By Martin Cleary
Katherine Stewart-Jones is an established racer on the international women’s cross-country ski circuit.
The Chelsea, PQ, athlete has competed in 106 World Cup races, achieving a handful of results in the high teens or low 20s, has started 18 world championship races and tested herself five times at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.
But when it comes to the multi-stage Tour de Ski, which starts at the end of December and runs into early January, Stewart-Jones has only competed in that once, since her World Cup debut race in January, 2016. The 29-year-old Nakkertok Nordic Ski Club athlete did well in 2023, finishing 10th in the 15-kilometre classic mass start stage race and placing 18th overall.
Stewart-Jones, however, recently ventured into her second seven-stage Tour de Ski in Toblach and Val di Fiemme, Italy, and registered some eye-popping results, proving she’s ready to challenge for more top-10 rewards.
Before the start of her second Tour de Ski, which features an interesting blend of short and distance races using the classic and free techniques, Stewart-Jones was aiming to finish in the top-15 overall. She came as close as she could, placing 16th and was only 3.4 seconds behind 15th-place finisher Jasmi Joensuu of Finland.
Therese Johaug of Norway was the women’s 2025 Tour de Ski champion with a combined time of three hours, 46 minutes, 59 seconds. Stewart-Jones was 10:31.1 behind.
Stewart-Jones climbed to 16th overall in the final standings based on strong results in the third and fourth stages and two consistent showings in the final two stages.
In the last two of four races in Toblach, Stewart-Jones posted a best-ever World-Cup-circuit fourth in the women’s 20-kilometre interval freestyle race and followed that third-stage result with a seventh in the 15-kilometre classic pursuit.
She was only 7.58 seconds out of third place and her first World Cup medal in the 20-kilometre race.
“It makes me emotional because the last year has been really, really difficult for me,” Stewart-Jones told Sportcom. Her previous best-ever result was a 10th in a 15-kilometre classic mass start at the 2023 Tour de Ski.
“I over-trained last year and was sick all season. It really affected my confidence and this summer I had anxiety problems, so it’s great to see all the hard work behind me and finish the (2024) year with a good result.”
Stewart-Jones showed her potential to achieve top results earlier this season, but bad luck always got in the way. In stage 2 of the Tour de Ski, she broke a pole, costing her valuable time and leaving her 34th at the finish of the 15-kilometre classic mass start. In an earlier World Cup race, she encountered a ski binding problem in the exchange area, which dropped her from the top 15 at the halfway mark.
“(Last) year before Christmas, I really had some frustrating races with either skis not working or just falling off the leaders or having exchange problems. I just had a lot of problems that kept happening, but I knew I was in good shape,” she added.
“It’ll give me a bit more confidence, that’s for sure. I know the form is there and tomorrow (stage 4) at the pursuit start, I’m going to start fourth and that’s a really good place to start, so I think it’s positive.”
It certainly was positive as she was seventh in the 15-kilometre classic pursuit in stage four on New Year’s Day. She started ahead of World-Cup leader Jessie Diggins of the United States and Norway’s Heidi Weng, skied most of the race with two other skiers and dropped to seventh place, finishing 10 seconds out of sixth.
Stewart-Jones’ seventh-place pursuit result also met the second of two Nordiq Canada qualifying standards for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina, Italy.
When the skiing entered Val di Fiemme, she was 36th in the classic sprint, 15th in the 20-kilometre skiathlon and 14th in the 10-kilometre freestyle mass start, which ended with a three-kilometre mountain climb.
“I was ready for the acceleration just before the climb and I really wanted to go for a few more places overall, but in the end I finished four seconds off 15th place,” Stewart-Jones said.
“I gave it my all. If I hadn’t had my bad luck on the second stage, I’d definitely have finished in the top 15. I gave it my all and I’m happy with my result all the same.”
Gatineau’s Antoine Cyr of Skinouk finished 18th overall and was four minutes, 56.6 seconds behind winner Johannes Klaebo of Norway.
Cyr posted two solid results in the elite field, when he was ninth in the men’s 15-kilometre classic mass start in Toblach and 16th in the 20-kilometre skiathlon in Val di Fiemme.
Both Stewart-Jones and Cyr also earned performance prize money for their overall final standings. Stewart took home 3,000 Swiss francs, which is about $4,730 Canadian, while Cyr picked up 2,000 Swiss francs or $3,150 Canadian.
RACHEL HOMAN, LISA WEAGLE CLOSE AT CANADIAN MIXED DOUBLES TRIALS
A pair of former Ottawa Curling Club teammates tried to take the first step to secure a berth in mixed doubles curling for the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Milano-Cortina, but fell just short.
