This week TSN and Curling Canada are announcing the greatest curlers of all time. Dawn McEwen on Sunday was named top lead.
So who will be named top skip?
Colleen Jones, Jennifer Jones, Rachel Homan or Sandra Schmirler.
Those should be the four who get the most first-place votes. Colleen won four straight Scotties and both Joneses have won six each. Homan is just getting started.
But we don’t know what would have been if cancer didn’t end Schmirler’s life and career far too young at the age of 36. We know there was much more curling left.
I still hope she’s named #1. Sandra’s best was not at the Scotties but on the world stage. Colleen Jones, Rachel Homan and Jennifer Jones have all stumbled with the maple leaf on their backs. Not Schmirler, who only won gold in her three World Championships.
And then, the Olympics. Was there a greater curling moment than the Schmirler rink winning Canada’s first curling gold in 1998?
We’re biased here in Saskatchewan. And it doesn’t matter if she’s named #1 later this week. We know the truth.