How quickly group-stage success can end when you reach the single-loss elimination playoff stages of national or international tournaments.
Corey Chester of Victoria found that out after going on a 6-1 games won-lost tear in the group stage of the Canadian mixed doubles curling championship in Fredericton, N.B.
Chester and playing partner Taylor Reese-Hansen of Kitimat were beaten 7-5 by Madison and Rylan Kleiter of Saskatoon in the quarter-finals on Thursday night. The Kleiters advanced to the semifinals and took another step to advancing to the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics in Italy.
The top three teams in the national championship tournament advance to the national Olympic trials next year in Liverpool, N.S. The dream hasn’t ended for Chester and Reese-Hansen, but they will have to take repechage routes to make it into the Olympic trials.
Chester was two-time B.C. junior men’s champion in 2012 and 2013 and the provincial juvenile champion in 2007. He is also a previous B.C. mixed doubles champion with Steph Jackson-Baier of Victoria.
Mixed doubles curling made its Winter Olympics debut at the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. It is part of two trends in Olympic sports. One is mixed-gender events such as the triathlon relay, 4x400 mixed track relay, 4x100 mixed-medley swim relay, three mixed-team shooting events, mixed-team archery and mixed-team judo in the Summer Olympics and mixed-team snowboard-cross, ski jumping, ski aerials and short-track speed skating in the Winter Olympics.
The other is the advent of pared-down versions of sports for the Olympics, such as rugby sevens, in which the Langford-based Canadian women’s team won bronze at the 2016 Rio Summer Games and has also qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics this summer. Another example is 3-on-3 basketball, which made its Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020, and field-lacrosse sixes, which will make its Olympic debut at Los Angeles 2028.
The national champions in Fredericton will represent Canada at the 2024 mixed doubles world curling championship in Ostersund, Sweden, April 20-27.
