Junior Curler Q&A with Sadie Pinksen

Throughout the season, we’ll be sitting down with young, up-and-coming athletes to find out everything from their favourite food to eat on the road to what their goals and dreams are. This week, we sat down with Sadie Pinksen, skip of the Nunavut junior women’s team at last year’s Canadian Junior Curling Championship (the first time Nunavut has had a spot at junior nationals). Pinksen started curling six years ago when her parents signed her up for curling as an extracurricular activity and has been in love with the sport ever since. Curling in Nunavut brings a more unique set of adventures than most young curlers in Canada experience, so we got straight to the point when chatting and found out all the details. What is curling like in Nunavut? We have very dedicated coaches and an active curling club that provides a lot of support. The curling club is entirely run by volunteers. In Iqaluit, we have four sheets of ice and our curling season is from October to end of March. During territorial competitions, we have to travel by plane between Rankin Inlet, Cambridge Bay and Iqaluit. Bad weather sometimes prevents or delays our travel plans. For instance, when we went to Rankin Inlet for part one of the territorials for the junior nationals we got stuck for three days on top of the three days we were there. How many years have your teammates (Christianne West, Katie Chislett Manning and Emily Matthews) been curling and how did your team come together? We all started at about the same time with a program in Iqaluit called Little Rocks six years ago (Katie and Christianne eight years ago and Emily five or so). We all curled at the same club for many years and when it came time to pick a team for the territorial competition the four of us were chosen by our coaches. What does the inclusion of Nunavut in the junior nationals mean to you and your team? For Nunavut to be in the Canadian Junior Curling Championship was great because it is now a truly national event for Canada and for us to be the first team is extra special. What is the best part about being on a team? I love being on a team for a lot of reasons, but the main things are the fun we have and the support we give each other. I enjoy traveling with my teammates and I couldn’t imagine what it would be like curling without Emily, Katie and Christianne! We all went to the Whitecap Curling Camp in P.E.I. which was a great experience and we all learned a lot. It is great to be able to travel to new places and meet new people. What is your favourite place to eat while on the road at spiels? It is nice to eat at restaurants down south because we don’t have a lot in Nunavut. I prefer eating at Subway because it is healthy, cheap and good. What do you do outside of curling? I have been doing judo for the last seven years and compete annually in Edmonton and Montreal. I also enjoy playing soccer and spending time with my friends. Back to curling again… what are your future curling goals? I hope that, since we started out so young, we will be very experienced and good by the time we are 16 or 17. Curling means a lot to my team and we hope to continue curling. We wish Pinksen and her team the best of luck in their upcoming season!