HIGH ACHIEVERS: Relaxation key to Olympic success for Rachel Homan, says first coach Doug Kreviazuk

By Martin Cleary

If you study Rachel Homan’s complete curling resume, you’d think she had done it all with her posse of proficient rock stars.

Right from the start, Homan skipped her young teammates to an unprecedented four consecutive Ontario girls’ bantam titles from 2002-03 to 2005-06. During that time, she also paced her City View Curling Club rink to two Ontario Winter Games titles in 2004 and 2006, which led to a gold medal at the 2007 Canada Winter Games.

As a junior skip, Homan won two Ontario girls’ championships, reached another final and was third another year. Her provincial titles qualified her for two Canadian championships, where she reached two finals and won the 2010 title. As the national champion, she represented Canada for the first time and earned the silver medal at the 2010 world junior championship, losing to future rival Anna Hasselborg of Sweden 8-3.

Once out of junior, she exchanged shots with the best women in the country, which she had already been doing for most of her teenage years, as well as the world.

Homan has earned seven Ontario Scotties women’s championships, won five national Scotties titles out of eight finals as well as three world titles, including the final two in 2024 and 2025.

During curling’s regular season, Homan has astounded the sport by winning a record 20 Grand Slam of Curling titles in her career, which is the most collected by any women’s or men’s team. But that figure could have been much higher as she also reached 16 other Grand Slam finals and finished second.

And we can’t forget about the unbelievable dominant play by Homan and her rink during the last two seasons and to a lesser degree this season. During the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons, Team Homan produced unimaginable win-loss records of 67-7 and 75-8 respectively for a 90.4 per cent winning percentage. Add in this season’s mark of 49-12 and the percentage drops slightly to 87.6.

But then there’s the Olympic Winter Games.

Homan and the Olympics haven’t always seen eye to eye, whether it was the in-person appearance for the women’s four-player event at the 2018 PyeongChang Games, or the meeting at the 2013 and 2021 Canadian trials.

At the 2013 Canadian Olympic trials, Homan reached the playoffs with a 4-3 round-robin record, but lost to Sherry Middaugh in the semifinals. During the 2021 trials, the Homan rink finished at the bottom of the nine-team competition with a 2-6 record.

By defeating previously unbeaten Chelsea Carey to win the 2017 Canadian Olympic trials final in Ottawa, Homan qualified for the 2018 PyeongChang Games. Despite being the defending world champion at the time, Homan finished out of the playoffs at the Olympics with a sixth-place 4-5 record.

But the approach to next month’s 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics has been smooth to this point.

Read More: ‘All systems go’ as unstoppable Team Homan returns to Winter Olympics

Playing together for their fourth straight season, Homan, third Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew, who has been alongside her skip for all 24 years, lead Sarah Wilkes and alternate Rachelle Brown have a golden opportunity to break that curse with a medal performance.

At the 2025 Canadian Olympic Trials in December, Team Homan flexed its curling muscles in Halifax, winning eight of nine matches, including a sweep in the best-of-three final, to qualify for its second four-player Winter Games.

So, what has to happen for Homan and Company to make an impression at the Olympics that resembles their play under the world championship, Grand Slam or Canadian championship spotlight?

Doug Kreviazuk, who coached Homan’s first-ever team in the 2002-03 season and was co-coach with Earle Morris in 2005-06, has some advice, after closely watching her progress from afar over almost a quarter century.

“It’s about relaxing and being Rachel Homan,” said Kreviazuk, who used his coaching certification to guide Homan, Miskew, his daughter Alison and Nicole Johnston into their inaugural season, after everyone met at an east-end bowling centre.

“She’s got the package. Make sure the set up and preparation are there before going into the event. Going to an Olympics must be overwhelming. But she has been there before (as well as the 2022 mixed doubles with John Morris).

“She’s the best player in the world and has the best team in the world. Other teams are getting better, growing and challenging Canada. This has been our sport for a long time. Rachel is doing everything right. Go relax. Have fun. Enjoy the moment.”

Ever since Kreviazuk started to coach and then follow Homan’s progress, he could see she was destined for greatness. And he wasn’t shy about letting his curling peers know about his prediction.

“From a young age, she was a phenom,” he said. “Her stellar play was the talk of curling. Her ability to play the game put her years ahead of players her age. When she had that ability to throw rocks, I would put her up against anyone and she’d come out No. 1.”

