G
reat is one way to describe Joanne Courtney’s rise to the top of the curling
world. The Edmonton native together with skip Rachel Homan, lead Lisa
Weagle, and third Emma Miskew, is an early favourite to represent Cana-
da at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea.It has been an exciting year for the team. After winning the national champion-
ship, they went on to dominate the World Championship in Beijing. It was a big
deal for Canadian women’s curling since the last time Canada won gold at the
Worlds was in 2008. The team also set a record as the first team to go undefeat-
ed through the entire championship winning all 13 games.“It was an amazing experience given that it was my first time representing Cana-
da,” says Courtney. “Getting to wear the maple leaf was incredible.”Joanne was born on March 7, 1989 in Edmonton. She began curling when she
was seven years old after her brother had picked it up the year before. She start-
ed playing in bonspiels when she was eleven. There were only a few girls her
age in the junior program and one of the parents put them together and started
getting them to do extra practice on top of the tournaments.In Canadian curling, the players usually create teams. There’s rarely a scenario
where a head coach has tryouts and forms a dream team. Instead, players typ-
ically align themselves with three other people who compliment one another
and who share the same values and work ethic. At 15 Joanne was lucky enough
to be on a team that lost the final at their junior provincial competition and from
then on, she was hooked.“I remember being complimented on my sweeping ability even when I was 15,”
she says. “My upper body has always been pretty strong thanks to several years
in gymnastics at a young age.”The conditioning helped her to develop an athletic build and she took note of
how the men were sweeping when they were on television. She tried to mimic
that on the ice. She became passionate about sweeping in her late teens and
once she was in her early twenties, she started investing in a trainer to ensure
that she would build muscle and feel like she was a better sweeper than her
competition.A ton of work went into the actual technique of sweeping, but it’s impossible to
get the majority of your body weight over the brush if you aren’t strong enough
to hold yourself up.“When I started competing in women’s play seven years ago, I heard that there
were curlers in the national program that maxed out at 10 push-ups,” she says.
That alone fueled a fire for her to make a big investment in fitness and to
out-muscle her competition. “The sport has changed a lot in the last ten years
and most curlers at the elite level are in incredible shape. I’m in the best shape
of my life but there are times when I don’t feel like it’s a significant advantage
anymore because everyone is fit. That motivates me to work extremely hard in
our short off-season since I don’t want to fall behind.”