Site Logo Hamburger

Tickets

Shop

fr

  • Curling Canada

  • Search
  • Generic selectors
    Exact matches only
    Search in title
    Search in content
    Post Type Selectors

  • Tickets

  • News

  • Contact Us

  • About Curling

  • Our Organization

Donate

Meet the teams: Team Einarson & Team Bottcher

Scotties tournament of Hearts 2021, Team Canada, skip Kerri Einarson, third Val Sweeting, second Shannon Birchard, lead Briane Meilleur, Gimlil Manitoba. Markin Macphail Centre, Calgary Alberta, February 19- 28, 2021.

The 2021 Tim Hortons Curling Trials, presented by AGI, will be held Nov. 20-28 at the SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon. Get to know the eventual nine men’s and womens’ teams that will be competing for the right to represent Canada at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

Team Einarson

In 2018-19, Kerri Einarson made the difficult decision to split up her highly competitive curling team to begin the new Olympic cycle.

So far, the decision has paid off in spades as the Manitoba skip and her team of vice-skip Val Sweeting, second Shannon Birchard and lead Briane Meilleur enter the 2021 Tim Hortons Curling Trials as two-time Scotties Tournament of Hearts defending champions.

The 2020 victory, over Rachel Homan, automatically qualified Team Einarson for this year’s Trials event.

Team Einarson – built on the strength of all four athletes having experience as skips – is based out of the Gimli Curling Club in Manitoba and coached by former Scotties Tournament of Hearts champion Heather Nedohin.

Einarson also finished as a runner-up at the 2018 Scotties Tournament of Hearts before making the change to her team’s roster.

Sweeting twice finished as a Scotties silver medallist (as a skip in 2014 and 2015) and won three Alberta championships (2010, 2014 and 2015), as well as the prestigious Canada Cup (in 2014).

Birchard is a three-time Scotties Tournament of Hearts champion, having added the 2018 title – while playing with Jennifer Jones – to the 2020 and 2021 triumphs. She is also a two-time Canadian junior silver medallist (2012 and 2013).

Meilleur was the bronze medallist at the 2011 Canadian Juniors.

Calgary Ab, Tim Hortons Brier 2021, Team Alberta SKIP-Brendan Bottcher THIRD: Darren Moulding SECOND: Brad Thiessen LEAD: Karrick Martin Curling Canada/Michael Burns Photo

Team Bottcher

Having finally cracked the code on how to win a Tim Hortons Brier, Brendan Bottcher and his Edmonton-based team look to take the next step in donning the Canadian colours at a Winter Olympics.

Bottcher, vice-skip Darren Moulding, second Brad Thiessen and lead Karrick Martin will be among the field at the 2021 Tim Hortons Curling Trials and will certainly demand attention as reigning Tim Hortons Brier champions.

Bottcher and Co. ruined Kevin Koe’s bid at a fifth national title earlier in 2021 in Calgary. Koe is also Canada’s reigning men’s Olympics rep and a provincial rival for Team Bottcher, which is based out of the Saville Curling Centre and coached by Don Bartlett. Team Bottcher ventured into the 2021 Tim Hortons Brier as three-time runners-up from 2018-20, but managed a 4-2 win over Koe in the final. 

Bottcher, Thiessen and Martin (son of Olympic gold medallist Kevin Martin) are also former Canadian University champions (2012) and Winter Universiade bronze medallists (2013). Bottcher is also the 2012 Canadian and World Junior champion, while Moulding and Thiessen are Canadian Mixed champions from 2014 and 2016, respectively.

Winning the 2021 Tim Hortons Brier automatically qualified the foursome for the Tim Hortons Curling Trials.

Tickets for the 2021 Tim Hortons Curling Trials, presented by AGI are available at: https://www.curling.ca/2021trials/tickets/ 

It is important to note that fans above the age of 12 will have to be fully vaccinated against COVID 19 in order to attend Curling Canada-affiliated events. https://www.curling.ca/mandatory-vaccination-policy/