Sweden’s 8-6 win in a comeback over Team USA on Saturday was a disappointing end for parents who came from Minnesota and Pennsylvania to see their daughters play the world championship in curling for ladies in Prince George.
The dog Lester was in the building at the CN Center on Saturday afternoon and it was a consolation for the American skipper Cory Christensen to have that bigger than life cardboard cut of her family animal, a four-year-old golden retriever, in the crowd. her good luck charm.
Locked in a close match with Sweden, Team USA was in a good position to win its qualifying play-off for a place in the semifinals. The Americans scored two goals in the eighth and stole another one in the ninth for a 6-4 lead on their way into the 10th end.
But Hasselborg, the 2018 Olympic champion and Olympic bronze medalist in Beijing, had some tricks up her sleeve and she made a miraculous angle raise around a guard with no room to spare that left her shooter on the button, where it replaced the American stone. Christensen could not get to it with his last shot and Sweden scored four for an 8-6 comeback victory and a berth in tonight’s semifinal against Switzerland.
For Linda Christensen, Cory’s mother from Duluth, Minn., It was a magical end to a wonderful week with fantastic shots from the American team. Her disappointment can be summed up in one word.
Doggonite!
“It was a good match, we knew it would probably come to the last shots and the last end was not quite what we wanted but I am proud of the girls,” said Linda. “Cory and the whole team played well, their numbers were quite impressive, they played at this level.
“We were two who came home without a hammer and I think we are pretty good, and protect the shit from stone on one foot. There were far too many stones in play. They were more worried about guarding one side and the only way Anna could have arrived at where the shotgun was with that angle increase. ”
Linda made the 28-hour drive, 2,574 kilometers to Prince George from Duluth on her own last weekend. She had planned to come with her brother, Mike Olson, but less than a day before she was to leave, he tested positive for covid. So it was just Linda and Lester on the trip and they had good driving conditions until the last two hours when they were hit by a snowstorm at McBride. It got so bad that Linda considered turning around, but she was lucky when she caught up with a plow truck that cleared the way to Prince George.
Many of the fans at CN Center this week have wondered who the mystery dog is. The idea started when Cory’s fiancé Steve took the Lester carving to one of Linda’s afternoon curling games in Duluth and he put it against the glass and when Cory went into the game later she saw it and burst into tears. Every now and then, it was decided that Lester would accompany her to Prince George as her Minnesota mascot.
Linda had a lot of fun taking her favorite dog with her wherever she went, and most of the week was spent on the rink. Curling fans gathered around Lester in the stands to take photos and she took him to The Patch for his first nightclub visit. One of the team members used his phone camera to capture the Canadian skipper Kerri Einarson on the ice with a painful facial expression with Lester peering over her shoulder and looking at her through the glass.
Wayne and Arlene Anderson, parents of 27-year-old twin sisters Sarah and Taylor Anderson, who played third and led for Team USA, came all the way from Philadelphia to see their girls in action. Originally Winchester, Ont., Near the Ottawa area, Wayne and Arlene grew up as curlers and it was only natural that all five of their daughters followed suit and became the young stars of the club who learned the game on the two ice sheets that make up the Philadelphia Curling Club. . The family of curlers grew up in the aptly named Philly suburb of Broomall and also spent time in the Caribbean.
Wayne Anderson trained four of his daughters (Sarah, Taylor, Emily and Courtney) in a junior team with the American citizens in Philadelphia. Sarah and Taylor won silver at the junior WC 2016 and were crowned American women’s champions 2019 with Christensen and runner-up Vicky Persinger – the same line-up that finished fifth in the round robin with a record of 8-4 this week in Prince George.
“It was not much of an option for (the twins), we started the Philadelphia junior program with their older sisters and it just kept evolving,” Wayne said. “When Sarah and Taylor arrived, we had a pretty good program going on.”
The older Anderson sisters were the club’s junior pioneers and developed into curlers at the national level, helping to pave the way for Sarah and Taylor to take it even further.
“When juniors are in a club where the former juniors have come to national teams and worlds, they see that it is an achievable goal,” said Wayne. “If they did, why not me. Sarah and Taylor are the only people from the Philadelphia area who came to (the women’s world).”
Although this was Christensen’s first world appearance for women, Andersons and Persinger represented the USA in 2019 at the world event for women in Silkeborg, Denmark.
The team finished second in the Olympic trials in 2022. Saturday’s loss to Sweden was tough to watch for Andersons, a roller coaster that got stuck at the bottom.
“My ribs were sore because I held my breath for so long,” Wayne said. “It was really exciting and I’m so proud of the team – they really controlled that match so much of it, even at the end. But when you play against Anna Hasselborg and that team, you can never count your chickens too early and she made a fantastic shot to win it. ”
“I’m proud they’ve made it this far,” Arlene added. “They definitely belong here.”
Linda Christensen and the Andersons family are still active curlers and they appreciated how intense and predictable the ice conditions have been throughout the week on the four sheets of arenas at CN Center. Dave and Mike Merklinger and their ice maintenance team received rave reviews from their three American parents, who are making their first visit to the city this week.
“We really enjoyed our time here in Prince George, the volunteers have been fantastic, just so friendly,” said Wayne. “To have such good ice from start to finish, it just makes for the kind of curling we’ve seen here with amazing images made all over the sheets.”
They plan to return to Canada to see their children in action at the Champions Cup in Olds, Alta, May 3-8.