 Kaitlyn Lawes (Photo: Curling Canada) has qualified for the 2025 Canadian Olympic Curling Trials, which are set to begin in November in Halifax, Nova Scotia. By Meredith McCullum Kaitlyn Lawes, along with vice Selena Njegovan, second Jocelyn Peterman and lead Kristin Gordon, earned a berth by finishing as the top-ranked team on the Canadian Team Ranking System (CTRS) for the 2023-25 period that had not already qualified. Team Lawes enters the 2025-26 season ranked #5 on the CTRS and #20 in the world. With four-time Brier winner Marcel Rocque joining the team as coach this season, Lawes hopes to make a deep run at the Trials, as the team competes to represent Canada at the 2026 Olympic Games in Cortina, Italy. Peterman has already secured a spot at the 2026 Games in the mixed doubles event with her husband and playing partner, Brett Gallant. Njegovan and Gordon are seeking their first Olympic appearance, while Lawes and Peterman are returning Olympians. Lawes won gold for Canada at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, playing third for Jennifer Jones. She added another gold at the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang, competing in the mixed doubles event with John Morris. In the previous Olympic cycle, Njegovan and Gordon played with Tracy Fleury, while Lawes and Peterman remained with Jones. The two teams met in the final of the 2021 Olympic Trials in Saskatoon. The game went down to the wire with Jones missing a shot in the 10th end to force an extra. She put up a guard with her final stone, forcing Fleury to play a difficult hack-weight shot for the win. Fleury came up tight and light, crashed on the guard and handed Jones the victory. The win qualified Jones's rink for the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, where they finished fifth, just short of a playoff spot. After the Olympics, Lawes and Peterman joined forces with Njegovan and Gordon with the goal of qualifying for the 2026 Games and returning to the top of the podium. Lawes took on the skip position for the first time, and the other three remained in their former positions. It's been a rocky couple of years for the Winnipeg-based team, with disappointing results at several major events. The team has seen varying lineups as Lawes, Njegovan and Peterman have all missed time for maternity leaves. At the 2024 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, Lawes finished fifth, losing in the 3v4 page qualifier game. Lawes missed the playoffs at the 2025 Scotties, finishing with a 4-4 record. At the Grand Slam of Curling events last season, Lawes qualified for playoffs only once with a semifinal finish at the Tour Challenge. While the last few years results have been below expectations, the team has had a strong start to the 2025-26 season. Lawes has competed in 2 events so far with a quarterfinal finish at the Saville Shootout, followed by a championship win at the Saville Grand Prix. Saville Grand Prix Final: Kaitlyn Lawes vs Youbeen Park Team Lawes will look to continue this momentum into the rest of their fall schedule. The next event for Lawes is the AMJ Masters Tier 2 event from September 24-28 in St. Thomas, Ontario. All Scores can be found at curlingzone.com, and live streams are available on the CurlingZone youtube for most events. |
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Kaitlyn Lawes (Photo: Curling Canada) has qualified for the 2025 Canadian Olympic Curling Trials, which are set to begin in November in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
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