2022 Olympic Playdowns: Bear, Ruohonen Into US Trials
Plus a quick look at Europe and Canada. We see you.
The following is several words about the competitive curling events of the past year. As much as I enjoy discussing #clublife, the lead-up to the Olympics is also extremely interesting. True, most of these teams will not be going to Beijing, but I at least appreciate the mechanisms put into place so that an array of teams at least have the chance to become the delegates.
This was the fifth end of the qualifier championship. As you can see, it’s 2-2 at this point. Red has hammer. Yellow has one left. Scott Dunnam tried to throw a hit and roll, possibly a thin double, to make the shot for three difficult. It turned out to be a nose hit and an open draw to the 8-foot for four, giving Team Ruohonen a 6-2 lead at the break and they went onto win 8-3. They’re going to Omaha.
On the women’s side, remember how I said all those games were going to be coin flips? Madison Bear’s team called heads four times in a row and it landed heads four times. A flawless record also gives the national Under-25 team a place in the Trials as well. It ultimately came down to a match against Christine McMakin on Sunday, with Bear beating them head-to-head. McMakin still had a chance to force a double-tiebreaker, but fell in their last game to Team Workin.
Dunnam and McMakin looked strong for the first half of the weekend. Dunnam bumped into Ruohonen’s team in the bracket three times, winning the first match. So with that in mind, I really like their chances as they head to Cleveland. McMakin went a little too aggressive for the steal early against Bear in the second end, leading to a five-ender, and that’ll happen. Five-enders seemed to happen a lot this weekend. It’s the American way.
Great Britain’s trying something different to formulate their women’s team. Rather than put together two teams of five and see who wins, they’ve assembled a national team of nine players, putting them on different teams and seeing what combination works best. Last week in the Euro Super Series, a rare event played during the week, their “Blue” team was skipped by Eve Muirhead, natch, and they went 5-0 with a bye into the semifinals. However they lost the match to Isabella Wranå, who went onto lose to GB’s “Red” team skipped by Rebecca Morrison and aided by seasoned front-enders Vicky Wright and Jennifer Dodds.
It’s all in the hands of GB Curling to decide if Muirhead, who is still just 31 years old, will appear in her fourth straight Olympics. True, she didn’t put her country directly into the Olympics with an eighth place finish at worlds, and as a result they will need to qualify through the last-chance event. But then again, Morrison has never appeared at a worlds at all, other than mixed and juniors. They couldn’t possibly leave Eve out. No way. But the decision is there to make, and last week was a point in Morrison’s favor.
Switzerland won’t have to decide which men’s team will go. Yannick Schwaller and Peter De Cruz will play a best-of-seven in a couple weeks. Schwaller has looked, to say the least, incredible. After winning the Euro Super Series last week, they’re now 2-for-2 and have all the momentum. Lest we forget, De Cruz has bronze draped around their necks, and was their world rep in 2019 and 2021, but Schwaller was scheduled to play in the cancelled 2020 championship. This past month has been their coming out party.
Meanwhile in Canada, because I’ve heard they also enjoy the sport, Jamie Sinclair reached the quarterfinals of the Oakville spiel, while Jed Brundidge went 1-4. The women’s event was won by Tracy Fleury, with a Trials spot already locked up, but the surprise team was Suzanne Birt, who will try to qualify directly to Trials in a couple weeks. They went 4-0 in the pool and beat Jennifer Jones in the quarterfinal. Never count out a left-hander.
Brad Jacobs won the men’s event with relative ease, going 7-0 though they didn’t face Trials-level competition except for perhaps Glenn Howard’s team. We’ve all been waiting for them to recapture the magic of that 2013 Brier and 2014 gold medal.
Now for this weekend’s spiels. Oakville is doing another cashspiel, the Tankard, and it also begins the season for the reigning US national champions, Team Dropkin. The field is rife with top world teams, so a playoff appearance would be an accomplishment. The US Open is also happening simultaneously, and all the other Trials qualified teams will be present (Shuster, Ruohonen, Brundidge, Peterson, Christensen, Sinclair, Bear) plus a few others still trying to get there. Also of note is a team from Chinese Taipei, skipped by Ting-Li Lin, the longtime lead of the CTC national team. If this is their current national team, then this would be a tune-up for the Olympic Pre-Qualifying Event in Turkey next month.