Chelsea Carey barely had time to decompress after the recent world women’s championship before turning her attention to her next curling mission.
Carey will team with Colin Hodgson at this week’s Canadian mixed doubles playdowns in Saskatoon. The duo is one of 32 pairings who will begin play Thursday at the Nutana Curling Club.
Mixed doubles has been added to the Olympic program for the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. As a result, many top curlers from the traditional four-player game have added the discipline to their repertoire.
Other notable entries in the stacked field include the teams of Rachel Homan and Mark Nichols, Lisa Weagle and John Epping, Mike and Dawn McEwen, and Emma Miskew and Ryan Fry.
Carey’s second from her regular rink, Jocelyn Peterman, will team with Brett Gallant. Stefanie Lawton and Steve Laycock are also in the field along with defending champions Charley Thomas and Kalynn Park.
Thomas served as coach of Carey’s team that won the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Grande Prairie, Alta., before just missing the podium at the world championship in Swift Current, Sask. Carey dropped a 9-8 decision to Russia’s Anna Sidorova in the bronze-medal game last Sunday.
Carey admitted that she was “pretty exhausted” after the world championship. She returned home to Calgary to do some laundry before packing up and driving to Saskatoon.
“It was a really tight turnaround,” Carey said Wednesday from the road. “I was home for less than 48 hours and now I’m gone again. But I’m really looking forward to it.”
The mixed doubles format is played over eight ends. Each team has only six stones and one of those rocks is pre-positioned on the centre line before every end.
Mixed doubles is a faster game that requires different strategies and quicker decision-making. The change of pace and variety of shot options is an appealing change for many curlers who have primarily focused on the traditional game.
“It’s definitely different,” Carey said. “It was a pretty steep learning curve.”
One player delivers the first and last stones of the end while the other player throws the remaining rocks. If they choose to, the two players may swap positions from one end to the next and both team members are allowed to sweep.
In addition, a new power-play option was added this season. Once per game, teams with last stone can position the rocks to the side — one stone on the tee-line, intersecting the 12- and eight-foot circles — and a corner guard protecting it.
“It’s exciting and it’s fun to play because it’s never over,” Carey said. “There are fours and fives being dropped all over the place.”
Many curlers gave it a try last fall at the inaugural Canad Inns Mixed Doubles Classic in Portage la Prairie, Man. That event was followed a few weeks later by the Wall Grain Mixed Doubles Classic in Oshawa, Ont.
“You’ve got the skips sweeping, you’ve got people playing with people they’ve never played with before,” said Joanne Courtney, who will team with Reid Carruthers.
“There are lots of rocks in play and there are a lot more misses in mixed doubles. So anything can happen.”