Morris, Lawes jell as a team heading into Games
WINNIPEG — They haven’t had much time together, but Kaitlyn Lawes and John Morris feel they have really started to jell as they prepare to represent Canada in mixed doubles curling next month at the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
A day after winning the gruelling six- day trials, which saw them bounce back after losing three of their first five games, Morris said Monday he and Lawes are working well as a team.
“We had to really learn quickly how to play great together, and luckily it was a long week,” Morris said.
“We had a few losses early that we really communicated after and learned from as much as we could, and then really started to thrive and became more of a unit as the week went on.”
Morris, 39, normally teams with Rachel Homan for mixed doubles, and had to find a new partner when Homan’s foursome won the team Olympic trials last month in Ottawa.
Enter Lawes, born on the same day 10 years later than Morris, also in Winnipeg. The two had curled together before at a Continental Cup, and Morris had no hesitation about asking Lawes to join him again.
“She’s a great competitor and we both love that competitiveness and that desire to win,” he said.
This will be the second trip to the Olympics for both. Lawes won Olympic gold in 2014 as the third for Jennifer Jones. Morris, a resident of Canmore, Alta., stood on the podium in 2010 as the third for Kevin Martin’s gold- medal foursome.
Lawes said the return trip to the Olympics will be just as challenging as the first.
“It’s never easier, but it’s always a thrill and a rush to wear that Maple Leaf on your back. You never know if you’re ever going to have another opportunity to have that experience.”
The Canadian Olympic Committee also confirmed the alternates for the foursomes — three- time world champion Scott Pfeifer for the men’s and Cheryl Bernard, who skipped Canada to Olympic silver in 2010, for the women’s.