Chelsea Carey has been handed the responsibility of skipping Jennifer Jones’s young curling team, which is ranked second in Canada and fourth in the world. Jones, a six-time Canadian champion, two-time world champion, and Olympic gold medalist, retired from team curling recently. Carey, who has won Scotties Tournament of Hearts titles in the past, is not trying to fill Jones’s shoes, as she believes Jones is the greatest curler of all time. Carey, along with her teammates Karlee Burgess, Emily Zacharias, and Lauren Lenentine, have reached the last two national finals with Jones.
Carey, who hails from Winnipeg but currently lives in Calgary, had not formed a full-time team for the 2023-24 season. Instead, she subbed for various teams, including Jones’s team, in tournaments like the Saville Shootout and the Stu Sells 1824 Halifax Classic. She also skipped a Swiss team in four tour events and served as a spare for Kate Cameron in the Canadian Open. Despite initially planning to take a step back from full-time competition, Carey saw these opportunities as auditions for the upcoming Olympic quadrennial.
After Jones announced that this year’s national championship in Calgary would be her last, Carey reached out to the team, knowing that she would inevitably be compared to Jones. Following an interview with Burgess, Zacharias, and Lenentine, Carey was chosen as Jones’s replacement. With the new Curling Canada qualification rules, Carey’s team will not have to win a Manitoba championship to compete in the 2025 Tournament of Hearts in Thunder Bay. They have earned an early berth as the No. 2 team in the Canadian Team Ranking System, behind defending champion Rachel Homan.
Carey acknowledges the challenge of stepping into a game without Jennifer Jones, as Jones is widely regarded as incomparable in the sport. Despite the pressure of comparisons, Carey sees this opportunity as a significant one that many are likely to pursue. The team will have to wait for the schedules of the World Curling Tour and Grand Slam to determine how many events they will compete in during their first season together. With the top three CTRS teams from Manitoba already qualified for the Tournament of Hearts, Carey’s team, along with Homan, Einarson, and Lawes, will be competing in Thunder Bay.
Overall, Carey is excited about the opportunity to skip Jones’s former team and lead them to the 2025 Olympic trials. She is not trying to emulate Jones’s remarkable career but instead hopes to make her mark as a skilled curler in her own right. While there will inevitably be comparisons to Jones, Carey is focused on the future and the potential success of her new team. With the support of her teammates and the experience she brings from her previous titles, Carey is ready to take on the challenge of leading a competitive team on the world stage.
