Photo credit: SaskTel Centre Facebook page.

By Curtis Galbraith

Olympic Curling Trials

Three Grande Prairie area curlers start chasing Olympic berth Saturday

Nov 17, 2021 | 3:26 PM

Three curlers from the Peace Region will be out on the pebbled ice when the Canadian Olympic Curling Trials start Saturday in Saskatoon.

Grande Prairie’s Cary-Anne McTaggart is the third on the Casey Scheidegger rink, one of nine women’s teams taking part.

She says it is just nice to be back playing again after a pandemic-interrupted season one year ago.

“It feels so good to be back on the ice and playing with each other. We’re such good friends, our team, we get along so well and have so much fun,” she said.

“I didn’t realize how much COVID took away from us last season, missing an entire season, until we got back this year, back onto the ice, and it’s just been a real joy just being able to play again for sure.”

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McTaggart says her team has been busy getting ready, including having team practice weekends.

“We’ve been doing a lot of off-ice training, mental work, in preparation just because in the past we’ve learned that we’ve maybe cracked a little bit under pressure,” she said.

“We’ve definitely been taking our past experiences and working on the things that we need to improve on to get better for this time around.”

Meantime, Grande Prairie’s Kristie Moore is the lead on the Scheidegger rink.

She says the trials can be a very long competition.

“I think learning how to get the most out of your body and knowing when the downtime should be and that sort of thing I think are probably the biggest things just because it’s really hard to get this kind of thing in just regular competition.”

Moore says it would be very exciting to return to the Olympics after winning a silver medal with Cheryl Bernard’s team in 2010.

“It definitely would be very different because I was blessed to go to the 2010 Games in Vancouver and to go to China where there are no foreign spectators allowed would be very different than what I experienced.”

Susan O’Connor, the alternate player with the Scheidegger rink, won silver with Moore at the 2010 Games. Coach Joan McCusker won gold with Sandra Schmirler when curling made its Olympic debut in 1998.

Also at the trials on the men’s side is Beaverlodge’s Geoff Walker, who is the lead on Brad Gushue’s team. They are one of nine men’s teams bidding to represent Canada in Beijing next February.

Team Scheidegger plays Laura Walker in its first game Saturday afternoon. Team Gushue takes on Tanner Horgan in its first game Saturday evening.