LEFT OUT IN THE COLD
Homan rink in shock after historic podium shutout
Team Canada’s Rachel Homan leaves the ice Wednesday morning After falling 6-5 to Great Britain. It was the Ottawa rink’s fifth loss, eliminating A Canadian Curling team from medal Contention for the first time since the sport’s return to the Olympics in 1998. Follow our Games coverage on and online at ottawacitizen.com.
In the end, there were just too many mistakes, too many half shots and too much indecision for Rachel Homan’s team to be successful at the Olympics.
As a result, the Canadian women are going home without a medal for the first time ever in Olympic curling competition.
Homan’s team fell to a jaw-dropping record of 3-5 on Wednesday morning with a 6-5 loss to Great Britain’s Eve Muirhead.
Like a dagger to the heart, Muirhead sealed Canada’s fate by scoring two points in the 10th end for the victory.
“I’m just a little bit disappointed,” said Homan, who curls out of Ottawa with Emma Miskew, Joanne Courtney and Lisa Weagle. “We wanted to try to make the playoffs for Canada. But we gave it all we had, we never gave up and that’s the way it goes sometimes with sport.”
The Canadians started with three straight losses at the Gangneung Curling Centre, bounced back to win their next three, but reverted to their struggles in their last two games, falling to China and Great Britain.
Not only did they not make it to the podium, they didn’t even make the playoffs.
Nobody would have predicted this for the defending world women’s curling champions, for a country that has won five medals in five tries in women’s curling at the Olympics, including gold in 2014. Nobody would have predicted this for a country that has 11 medals (six gold) in 11 events — including in mixed doubles curling this year — since the sport became part of the Olympics in 1998.
There had to be a first time, eventually.
It just didn’t seem likely that it would happen this year, to this team.
“We were just getting everyone’s best game and that’s what happens when you’re the world champs,” Miskew said.
“Every team was making a ton of shots against us. Every single team that was here earned their right to be here and they ’re amazing teams. They all play on tour with the Canadian teams and they beat the Canadian teams very often.”
That statement from Miskew could raise a question about how Canada selects its curling representatives for the Olympics.
Most of the teams in the Olympic curling competition have known for a long time that they would be coming here and have been training accordingly, largely by playing on the grand slam tour in Canada.
Meanwhile, Homan and Co., have only known since December, when they won the Canadian Olympic trials, that they would be coming here. Since that time they’ve changed alternate players (from Cheryl Kreviazuk to Cheryl Bernard) and have had a new coach (national team coach Renée Sonnenberg) added into their mix.
Perhaps, when coming to play against a field this good — it’s fair to say the world has caught up to Canada in women’s curling — that eight-week period between the trials and the Olympics is not long enough.
This is not to provide an excuse for the Homan team. They simply did not perform well enough in the Olympics. All the other teams that came through the same process before them did manage to reach the podium.
“This wasn’t the result we wanted to have,” Canadian lead Lisa Weagle said. “I really wanted to have a chance to fight for a medal, for my teammates and for Canada.”
Canada was in control for much of Wednesday’s game, despite a below-average performance from Homan herself, but things started to unravel in the sixth end.
Homan had the hammer and a 3-2 lead when she tried a relatively easy shot for a blank end in the sixth. But her shooter stuck around for a single point, giving the hammer back to Great Britain.
Muirhead’s team capitalized on the gift, blanking the seventh, and then scoring a deuce in the eighth to tie it at 4-4.
Muirhead then got out of trouble in the ninth with a terrific shot that could best be described as a double-raise-double. Homan had to draw for one point to take a 5-4 lead and give back the hammer for the 10th.
The 10th was a disaster for Canada as Great Britain was lying three before Miskew even threw her third stones. On her first shot, Miskew’s draw attempt ticked a guard and Great Britain was able to bring another rock into the house to lie four.
Facing an almost impossible situation, with a Great Britain rock covering the button behind guards, Homan tried to draw her last rock to the back of the four-foot to cut the score down to one point, but it came up light.
“We had control of the game the whole way but we didn’t put our rocks in the right spot in nine and we didn’t put our rocks in the right spot in 10,” said Homan, whose team also lost 7-5 to China on Tuesday afternoon to fall to 3-4.
Homan struggled to find draw weight throughout the week and wound up curling 77 per cent overall and just 72 per cent on draws. She often attempted higher-difficulty takeouts, throwing upweight shots, rather than trying the touch draws that are necessary to win big events.
We gave it all we had, we never gave up and that’s the way it goes sometimes with sport.