Recognized today for her steely-eyed delivery coming out of the hack, Homan had that determination as a young player who threw many of her first rocks at the Navan Curling Club and then began representing the Ottawa Curling Club in 2008. Not only did she want to win, but the Cairine Wilson Secondary School grad also wanted to play above her age level and win.

Inspired to make the most of her curling career by her grandfather Gerri Homan and brother Mark, Homan and her rink of teens weren’t intimidated playing in open tournaments against some of the best women’s teams in the province. Instead, the team was motivated as it gave them opportunities to develop their games.

As young teenagers, the Homan rink was known to win women’s competitions in Kingston and London and go shot-for-shot with high-calibre teams in the province.

“Rachel was fiercely determined, fiercely competitive. I raised three daughters and, while they were competitive, Rachel had a step up on them. She always wanted to do her best and win,” said Kreviazuk, whose daughters Alison (11 years at second), Cheryl (alternate at six major events) and Lynn (four years at lead and second) played on various Homan rinks.

“The girls needed more challenges. So, we put them in women’s competition to see how they would do,” he continued. “They won the London Fall Classic back-to-back years against women’s teams from across Canada and players who had played in the Scotties (including 2024 Olympic champion Jennifer Jones).”

Homan will always say success is a team effort, but every team must have a strong leader.

“I have made loud overtures that this girl would one day be a world champion. She’s going to do something we haven’t seen. She had the package. It’s a pleasure to watch her game,” a proud Kreviazuk remarked.

By ‘the package,’ Kreviazuk meant Homan has the technical skills and the strategy to be successful on the ice.

“No. 1 is her technical ability,” he stressed. “She is truly amazing when she throws a rock with her accuracy and power. She has explosive power. She has the unique ability to throw hard and accurate. She has developed that over years, what’s the proper rotation and how hard to throw.

“No. 2 is her strategy. She’s like anyone, a continuous learner. She embraces all the new things and makes them part of her repertoire. She also gets great advice. They (teammates) give her great advice. Tracy Fleury was a great skip in her own right.”

Kreviazuk added Homan also is able to balance curling, training and fitness with her family life. Husband Shawn Germain and Homan will celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary in September. They have three children – son Ryatt Mitch, six years old; daughter Bowyn, four; and son Briggs, two.

“She is incredibly physically fit and spends an inordinate amount of time on her fitness,” Kreviazuk added. “She has the great ability to balance home and work. She could play another 10 years. It’s whether she wants to. The schedule they have is pretty gruelling and it takes away from the family.”

2026 MILANO CORTINA WINTER OLYMPIC GAMES TEAM HOMAN WOMEN’S CURLING SCHEDULE

*Homan is ranked No. 1 in the world with a 49-12 win-loss record in 2025-26

(Date, country, world ranking, opponent, time EST, opponent’s 2025-26 record, career head-to-head record)

FEB. 12 – Denmark, No. 16 Madeleine Dupont, 3:05 a.m., 48-18, 3-2 (Homan)

FEB. 13 – United States, No. 12 Tabitha Peterson, 8:05 a.m., 39-21, 12-1 (Homan)

FEB. 14 – Great Britain, No. 19 Rebecca Morrison, 3:05 a.m., 26-18, 2-0 (Homan)

FEB. 14 – Switzerland, No. 2 Silvana Tirinzoni, 1:05 p.m., 57-9, 32-10 (Homan)

FEB. 15 – Day off

FEB. 16 – China, No. 15 Wang Rui, 3:05 a.m., 28-20, 5-2 (Homan)

FEB. 16 – Japan, No. 7 Sayaka Yoshimura, 1:05 p.m., 37-29, 10-1 (Homan)

FEB. 17 – Sweden, No. 9 Anna Hasselborg, 8:05 a.m., 29-14, 20-12 (Homan)

FEB. 18 – Italy, No. 28 Stefania Constantini, 1:05 p.m., 27-25, 4-4 (tie)

FEB. 19 – South Korea, No. 3 Gim Eun-ji, 8:05 a.m., 50-24, 12-3 (Homan)

FEB. 20 – Women’s semifinals, 8:05 a.m.

FEB. 21 – Women’s bronze-medal game, 8:05 a.m.

FEB. 22 – Women’s gold-silver medal game, 5:05 a.m.