Homan sets her sights on Olympic challenge
Reigning world champion part of elite field at Autumn Gold Classic this week
Rachel Homan has won just about all there is to win, but “just” doesn’t cut it anymore.
With the Canadian Olympic curling trials upcoming in December, the three-time national and reigning world champion is hoping to make her resume complete.
Unlike the last attempt at earning an Olympic berth, this time the Ottawa-based rink feels it’s ready.
“We were a young team, got some great experiences playing in the trials four years ago,” Homan said. “We’ve come a long way in four years, learned a lot about ourselves, about each other and how we can best perform and what we need to bring to be able to beat all the top teams. We were kind of able to demonstrate that at worlds and go undefeated, so we’d like a chance to do it again, except on the Olympic stage.”
The 28-year-old and her foursome of third Emma Miskew, second Joanne Courtney and lead Lisa Weagle are part of an elite field in Calgary taking part in the 40th annual Curlers Corner Autumn Gold Classic at the Calgary Curling Club. It’s an event they previously won in 2015.
In their first match of the day, Team Homan defeated Kayla Skrlik of Calgary 3-2, getting the weekend off to a rocking start. She was to meet B.C.’s Diane Gushulak in Friday’s late draw.
Among the other early results Friday, Darcy Robertson defeated Jennifer Jones 6-4 in a battle of Winnipeg rinks, stealing one in the eighth. Robertson plays Edmonton’s Kelsey Rocque this morning at 9 a.m. Rocque scored two in the eighth to defeat Kerry Einarson of Winnipeg 6-5. The losing rinks fall to the B side.
In other A side games, American Cory Christensen beat Edmonton’s Val Sweeting 5-4, while defending Autumn Gold champ Casey Scheidegger stole one in the eighth to nip Nina Roth of Minnesota 6-5. Scheidegger and Christensen meet in another morning clash.
“There’s great competition out here,” Homan said. “Big names and also some good junior teams that are up-and-coming, so it’s great to play a variety of teams and get some good practice in this weekend.”
When Homan won her third Scotties Tournament of Hearts last February in St. Catharines, she became the youngest skip — male or female — to win that many. The first two were in 2013 and 2014, with Alison Kreviazuk at second. Old hat? Hardly.
“I think it meant the most,” the skip said. “Being able to win three Scotties, not a lot of people can say that. So it’s something we’re really proud of. We came back together as a team with a new player and we were able to win another Scotties so we were really happy about that.”
That, of course, led to representing Canada at the world championships in Beijing the following month and the Homan juggernaut motored through the entire field.
“It’s really hard and it’s cool to reflect and look back and say that we were able to go undefeated,” Homan said. “At the end of the day, we were looking for gold and however we got that we were happy with it. We really wanted to make Canada proud and so I guess going undefeated was just a little bit of icing on the cake.”
The Ontario rink, as well as six others at the Autumn Gold, have already qualified for the Roar of the Rings in two months, to be held in Homan’s back yard of Ottawa. To the victors go a chance to wear the flag and compete at the 2018 Olympic Games in PyeongChang, South Korea in February.
“It’s a huge plus for us, having our friends and families being able to cheer us on in one of the biggest tournaments of our careers,” Homan said. “So we’re excited to be able to be at home for that.
“We’ve had four years now to figure out what works for us and what doesn’t,” she added. “The last season was great preparation leading into China, overseas, working on a lot of different things that can go against you, like jet lag. Just figuring out how we prepare for that.”