Keep calm and Carey on
Canadian skip ready for challenge at women’s world championship
CALGARY If the challenge ahead feels daunting for Chelsea Carey, she’s doing an awfully good job of hiding it.
Sure, the Calgary skip will be throwing stones at her first world curling championship this week in Swift Current, Sask. And yes, she’ll be carrying the hopes and expectations of a country that demands excellence of its curlers.
But speaking from Calgary ’s Glencoe Club on Tuesday, there was nothing to suggest Carey was only days away from the greatest challenge of her young career.
“I’ve played in Olympic trials and Canada Cups and Scotties, so it doesn’t feel all that foreign to me,” she said. “It’s just wearing the maple leaf that’s a little different.”
Given the way 2016 has gone for Carey ’s team — which includes third Amy Nixon, second Jocelyn Peterman and lead Laine Peters — there’s every reason to feel confident. Ranked No. 10 on the World Curling Tour money list, the firstyear foursome entered the Alberta playdowns as something of an underdog. Two- time defending champion Val Sweeting had been on a tear, after all, and was the clear woman to beat. Carey flipped that narrative on its head, rolling to an 8- 5 win over Sweeting in the final and booking herself a place at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
There — even with Rachel Homan’s powerhouse Ontario team missing, having been beaten in her provincial playdowns — the presence of Olympic champion Jennifer Jones meant Carey was again an underdog. But by the time the round robin ended, Carey was 9- 2 and sitting atop the standings. A couple of days later, the Albertans were national champions.
Given everything she’s won over the last two months, the 31- yearold doesn’t buy into the “inexperienced” tag.
“( There will be) ups and downs, it’s a roller- coaster,” the Winnipegborn Carey said about her expectations heading into the world championship. “But we’ve all been through it, we went through it a couple weeks at the Scotties. You’re not trying to reinvent the wheel, we know what we need to do.”
If there are any lows this week in Saskatchewan, Carey’s fortunate to be surrounded by teammates who’ve been here before: Peterman represented Canada at the 2012 world junior championship; Nixon curled to bronze with Shannon Kleibrink at the 2006 Turin Olympics; and Peters finished third at the 2012 world championship with Heather Nedohin.
None of Carey’s teammates envision a scenario in which their skip succumbs to pressure, but Peters said if she’s called upon for advice, it really won’t be all that complicated.
“Just keep calm and carry on,” she said. “I think you have to treat it like any event. It’s all about what we’re trying to accomplish in each shot, really, so if you can just narrow the focus to one shot as opposed to a whole world championship, because that can be overwhelming.”
Various factors will be working in Canada’s favour when their tournament begins Saturday afternoon against Denmark.
Playing as the home team will surely help, as will the fact the event is taking place just five hours from their home in Calgary. Today’s modern curling landscape effectively guarantees there won’t be many surprises, either, as Carey
& Co. have crossed paths on the World Curling Tour with most of the teams in Swift Current this week — from Scotland’s Eve Muirhead to Russia’s Anna Sidorova and Sweden’s Margaretha Sigfridsson.
Carey’s familiar with all of them, and that can’t hurt as her team looks to become the first Canadian rink to win world championship gold since Jennifer Jones pulled off the feat in Vernon, B. C., back in 2008.
“We play these teams at Grand Slams, so you have that,” Carey said. “It’s somewhere between a Scotties and a Grand Slam, in that the field is more international — obviously, there’s no other Canadian teams — but the atmosphere will be much closer to the Scotties. We’re actually going to use ( the Scotties in Grande Prairie), where we were Team Alberta in Alberta. It’s a great prep for being Team Canada in Canada.”