Bubble championship a success
Take a bow, Curling Canada and all the curlers who took part in the Scotties Tournament of Hearts this year.
It was a nine-day event, played in a bubble environment during a global pandemic, and it seemingly went off without a significant hitch.
Despite rigorous testing, there were no positive COVID-19 results during the tournament, which was played at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary.
The event, played without fans in the stands, wrapped up Sunday night at Markin Macphail Arena, a Canadian champion was crowned and everyone involved was going home healthy. That gives Curling Canada confidence it can do it all over again when the Tim Hortons Brier (Canadian men’s championship) gets underway in the same location Friday.
“We brought in 105 athletes and coaches and by (Monday) morning we’re sending them all home healthy,” Curling Canada’s event director Nolan Thiessen said Sunday as the Scotties playoffs were being played.
“It’s a bit of a sigh of relief that our protocols are strong because it’s one curling bubble but it’s multiple events where we have to move people in and out a couple of times. We’ve done it here over the last 12 days or so and that’s the big piece but we know we have another 105 showing up on Tuesday or Wednesday, so we’re ready to go through the whole thing over again.”
Ontario’s Rachel Homan was playing either Team Canada’s Kerri Einarson or Alberta’s Laura Walker in the Scotties final on Sunday night.
Walker has been staying in the bubble with her fourmonth old son Liam and her husband Geoff Walker, who will play in the Brier.
She choked up on Sunday talking about the work Curling Canada has done to make all this happen.
“I think they did over 500 tests and not a single one has come back positive,” Walker said. “That’s just a testament … to all the haters out there. There was a lot of people who questioned what Curling Canada could do here and I can’t clap my hands enough for what they’ve done. The policies, the work behind the scenes, the number of hours that the staff has put in …
“I’m a little emotional about it. Thank you for putting on this event.”
Six-time champion and 16-time Scotties participant Jennifer Jones had similar sentiments, throwing kudos to Curling Canada after her team bowed out of the tournament Sunday with a tiebreaker loss to Walker.
“They’ve done an outstanding job and all the players took every precaution we could to make sure everybody stayed healthy,” Jones said. “We’re very fortunate that they took a chance and found a way to host this event and give us the ability to play. We’re very grateful for it.”
Homan was making her third straight appearance in the final — she lost in both 2019 and 2020 — and she was seeking her fourth Canadian title.
Homan competed in the event despite being eight months pregnant. Others left their families and jobs at home to travel to Calgary to participate, stay isolated in their hotel rooms when not on the ice, and then quarantine for two weeks upon returning to their home provinces.
Nova Scotia was represented by the Jill Brothers rink of the Mayflower Curling Club.
It’s fair to say a good amount of sacrifice was needed from the curlers themselves to make this happen.
“I sent a note to all the teams that have left us already to say just how appreciative we are at Curling Canada’s perspective,” Thiessen said. “Sure, we’ve done a lot of work on this over the last number of months to try to put this together but the athletes had to make a lot of sacrifices.
“Not just being here this week, but before and after. Some had to isolate from their families and some have to do 14-day quarantines when they go back home. They have to work with their bosses to make sure they can work from home for two weeks when they get back.
“That’s a big commitment and it was all done for the love of curling, which is awesome.”
While there was one illness scare early in the tournament — a member of the Northwest Territories team had a stomach issue — it did not turn out to be COVID related. Still, one of the team’s games was postponed for two days and the N.W.T. players were asked to self-isolate just in case, showing that the organizers were taking any possible threat seriously.
Thiessen believes the plan to have athletes get tested before even leaving for Calgary was helpful in getting things off on the right foot.
“We did a lot of tests and one of the big things about all those negative tests is the protocols that we put in place with our health partners for the pre-arrival seemed to work,” Thiessen said. “The pre-arrival testing and a lot of the isolation that everybody did beforehand, it just added a layer of security. People showed up healthy and all the tests came back negative because everybody in the hotel was doing their health and safety precautions, wearing masks, doing lots of hand sanitization, and it just snowballed from there. If you do the protocols and take the precautions, you can be safe.”
Overall, you have to be impressed with what Curling Canada has pulled off to create a made-for-tv championship. It was a real departure from a group that normally relies on the support of fans, who fill the stands and party in the Patch after the games to create revenue.
It was a huge undertaking to create this bubble and those involved in the planning have to be pleased with the results so far.
“We have people who are safely curling and people aren’t sick,” Thiessen said. “With everything in the past year, health and safety comes first and everybody has been healthy and we’re crowning a Canadian champion (Sunday), which is pretty great.
“It shows that what we’ve done is hopefully repeatable here for the next few events as well.”