'We know we're capable of winning this,' say Jennifer Jones, Brent Laing of Olympic pursuit
Sport's superstar duet finds time in 'retirement' to chase Canadian mixed doubles curling trials title
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Never mind the four-person team retirement from the sport that has given them so much glory.
There’s still plenty of play — and compete — left in the on- and off-ice curling duo of superstars Brent Laing and Jennifer Jones.
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'We know we're capable of winning this,' say Jennifer Jones, Brent Laing of Olympic pursuit Back to video
And they hope it translates into Olympic fever over the next few days at the 2025 Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Trials in Liverpool, N.S.
“Yeah … this ‘retirement’ is different,” Laing said Thursday after they secured a spot in the playoff round following the final draw of the round robin at the Olympic trials. “With Jennifer doing the commentary for Sportsnet at the grand slams with The Curling Group and I’m doing the streaming commentary with The Curling Group and part-time consulting and coaching work with Team McEwen, we are still very much involved.
“But it is different not having the constant competition,” continued Laing, a three-time Brier champ and three-time world king. “And that’s part of what makes that different is for the mixed doubles. You know … I don’t get all the reps in in the men’s games anymore that I used to, and neither does Jen in her first year (of retirement). So we get a little more practice and a little less play.”
But they’re playing now — and playing well enough in Nova Scotia to make the playoff round at the mixed doubles trials, which crown a representative for the country Saturday. That duo then will have to do well enough at the 2025 world championship to qualify Canada for the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milano-Cortina, Italy.
“I think we were ready coming in,” Laing said. “I think any top athlete in any sport will tell you they always could have done more, and we say we didn’t leave any stone unturned, but it’s almost an impossibility to do absolutely everything you could do.
“We have kids, we have jobs, we have lives, and other things going on. All those things are just excuses, though. If you want to play at the top level, you got to find a way. And we’ve always kind of tended to do that. And this is no different now.”
Who’s in the playoffs?
After 14 draws of round-robin action, just six teams are left standing with hopes of representing Canada at the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Milano-Cortina, Italy …
• Jocelyn Peterman/Brett Gallant (Chestermere, Alta.) — The 2024 Canadian Mixed Doubles Championship bronze medallists make the playoffs as the only unbeaten duo in the round robin for a first-place finish in Pool B with a 7-0 record.
• Lisa Weagle/John Epping (Ottawa/Toronto) — Their 5-2 mark placed them second in Pool B action
• Jaelyn Cotter/Jim Cotter (Vernon, B.C.) — The father-daughter duo get the third and final playoff spot out of Pool B after finishing with a 4-3 record and earning the tiebreaker over defending champions Kadriana Lott and Colton Lott after a 7-5 win in their round-robin meeting.
• Brittany Tran/Rylan Kleiter (Calgary/Saskatoon) — The tandem took top-spot honours in Pool A with a 6-1 record, including the tiebreaker win over Rachel Homan and Brendan Bottcher.
• Rachel Homan/Brendan Bottcher (Beaumont, Alta./Spruce Grove, Alta.) — They wrapped up Pool A with an identical 6-1 record, but that loss to Tran and Kleiter makes them second-place finishers.
• Jennifer Jones/Brent Laing (Barrie, Ont.) — The fourth-place finishers at the 2023 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship hold onto third place in Pool A with a 4-3 mark.
How the playoffs began
The playoffs kicked off Thursday with the Page 1-2 qualifying games in cross-over competition:
• Peterman/Gallant scored threes in the first and third ends to take an early 6-1 lead on Homan/Bottcher, eventually winning 8-4.
• Weagle/Epping had a deuce in the seventh end and stole two points in the eighth and final end, defeating Tran/Kleiter 10-5.
The winners advanced to the Page 1-2 playoff Friday (6 p.m. ET, YouTube), while the losers moved into the Page 3-4 qualifying games Friday (1 p.m. ET, YouTube).
Jones/Laing seek trials win
So with the cross-over format in place, Team Jones/Laing play Tran/Kleiter in their first of what they hope is four straight playoff victories.
“We have a chair,” Laing said. “We’re in the playoffs. We have a chance. We’re not out.
“The long-range plan now is you have to win four games in a row. So it’s simple. We’re in the loser-out division. We can’t lose anymore. We know that. So every game we play, we have to win — and we’re gonna have to play four of the six teams that are still alive, and all of them are really good, so we’re gonna have to play four great games, get some breaks along the way and see where we end up.”
They know they already have received one massive break during their pool’s concluding round-robin draw on Thursday.
Needing a win to ensure their playoff berth, Jones and Laing lost 6-4 to Homan and Bottcher, but Laura Walker and Kirk Muyres also lost, 7-5 to Nancy Martin and Steve Laycock. That latter decision advanced Jones and Laing, given they finished tied with Walker and Muyres with a 4-3 record in Pool A action but owned the tiebreaker after a 9-3 win over Walker and Muyres on Wednesday.
“I think everybody that’s still alive and here at top six in Canada and in the Olympic trials now,” Laing said. “Any one of these teams could win. And you know, there are still some favourites, I think.
“But we know we’re capable of winning this,” added Laing. “It wasn’t that long ago we won the Canadian championship — just two years ago — and we’ve beaten all the teams that are here. It’s a matter of going out and doing it at the right time.
“We’ve played together for so long in mixed doubles and played so long in the regular game that all we have to do is get our technical stuff hammered away and everything else just is already kind of established with us. It’s not like a new team — we know each other fairly well.
“And like I said, nobody’s going to win this thing without some breaks. I can’t explain how the curling gods work or why they work or why sometimes you get that that little rub or you get that miss at the right time, but you need that along the way, so we got to go play as well as we can see where that see where the chips fall.”
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