Chelsea Carey needs to be clear. She’s not attempting to fill Jennifer Jones’s curling footwear.
Carey has been handed the skipping reins of Jones’s younger crew ranked second in Canada and fourth on the planet.
Six-time Canadian champion Jones, additionally a two-time world champ and an Olympic gold medallist, retired from crew curling earlier this month after the ultimate Grand Slam of the season.
“I don’t really feel snug being put in the identical dialog as Jennifer as a result of I feel she’s the best roller of all time at this second,” Carey stated. “Folks maintain saying ‘you’re going to attempt to fill her footwear.’ I’m not going to attempt as a result of nobody can. I don’t suppose that’s attainable.”
Jones’s former teammates, all Manitobans aged 25 and underneath, selected Carey to exchange Jones and to skip them to the 2025 Olympic trials.
Third Karlee Burgess, second Emily Zacharias and lead Lauren Lenentine reached the final two nationwide finals with Jones.
Carey skipped Albertan groups to Scotties Event of Hearts titles in 2016 and 2019. The 39-year-old from Winnipeg lives in Calgary the place she’s a advertising and marketing and communications director for KidSport.
Carey has curled out of Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan throughout a profession that features seven Hearts appearances.
She didn’t have a full-time crew in 2023-24, nonetheless. Carey subbed on varied groups together with Jones’s.
Carey skipped Burgess, Zacharias and Lenentine to second place in Edmonton’s Saville Shootout and the Stu Sells 1824 Halifax Basic.
She additionally skipped Michele Jaggi’s Swiss crew in 4 tour occasions, and spared for Kate Cameron in January’s Canadian Open.
“After my final crew break up up, I purposely didn’t put a crew collectively final 12 months,” Carey stated. “That was a aware alternative on my half to take a little bit of a step again. After I did that, I assumed that I wouldn’t play on a full-time crew the remainder of the (Olympic) cycle, perhaps find yourself as a fifth or simply fill in. I had made my peace with that.”
She noticed subbing for various groups as potential auditions for the subsequent Olympic quadrennial.
“It was extra simply a chance to remain related in Canada for when shifts begin to occur,” Carey stated. “I wished individuals to know I’m nonetheless round, however I’m not going to do something till subsequent cycle except one thing extraordinary occurs, which it has.
“You alter your plans when one thing like this occurs.”
When Jones declared this 12 months’s nationwide championship in Calgary could be her final, Carey waited till after February’s Event of Hearts to succeed in out to the crew.
She knew in doing so she would set herself up for comparisons to Jones.
“It’s form of the one factor that made it exhausting to do. Nobody actually needs to be put in that place to be in comparison with her as a result of she’s incomparable at this level,” Carey stated.
Carey was given the nod after she was interviewed by Burgess, Zacharias and Lenentine.
“It’s exhausting to wrap your head round a recreation of curling with out Jennifer Jones,” Carey stated. “It’s going to return ultimately, however I feel it shocked everyone a bit bit that it was now, so I didn’t count on that to be a emptiness.
“It’s such a superb alternative that you already know lots of people are going to be chasing it.”
Carey and firm received’t know what number of occasions they’ll play of their first season collectively till the World Curling Tour and Grand Slam schedules are launched.
What’s clear is that they don’t must win a Manitoba championship to twist within the 2025 Event of Hearts in Thunder Bay, Ont.
Beneath new Curling Canada qualification guidelines, Carey will get an early berth because the No. 2 crew within the Canadian Crew Rating System behind No. 1 Rachel Homan, who will return to the Hearts as defending champion.
The highest three CTRS groups not already certified on the finish of the 2023-24 season gained nationwide championship berths. They’re all from Manitoba. Kerri Einarson at No. 3 and Kaitlyn Lawes at No. 4 be a part of Carey and Homan in Thunder Bay’s area.
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