Rachel Homan of Beaumont, AB, whose four-person team is in the middle of its second unbelievable season, and Brendan Bottcher of Spruce Grove, AB, reached the final, while Lisa Weagle of Ottawa and John Epping of Toronto were eliminated in the semifinals.
Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant, a married couple from Calgary, were true champions at the Canadian mixed doubles curling trials in Liverpool, N.S., by going the distance undefeated at 10-0.
Peterman and Gallant scored three in the first end of the final and stole one in the second, which sparked an 8-7 decision over the late-charging team of Homan and Bottcher. Down 8-3 after six ends, Homan and Bottcher counted two in the seventh end and stole another pair in the eighth, but fell one short of forcing an extra end.
The win qualifies Peterman and Gallant for the world mixed doubles curling championship April 26 to May 3 in Fredericton, where they must have a strong finish to qualify for next year’s Olympics.
In the semifinal, Homan and Bottcher counted four in the seventh end to post an 8-6 win over Weagle and Epping. Weagle played lead on the Homan rink for a decade from 2010-11 through 2019-20.
In preliminary play, Homan and Bottcher were first in pool A at 6-1, while Weagle and Epping were second to Peterman and Gallant at 5-2 in pool B.
STRONG OTTAWA CONTINGENT AT ONTARIO WOMEN’S U18 CURLING
Ottawa and region will have five rinks at this week’s four-day Ontario U18 curling championships, which are scheduled to start Wednesday at the Mount Forest Curling Club.
Ava Acres of the RCMP Curling Club, Sarah Adair of Manotick, Katrina Frlan of Huntley and Charlotte Wilson of Rideau will compete in the women’s competition. Playing as the Ontario 2 rink, Acres was the bronze medallist at the 2024 Canadian women’s U18 championship in Ottawa.
Aaron Benning of North Grenville will represent the area in the men’s competition at the Ontario U18 championships.
OTTAWA PAIR HELP CANADA WIN THIRD GAME AT U18 HOCKEY WORLDS
A pair of defenders from Ottawa played significant roles in Canada blanking Czechia 5-0 and winning its third consecutive game at the International Ice Hockey Federation world women’s U18 championship in Vantaas, Finland.
Alex Therien of the Nepean U22 Elite team scored her first goal and point of the championship, while Kate Viel of the Ottawa U22 Elite team had two assists in the win over Czechia. Viel scored a power-play goal in Canada’s 6-2 opening victory over Slovakia.
IIHF NAMES WORLD JUNIORS MVP AWARD AFTER MURRY COSTELLO
The International Ice Hockey Federation paid tribute to long-time contributor Murray Costello of Ottawa by naming the MVP award at the recent world men’s junior hockey championship in his honour.
Jim Costello, who is Murray’s son, presented the inaugural Murray Costello World Junior Championship MVP award to United States’ forward and captain Ryan Leonard, who had five goals and five assists for the gold-medal winning team.
Murray Costello, who passed away in July, was a lifetime member of the IIHF and a member of its hall of fame. He played a significant role in the development of hockey with Hockey Canada and the IIHF.
Ottawa’s Cole Beaudoin and Oliver Bonk made it to the quarter-final round of the world juniors before falling by a goal to Czechia.
LAST, BUT CERTAINLY NOT LEAST
· Kyle Tremblay of Deep River, ON, and Shawn Matheson of Carp have been named to the Canadian para archery team for the high-performance compound and development recurve teams respectively.
· Phillips Exeter Academy offensive lineman Ewan Newton of Ottawa and Tabor Academy running back Hugo Djeumeni have been named to the All-New England Preparatory School Athletic Council team for football.
· Jack Hanratty, who coached the Canadian women’s rugby 7s team to a silver medal at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, has started his head coaching role with the University of Ottawa women’s rugby team and is looking forward to working with the Gee-Gees and “lending a hand in the rugby community in Ottawa and beyond.”
· Ottawa’s Joey Lavigne, who has been coaching alpine ski teams at the local, provincial and national levels since 1977, is the interim high-performance director at Alpine Ontario.
· Gatineau’s Julien Sale, who won the Alexander of Tunis championship in 2018 and 2019 as a member of the Rivermead Golf Club, has earned his Asian Tour card for 2025.
Martin Cleary has written about amateur sports for over 52 years. A past Canadian sportswriter of the year and Ottawa Sports Awards Lifetime Achievement in Sport Media honouree, Martin retired from full-time work at the Ottawa Citizen in 2012, but continued to write a bi-weekly “High Achievers” column for the Citizen/Sun.
When the pandemic struck, Martin created the High Achievers “Stay-Safe Edition” to provide some positive news during tough times, via his Twitter account at first and now here at OttawaSportsPages.ca.
Martin can be reached by e-mail at martincleary51@gmail.com and on Twitter @martincleary.
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