
On her way to curling immortality, Jones qualified for her first of 14 Canadian women's championship in 2002. Three years later she made the shot heard around the curling world.
Speaking Wednesday morning at the fifth annual UNBC Timberwolves Legacy Breakfast at the Northern Sport Centre, Jones showed the clip of her final shot in the 2005 Scott Tournament of Hearts, a hit-and-roll from outside the house that required the inside roll to clear out the button-nudging shot rock of Ontario skip Jenn Hanna. Jones apologized for the graininess of the video but it was clear to the crowd of 400 gathered in the NSC gym what Jones did to make the shot of the century under immense pressure to score four and beat Hanna 8-6.
"That was the biggest game of my entire life, this was my dream sitting on a platter, and I didn't play very well that game, I was very disappointed," Jones said. "And then, all of sudden I had this opportunity, a shot to win. At that point in time there was probably only three or four women in the entire world who could throw enough weight to make that shot. It wasn't a shot that would be made often, but I felt so thankful I had an opportunity to win the game and make it up to my team for not playing well.
"The last thing I tell myself before a big shot is, 'well here goes nothing.' I wasn't scared to miss this, I want to make it so bad, but life will go on tomorrow. This is what we play for, you can't be scared to miss it. It's not the after-the-shot moment, it's the actual performing that we train for, and it worked out."
Jones talked about the Sochi Olympics and the security and health concerns for athletes in Russia before the Games and how she came to the decision to leave her 13-month-old daughter at home and the criticism back home that drew. Jones and her team of third Kaitlyn Lawes, second Jill Officer and lead Dawn McEwen went undefeated at 11-0 and won the gold medal.
Two weeks ago at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Sydney, N.S., it was announced that Jones topped a poll of reporters, broadcasters and national-level curlers as the greatest Canadian woman curler of all time. Jones was playing in the tournament as the Team Canada skip and she thought the late Sandra Schmirler would get the honour.
"It was very humbling, but what I attribute that to is always surrounding myself with great people, great teammates, great coaches," she said. "More importantly, never being scared to lose or scared of the outcome or the fear of failure but living in the moment and wanting to win and trying to set an example for the young people who come after us.
"Women's curling has come a long ways since I started. For us, when we first started it was always about trying to be more like the men and push our limits and I feel that gap has closed."
Jones talked about the day she thought her curling career might be over when she slipped on the ice in Switzerland and suffered a knee injury. The injury happened a year before the 2014 Olympic trials. She had her surgery to repair a torn ACL and MCL and meniscus in June 2012. During the pre-operation tests she leaned she was pregnant after a decade of trying to become a mother which meant she had to be awake for the surgery and could take no pain medication after it.
"It was honestly the hardest thing I've ever had to do," Jones said. "It was way harder than labour for me."
By the end of August that year she was back curling and in November she gave birth to her oldest daughter. Jones's husband is Brent Laing, a 12-time Brier veteran who plays second for John Epping, whose Ontario rink represented Canada at the 2018 Olympics. They have two daughters, six-year-old Isabella and two-year-old Skyla, and live in Shanty Bay, Ont., near Barrie. It's a busy life, especially during curling season, and juggling her two careers with family commitments is always a challenge.
"Everybody told me I could never be a lawyer and a successful curler, except for my mom, and I stand here today as a lawyer and an Olympic champion," Jones said. "Then when I was going to become a mom, most people wrote me off, and we won the Olympics and world championships after that. Anything is possible, and if people knock you down, don't hang out with them, just move on."
The Legacy Breakfast is UNBC's annual fundraiser to support the four Timberwolves varsity teams in soccer and basketball. Over the past five years the breakfast has brought in more than $250,000 which is used to pay tuition scholarships for the student athletes, all of whom were on hand Thursday morning to mingle with the breakfast guests as ambassadors for their respective programs.
