HALIFAX — Two powerhouse curling teams have emerged from a revamped playdown format designed to send Canada's best to the Milan-Cortina Olympics.
Call it Curling Canada's mission accomplished.
Rachel Homan edged out her Ottawa team to win the women's title, while Brad Jacobs led his Calgary rink to the men's crown at the Canadian curling competition in Montana over the weekend.
“At the end of the day, I think these are two of our hardest working and most dedicated teams,” Curling Canada CEO Nolan Thiessen said Sunday. “And it showed.”
Both finals went 2-0 in the new best-of-three final format.
Homan, VP Tracey Fleury, second Emma Miskew and lead Sarah Wilkes beat hometown favorite Christina Black 5-4 in the first game before crushing her 12-3 on Saturday.
In a match between the top two teams in the Canadian men's rankings, Jacobs and vice-president Mark Kennedy, second Brett Gallant and leader Ben Hebert scored two close victories over Matt Dunstone's Winnipeg team. Jacobs won 9-8 in the first game and 6-5 in the second game.
“I think it achieved what we wanted,” Thiessen said. “It was a really good change for us.”
The setup used for previous Trial finals was more intense given the unpredictable nature of a single-game elimination match, especially if ice conditions—as they were at times during the week at the Scotiabank Center—were inconsistent.
Black was a surprise to her competitors, needing different results to make it through cut day before making it into the three-team women's playoffs. Once there, the 21st-ranked team upset second-seeded Kerry Einarson in the semifinals and came within inches of a stunning Homan in the first game.
Homan's foursome, ranked No. 1 in the world, have a wealth of gaming experience and that showed in the second game. Skip is a five-time national champion, three-time world champion and is now heading to the Winter Games for the third time in a row.
Miskew played third on Homan's team that competed in the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Homan returned to the 2022 Beijing Games in mixed doubles with John Morris but again missed the podium.
“You dream of going back, and until you get to that moment where you can say you're leaving, you don't believe it's actually going to happen,” Miskew said. “So the fact that we're going back to the Olympics is just crazy. We're really excited.”
Fleury, who lost in the extra end to Jennifer Jones in the 2021 Trial final, and Wilkes are first-time Olympians.
Jacobs won Olympic gold in 2014 in Sochi, Russia, as part of a different team. Kennedy and Hebert won gold at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics on the team Kevin Martin missed out on.
Kennedy and Hebert returned to the Games in 2018 with skip Kevin Coe. Gallant won Olympic bronze in 2022 on the team that Brad Gushue missed out on.
This is the first time in four years that Curling Canada has allowed athletes to compete at the Games in both team and mixed doubles events. Last season, Gallant booked a spot in mixed doubles with Jocelyn Peterman.
“We've had to work hard over the years to achieve some of these goals,” Gallant said. “So to see some of this pay off is an amazing feeling.
“I’m really looking forward to doing double duty there.”
The competition will begin on February 4 at the Olympic Curling Stadium in Cortina.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 30, 2025.
