Homan hopes to win at home
Women’s world champ hopes to play off hometown crowd at Canadian Olympic trials
OTTAWA — She has three world championship medals, including the gold she won earlier this year, but Rachel Homan is about to do something new that ranks up there.
On Saturday, the 28-year-old will begin competition in the Canadian Olympic curling trials, in her hometown, in an arena that holds special significance for her and her teammates.
“Since we can remember, we’ve been in the stands here watching,” Homan said Friday at the Canadian Tire Centre. “Cheering on the (Ottawa Senators) or coming to concerts, watching Gord Downie a few months ago.
“It’s just a really special venue for us as the hometown team but having grown up in this rink, it’s a feeling that I’ve never felt before. I’ve been in a lot of arenas but this is a more special feeling.”
Homan’s team, which includes third Emma Miskew, second Joanne Courtney and lead Lisa Weagle, is coming off its best season. They went 10-1 in the round robin at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in St. Catharines, Ont., and then beat Manitoba’s Michelle Englot in an extra end in the final.
They then went 11-0 in the round robin at the world championship in Beijing and beat Russia’s Anna Sidorova 8-3 in the gold medal game.
The success hasn’t really carried over to this year — Team Homan ranks seventh in the Canadian Team Ranking System standings — but everything has been geared toward peaking in this event, with the most coveted prize on the line.
“I don’t think success really carries forward,” Homan said. “You have to be continually getting better as a team. This is what we prepared for — to be our best at this event. We’ve put everything we can into that.”
Homan is one of the co-favourites in the women’s draw, along with 2014 Olympic gold medallist Jennifer Jones.
On the men’s side, the clear favourite in an extremely strong field is Newfoundland’s Brad Gushue. His team not only won the Brier and the world championship earlier this year, but is the top team in the CTRS rankings this season.
“Last year is a different year but we’re also playing pretty good this year,” Gushue said. “The confidence that we have is that we know if we play as good as we can, we’re going to be there at the end of the week, not necessarily winning the event, but we will be there at playoff time.”
Gushue and his third Mark Nichols were part of Canada’s goldmedal winning squad at the Olympics in Turin in 2006. But until last year, Gushue had never won a Brier.
“It was kind of the monkey off the back,” said Gushue, a 37-year-old from St. John’s.
“It really kind of freed us up and made us feel like we can just put some icing on the cake or gravy on the fries and just go out and play.”
Interestingly, after reaching those lofty heights last season, Gushue’s first instinct was to take a step back.
“Maintaining the momentum was actually a very low priority,” Gushue said. “Really, what we tried to do over the summer was get away from it. We wanted to get away from curling as much as possible, which is a challenge when you win a world championship. A lot of people want your time and attention. We did try to shut it down until August and then we kicked it back up again. It was a long season last year and an emotional season and a fatiguing season. Getting a couple of months to relax allowed us to come in re-invigorated.”
It will be no walk in the park for Gushue. Among the other strong contenders on the men’s side of the draw are Olympic gold medallists Brad Jacobs and John Morris, three-time world medallist Kevin Koe and top tour skips Mike McEwen and Reid Carruthers.
Still, Gushue already handled the pressure of winning the Brier in his hometown last March, so this should be right in his wheelhouse.
In fact, Homan has taken some inspiration from the way Gushue embraced playing at home last year, interacting with the fans and pumping them up.
She’ll try to put that to use over the next 10 days in her hometown rink.
“It was exciting to watch him perform and steamroll a lot of teams,” Homan said. “To see him in his hometown, it was really cool to see the way they interacted with the fans. We’d like to have the same experience here.”