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Jocelyn Peterman, Brett Gallant ready to rock mixed doubles world championship

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It has been a hectic schedule for Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant.

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He has been super busy with Brier and world business, while she has been tending to the home and kid front on her own when he’s not around — with family support, of course, that has been so vital to their curling successes.

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But they’ve declared themselves refreshed and ready for the 2025 World Mixed Curling Doubles Championship, which boasts not only a chance to claim global glory, but also qualification for themselves and Canada in the 2026 Winter Olympic Games.

A massive week, to be sure, for Calgary’s mixed-doubles royalty.

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“This one’s just a little bit special because it is kind of a two-in-one event,” Gallant said of the next eight days in Eastern Canada. “So it’s great that Jocelyn and I both have experienced the Olympic trials and the world championships before.

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“The focus for us really is on our own play,” Gallant continued. “You know … staying loose, having fun, being present and staying in that moment and just locking into the game and what we’re doing on the ice. That makes us have success on the ice. So it’s just kind of feeling grateful that we’ve experienced kind of those feelings before.”

With the week at hand, beginning Saturday and running through May 3 at Willie O’Ree Place in Fredericton, N.B., and not as much time to prepare for it like others because of the busy work, home and sport duties, Peterman and Gallant know they need to draw from past experience to make it all work.

“Yeah, we’ve played in a lot of these events before and we know that we just need to stay really present and and not be kind of focusing on those two carrots that we really want at the end of the week,” Peterman added.

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“If we’re able to stay present and be up for every single game and be able to enjoy the moment out on the ice, then that’s going to bring out the best in each other and that’s going to give us the success that we want — no matter what — to have a great week.”

WHAT’S ON THE LINE?

A world title, which would be nice, of course.

That would give Peterman and Gallant their first such treasure and a measure of redemption after losing out in the final at the 2019 worlds in Stavanger, Norway.

But most important is performing well enough to clinch their qualification for the 2026 Winter Olympic Games next February in Italy.

Heading into the world championship, Canada is in fifth place of the mixed-doubles points race for the Olympics, meaning a playoff spot earned at this event would secure them a slot for the Games.

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But with 15 countries plus host Italy making up the Olympic discipline, a top-10 finish — or thereabouts — likely would score that spot at the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympics.

WHO ARE THE TEAMS?

There’s 20 of them — that’s a pile, as Brendan Bottcher might say.

  • AUSTRALIA — Tahli Gill, Dean Hewitt
  • CANADA — Jocelyn Peterman, Brett Gallant
  • CHINA — Han Yu, Wang Zhiyu
  • CZECHIA — Julie Zelingrova, Vit Chabicovsky
  • DENMARK — Jasmin Holtermann, Henrik Holtermann
  • ESTONIA — Marie Kaldvee, Harri Lill
  • FINLAND — Lotta Immonen, Markus Sipila
  • GERMANY — Pia-Lisa Schoell, Joshua Sutor
  • ITALY — Stefania Constantini, Amos Mosaner
  • JAPAN — Chiaki Matsumura, Tanida Yasumasa
  • KOREA — Kim Kyeongae, Seong Jihoon
  • NETHERLANDS — Lisenka Bomas, Wouter Goesgens
  • NORWAY — Kristin Skaslien, Magnus Nedregotten
  • NEW ZEALAND — Jessica Smith, Ben Smith
  • SCOTLAND — Jennifer Dodds, Bruce Mouat
  • SPAIN — Oihane Otaegi, Mikel Unanue
  • SWEDEN — Anna Hasselborg, Oskar Eriksson
  • SWITZERLAND — Alina Paetz, Sven Michel
  • TÜRKIYE — Dilsat Yildiz, Bilal Omer Cakir
  • UNITED STATES — Cory Thiesse, Korey Dropkin
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“It’s a deep field,” Gallant said. “There’s multiple teams that have won this championship in the past. There’s Olympic medallists. There’s world mixed-doubles medallists.

“USA, they won just a couple years ago (in 2023). Sweden, they’re defending champs (and also won in 2019). Norway’s had a ton of success in mixed doubles, especially this team. Switzerland, they’re past winners (in 2017 and ’18) and they’re great players. Scotland, they’ve won the event before (in 2021 and ’22), and Bruce Mouat is obviously the current men’s world champ.”

Italy’s Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner were the gold medallists at 2022 Beijing Olympics while Norway’s Skaslien and Nedregotten have both a silver and a bronze from the past two Games.

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“Estonia, they’re a great mixed doubles team, the Australians are a great mixed team,” Gallant added. “It kind of goes on and on. So everybody’s talented. There’s no easy games. When we get there, we’re just going to have to stay sharp.”

WHAT’S THE FORMAT?

The 20 teams are split into two pools of 10.

Group A: Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Korea, Netherlands, Scotland, Sweden.

Group B: Australia, Czechia, Spain, Estonia, Japan, Norway, New Zealand, Switzerland, Türkiye, United States.

Each of the 20 teams have nine draws through Thursday.

The event began early Saturday, including Canada beating Germany 10-5. The Canadians then followed with a 6-4 edge of Denmark later Saturday.

The round robin continues with three days daily — at 9 a.m. ET, 1 p.m. ET and 5 p.m. ET — from Sunday through Thursday.

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Playoffs begin Friday with the top-three teams from each group earning spots …

  • The second-place teams from each group cross over to play the third-place teams in qualifying games early Friday (9 a.m. ET)
  • The two group winners, who advance directly to the late Friday semifinals (5 p.m. ET)
  • The bronze-medal game goes semifinal losers early Saturday (8:30 a.m. ET)
  • The gold-medal game between semifinal winners goes later Saturday (1 p.m. ET)

All games are live on the Curling Channel.

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WHAT’S CANADA’S SCHEDULE?

Peterman and Gallant have two-draw days every other day, beginning with Saturday’s opener.

  • Saturday: v. Germany (8 a.m. ET); v. Denmark (5 p.m. ET)
  • Sunday: v. Sweden (1 p.m. ET)
  • Monday: v. Netherlands (9 a.m. ET); v. Italy (5 p.m. ET)
  • Tuesday: v. Korea (1 p.m. ET)
  • Wednesday: v. Finland (9 a.m. ET); v. China (5 p.m. ET)
  • Thursday: v. Scotland (1 p.m. ET)

“We have played a lot of the a lot of the teams before,” Gallant said. “Maybe not multiple times, like you would the four-person teams.

“But we know a lot of the individual players really really well. We’ve played against some of them as mixed doubles pairs, too.”

tsaelhof@postmedia.com

http://www.x.com/ToddSaelhofPM

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