If you are a curler or a fan of curling you would have been tuned in to the 2024 Scotties Tournament of Hearts at the WinSport Event Centre in Calgary, Alberta this past week. Years ago, I got into a heated argument with someone as to whether curling could be considered a sport or, as this individual repeatedly said with jaw-dropping stupidity, “just a game”. I know that sounds judgmental; that’s because it is. The feats of strength and the precision required to hurl forty-four pounds of granite (extracted from Ailsa Craig in Scotland) down the one hundred, fourteen feet of ice, t-line to t-line, requires highly skilled athletes. Discussion closed.
And if you are watching the Scotties, then you are undoubtedly familiar with The Sandra Schmirler Foundation and the impact this organization has had on Canada’s health care for babies in crisis. The Scotties Tournament of Hearts brings the Foundation front and centre the first Sunday of the competition. The Foundation has raised more than eight million dollars since its creation, the funds used to purchase life-saving equipment for premature and critically ill babies in Canada. More than one hundred Canadian hospitals have equipment funded by the Foundation’s donations. This year on Sandra Schmirler Day at the 2024 Scotties, donors dug deep and contributed a record-breaking $1,126,014. The athletes give of their time between games to answer phones and accept donations from curling fans across the country and beyond.
The Foundation was created in 2001 by Sandra’s curling team, her friends and family, and with the support of Curling Canada and Scott Paper to honour Schmirler’s memory. Their motto, “Champions Start Small” has allowed the Foundation to do great things in helping to save the lives of many babies needing specialized medical assistance as they begin life. Curlers Brett Gallant’s and Jocelyn Peterman’s newborn baby Luke had complications at his birth this past year and the specialized equipment at the Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary helped save his life.
Sandra Schmirler lost her battle with cancer in March of 2000 at the age of thirty-six, but not before she had chalked up a sizeable record in curling, with three Canadian and world titles and Olympic Gold. Those titles were far less important to her than the title of “mom”, leaving behind two little girls ages two and nine months at the time of her death.
The work and commitment of The Sandra Schmirler Foundation in helping to save the lives of babies in Canada is no small thing. Hospitals in remote and small communities can provide life-saving care where normally they could not, thanks to the Foundation’s contributions. Every province and territory in Canada have hospitals that have been the recipient of the generosity of the Foundation and the equipment it supplies. The Foundation’s work is dependent on the donations from ordinary Canadians.
As I tuned in to watch the 2024 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, I thought about the commitment women curlers give to their sport, over and above being an athlete. Many of the curlers are new moms and/ or moms of new babies. We watched Rachel Homan play in the 2021 Scotties final at the eighth month mark in her pregnancy. In 2023, she gave birth to her third child on August 29 and was on the ice thirty-three days later skipping her team to victory in the Grand Slam of Curling at Niagara Falls. Briane Harris, lead for the Einarson team, was advanced in her pregnancy when the team won last year’s Scotties, with Briane sweeping rock after rock, end to end. The list of these physical feats is a long one for Canadian women curlers. It’s easy to feel respect and awe for these athletes, for their love of the sport, demonstrating the grit and determination of women.
Curlers aren’t raking in millions of dollars in prize money, though it is much better than it was. All but a few hold down jobs while raising a family so they can dazzle us with their skill. We grumble when they don’t win every battle at the world level where they compete against many curlers who represent their country as paid professional athletes.
Schmirler’s game winning shot from the 1997 Olympic Trials in Brandon, Manitoba still makes the curling highlights reel, a shot that won her team a spot in the 1998 Olympics. For the first time, curling was on the official roster at the Nagano (Japan) Olympics with the Schmirler team claiming Gold for Canada, defeating Denmark in the final. Sandra’s daughters grew up without their mother. Sandra’s legacy in the sport and the generosity in her name lives on – a powerful reminder for Sara and Jenna.
wendistewart@live.ca
