By Dan Plouffe
When it comes to team sports played on ice, Canada expects to be on top, whether that’s in hockey or in curling, where Canadians have faced increasingly challenging international competition in recent years.
Not since Ottawa’s Dawn McEwen helped Jennifer Jones’ rink to the 2018 world title in North Bay had Canada finished atop the podium in the Olympic disciplines of men’s, women’s or mixed doubles curling, and the championship drought was a decade old in wheelchair curling as well.
But there will be no need for any national inquires, after the Rachel Homan Ottawa Curling Club rink returned to the top of the world on Sunday evening in Sydney, N.S.
“Unbelievable. I can’t describe the feeling,” Homan said via Curling Canada. “The work we put in and the success we had to finish up the season (like this) means everything to us.”
The key moment in the championship win came in the ninth end, with Canada trailing Switzerland by one point. Team Homan elected to attempt a difficult finesse split shot on their final rock. Miss and Switzerland would be in the driver seat in the final end, but Homan made it to go up by two, which is how the game ended, 7-5.
“That was the game right there,” signalled Homan, whose rink won 11 consecutive games to start the world championships and then avenged their lone round robin defeat with a semi-final win over South Korea. “I’m just so proud of my team. Just a phenomenal team shot.”
Homan’s opponents in the gold medal game were coached by Gatineau’s Pierre Charette, whose Swiss team had won the last four world championships.
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It was the second world title of Homan’s career after winning her first in 2017. In contrast to their last world title in Beijing, the team enjoyed getting to celebrate with many family and friends in front of a full house of over 4,000 Canadian fans.
“They’re all part of this too,” Team Homan second Emma Miskew underlined in a Monday morning interview on TSN 1200 radio. “It was an electric crowd. I actually said after the game, I’ve never played in front of a crowd like that before. The building was sold out. They were loud. They were cheering. It was gave us goosebumps. It really helps just get you motivated.”
Teammates since some of their earliest days in curling, Miskew and Homan were the returning half of the 2017 world championship-winning lineup. Joanne Courtney and Lisa Weagle won seven years ago, while Tracy Fleury and Sarah Wilkes earned their first world titles this year.
“Everyone works so hard. I think that that’s the biggest thing,” Miskew identified as a key to success. “We don’t all live in the same city, and that can be quite difficult, but everyone puts in the work and is striving to be the best that we can be.
“We get together ahead of events to train and get on the same page from a technical perspective, and honestly, everyone trusts each other and we get along really well.”
Team Homan has amassed a 62-6 overall record this season en route to the world #1 ranking, including their fourth Scotties Tournament of Hearts national title.
“We don’t like losing,” Miskew indicated. “With every game that we did lose, we really tried to learn from it and make sure that we made an adjustment for the next game to not make the same mistakes.”
The world title put Canada on a solid path to claim a 2026 Olympic berth, with seven qualification positions to be awarded based on teams’ combined qualification points from the 2024 and 2025 world championships.
“It’s such an amazing feeling,” noted Miskew, while adding that it can be draining focusing too much on the Olympics. “We’re really trying to enjoy all of these moments and not just think about that one big event.”
The 35-year-old was proud to claim Canada’s first world title in six years.
“It’s hard. All these countries are putting forward teams that don’t miss very much,” said Miskew, who finished sixth at her Olympic debut at Beijing 2018. “We’re just gonna keep working and try to stay on top.”
Patrice Dagenais claims Paris 2024 Paralympic berth
Ottawa Stingers wheelchair rugby club player/president Patrice Dagenais and the Canadian wheelchair rugby team cruised to a berth in the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games with four comfortable victories in a row at the final Wheelchair Rugby Paralympic Qualification Tournament from Mar. 20-24 in New Zealand.
Canada beat Brazil 57-39, the Netherlands 55-35 and New Zealand 54-39 to top their pool and then downed Germany 58-41 in the semi-finals to claim one of the three available Paralympic berths. Canada lost 49-48 in overtime to Australia in the tournament final.
A Paris appearance would mark a fourth Paralympic appearance for 39-year-old Dagenais, Canada’s co-captain.
Sierra Smith closes debut season as para alpine ski guide with gold
Ottawa’s Sierra Smith guided Kalle Ericsson of Kimberley, B.C. to a gold medal Saturday at the FIS Para Alpine Ski World Cup Finals in Italy.
The Canadian pair were third after the first run of the men’s visually impaired slalom competition, and then delivered the fastest second run to move up to top spot.
“I thought we had a great plan going into the second run,” Smith said via Alpine Canada. “Kalle was right on my tail the whole way down. We kept fighting and got to the bottom with a sweet result.”
It was the sixth World Cup podium and second victory for Smith and Ericsson, who completed their first season on the circuit.
Schmidt siblings complete career-best World Cup ski cross seasons
Despite missing the last three tour stops due to injury, Ottawa’s Hannah Schmidt nevertheless earned a career-best fourth-place overall finish in the World Cup women’s ski cross standings, on the strength of three gold and two bronze medal wins earlier this season.
Britt Phelan, a past Mont-Tremblant alpine ski teammate who introduced Hannah and her brother Jared Schmidt to the ski cross discipline, placed third in the World Cup rankings, while Canadian teammate Marielle Thompson finished at the top.
Jared closed his breakout season on a high note by making consecutive small finals at the series finale in Sweden, placing seventh and sixth on Friday and Saturday. Jared, who won three races in a row in December, ranked eighth overall in the men’s World Cup standings.
Ottawa sliding trio conclude World Cup campaigns
The World Cup bobsleigh/skeleton season wrapped up on the weekend with a World Cup race in Lake Placid, NY. Ottawa’s Mimi Rahneva missed her second World Cup race of the season, but still still managed to rank 12th overall in the series standings thanks to her performances in six other races, which included gold and bronze medal wins.
Ottawa’s Pat Norton and Mike Evelyn were 17th in the two-man event in their lone World Cup appearance this season to match their result from the 2024 World Championships. Norton won four races on the North American Cup circuit this season and ranked third overall in the four-man and fourth in the two-man.
Ottawa pair helps Team Canada men’s soccer to Copa América
The Canadian men’s soccer national team secured a place in the 2024 Copa América and a date with World Cup-champion Argentina thanks to its 2-0 victory over Trinidad & Tobago in a qualification match Saturday evening in Texas. Jonathan David played the full 90 minutes for Canada, while fellow Ottawa native Theo Bair was also on Canada’s roster but did not enter the match.