Mixed doubles curling: Brett Gallant eyes rare triple title take on home turf

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Brett Gallant is back on island time. That’s his island, where he learned to curl, hoping it helps him hit the rare triple in his chosen sport.

The Canadian curling star and his partner, Jocelyn Peterman, are on Prince Edward Island — Gallant’s home — aiming to capture the 2025 Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Championship, which began Sunday.

“I’m really looking forward to playing in P.E.I., where I grew up,” said Gallant, ahead of the six-day national finale in Summerside, P.E.I. “It’s a special opportunity to play in front of lots of family and friends, and I’m sure Summerside will be great hosts to the mixed doubles.”

A triumph in the Gerard ‘Turk’ Gallant Arena at Credit Union Place and the Silver Fox Entertainment Complex would give the talented Islander an amazing third Canadian title on the 2024-25 curling campaign, after winning the mixed doubles Olympic trials — with Peterman — in January and the Brier — with Team Jacobs — a week ago.

And home advantage should help Gallant, with mom Kathie, dad Peter, stepmother Leanne and brother Christopher — all still living in P.E.I. — on hand to cheer on him and Peterman.

But just as was the case back at the Olympic trials in Liverpool, N.S., to give the Calgary couple the opportunity to represent Canada at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Games, victory won’t come easy for anybody.

That’s even true for the uber-successful tandem of Gallant and Peterman, who want to win this title but go in looking to sharpen their skills for the 2025 worlds next month in Fredericton, N.B., when they hope to complete their Olympic qualifying process.

They opened with a 10-6 defeat of Tyler Parmiter and Ronnie Burgess on Sunday afternoon.

“It’s an important event for us leading up to the world championship to stay sharp and test ourselves against another great field,” Gallant said. “It’s quite a long break between the trials and world championship, so the timing is perfect for us.”

In total, 32 of the nation’s top mixed doubles teams are gunning for the title and the right to wear the maple leaf at the 2026 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship.

Included are up-and-comers Jessica Zheng and Victor Pietrangelo, mixed specialists Laura Walker and Kirk Muyres and curling legends Jennifer Jones and Brett Laing.

Also, there’s Kadriana Lott and Colton Lott. They are married stars from Gimli, Man., vying to become the first-ever back-to-back winners in Canadian mixed doubles history. The Lott tandem posted a perfect 10-0 record at the 2024 championship to claim the top prize.

Gallant and Peterman ran perfect themselves at the Olympic trials with a 10-0 mark, capped by their 8-7 topple of Rachel Homan and Brendan Bottcher in the championship draw.

Homan at worlds

Homan’s not at the mixed doubles because she’s busy trying to win the world women’s title with her Canadian teammates in South Korea.

The superstar skip and her team from the Ottawa Curling Club took a massive step Sunday with a 9-7 victory over long-time rival Anna Hasselborg of Sweden at the 2025 LGT World Women’s Curling Championship.

It was a roller-coaster ride for Homan, third Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew and lead Sarah Wilkes in getting the win.

“It took a lot of resilience, for sure,” said Homan, who gave up a steal of two in the first end before roaring back to count four in the fifth followed by steals of one in each of the sixth and seventh.

“The ice conditions are tricky, and the paths fooled us in the first end,” said Homan. “We made one but then misread the next one, so it’s definitely treacherous in the first couple ends — and you have to be careful. We’ve got to try and make a few more shots early, but we learned from them, made a pile of shots in the middle and got some big points and big steals.”

The decision was a big bounce-back for Canada — now 2-1 in Uijeongbu — after dropping their previous game to Scotland’s Sophie Jackson.

“I’m not going to forget about (Saturday),” said defending champ Homan, of only their second loss in 17 contests at the worlds in the last year. “I’m going to take it and learn from it and not make those mistakes again. We talked about it and tried to tweak a few things. It was a slow start, but with the rain (Sunday), there’s more frost and the lines were a bit worse for longer.”

Next up for Canada on Monday — versus Denmark Madeleine Dupont (1 a.m. ET, TSN) and against USA’s Tabitha Peterson (8 p.m. ET).

Extra ends

Also Sunday at the women’s worlds, it was: a two-win day for both Korea’s Gim Eun-ji (3-0) and Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni (3-0) to match records atop the standings. Korea won 6-4 and 5-4 respectively over Norway (1-2) and Scotland (1-2), while Tirinzoni was a 9-4 and 8-4 victor respectively over China (2-1) and Türkiye (0-3) … Other scores Sunday were: Denmark (2-1) 11-2 over Lithuania (0-3); Norway (1-2) 8-7 over Scotland (1-2); Japan (1-2) 10-5 over Italy (1-2); China 10-9 over Japan; USA (1-2) 8-1 over Lithuania; Italy 8-7 over USA; and Sweden (3-1) 7-5 over Denmark … There were two Canadian mixed doubles draws Sunday — at 5 p.m. ET and 8 p.m. ET. Other early draw scores were: Bruton/Horgan 15-0 over Pinksen/Aglukark; Sluchinski/Sluchinski 6-5 over Gamble/Lang; Riley/Mullen 12-9 over Gionest/Desjardins; Tremblay/Lanoue 14-2 over King/King; Adams/Robichaud 8-5 over White/White; Smith/Thomson 9-6 over Sandham/Craig; and Martin/Laycock 7-5 over Wiseman/Smith … The action continues Monday in Summerside with draws at 9 a.m. ET, noon ET, 3 p.m. ET and 6 p.m. ET. Select games are live-streamed on Curling Canada’s YouTube channel.

tsaelhof@postmedia.com

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