Team Rachel Homan is currently getting ready for the upcoming Milan-Cortina Olympics. Meanwhile, Team Kerri Einarson will represent Canada at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts set to take place in Mississauga, Ontario next month. Curling Canada announced that Homan, the two-time defending Scotties champion, will not be returning to defend her title. Instead, Einarson’s team will take on the role of Team Canada at the playdowns scheduled from January 23 to February 1 after securing a silver medal at the 2025 national playdowns.
Expressing their excitement, Einarson and her team shared their anticipation of donning the Canadian colors at the Scotties. The four-time Scotties champion from Gimli, Manitoba, along with her teammates Val Sweeting, Shannon Birchard, and Karlee Burgess, had already secured one of the three pre-qualification spots for the tournament based on last season’s rankings. The spot vacated by Homan’s team will be filled by the highest-ranked team that does not qualify through this season’s provincial/territorial playdowns as per Curling Canada.
In a recent best-of-three final at the Montana’s Canadian Curling Trials, Homan’s team comprising Tracy Fleury, Emma Miskew, and Sarah Wilkes emerged victorious over Christina Black’s squad from Halifax with a 2-0 scoreline. The withdrawal of Homan’s team is disappointing news for the event at Paramount Fine Foods Centre, considering the skip’s prominence in the sport and her team’s top world ranking.
Notably, Homan’s absence from the Scotties marks the first time in the event’s history that it will be held in the Greater Toronto Area. The last time the national women’s championship was hosted in the region was in 2017 in St. Catharines, Ontario, where Homan clinched her second Scotties title. Alongside Einarson and Team Kayla Skrlik of Calgary, Black will join the field as one of the pre-qualified teams.
Looking ahead, preparations are underway for Canadian curling training camps in Europe before the Winter Olympics, scheduled from February 4 to 22. The women’s curling competitions will commence on February 12 at the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium, shortly after the completion of the Scotties.
In the mixed doubles discipline, Brett Gallant and Jocelyn Peterman will represent Canada starting from February 4. Gallant, along with skip Brad Jacobs, Marc Kennedy, and Ben Hebert, will kick off their campaign on February 11. Team Jacobs, the reigning Montana’s Brier champions, is gearing up for the 2026 playdowns in St. John’s, where they will compete against teams led by Dunstone, Gushue, and McEwen.
The Brier tournament is scheduled to start on February 27, just six days after the conclusion of the men’s curling events at the Olympics.