Jennifer Jones (curler)

Jennifer Jones
Curler
Jones in 2008
Born	(1974-07-07) July 7, 1974 Winnipeg, Manitoba
Team
Curling club	St. Vital CC, Winnipeg, MB
Skip	Jennifer Jones
Third	Kaitlyn Lawes
Second	Jill Officer
Lead	Dawn McEwen
Alternate	Kirsten Wall
Curling career
Hearts appearances	10 (2002, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013)
Top CTRS ranking	1st (2005–06, 2006–07, 2007–08, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2011–12)
Grand Slam victories	9: Autumn Gold: 2 (2007, 2009); Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries: 1 (2013); Wayden Transportation: 1 (2008); Players' Championships: 3 (2007, 2009, 2011); Sobeys Slam: 1 (2010); Colonial Square: 1 (2013)
Medal record Curling Representing Canada Winter Olympics 2014 Sochi Team World Championships 2008 Vernon 2010 Swift Current Representing Manitoba Canadian Olympic Curling Trials 2013 Winnipeg Scotties Tournament of Hearts 2005 St. John's 2008 Regina 2009 Victoria 2010 Sault Ste. Marie 2006 London 2011 Charlottetown 2013 Kingston 2012 Red Deer 2007 Lethbridge

Jennifer Jones (born July 7, 1974) is a Canadian curler. She is a four-time Canadian champion, a former world champion and an Olympic gold medallist.

Curling career

Juniors

Jones began curling at the age of 11. As a junior curler, Jones won three provincial junior championships and a national junior championship. Her first provincial junior title was in 1991, playing third for Jill Staub (Thurston). The team also included Kristie Moroz at second and Kelly Scott (then Mackenzie) at lead. The team represented Manitoba at the 1991 Canadian Junior Curling Championships in Leduc, Alberta. The team finished the round-robin in first place, with a 10–1 record. This gave the team a bye to the final, where they lost in the final to New Brunswick, skipped by Heather Smith. Jones won her second provincial junior title in 1993 as a skip. Her team consisted of Trisha Baldwin at third, Jill Officer at second and Dana Malanchuk (Allerton) at lead. The team finished the round robin of the 1993 Canadian Juniors with an 8–3 record, tied for third with Nova Scotia and Quebec. The team played Quebec (skipped by Janique Berthelot) in their tie-breaker match, but lost, eliminating them from the tournament. The following year, the team won their second straight provincial junior title. At the 1994 Canadian Juniors, the team once again found themselves in a three-way tie for third, this time with Ontario and Northern Ontario, and with a 7–4 record. In their first tie-breaker, they defeated Northern Ontario's Rohonda Halvorsen 10–4. They then defeated Ontario's Dominique Lascelles 10–8 in the second tie-breaker. This put the team into the semi-final, against British Columbia's Jeanna Richard (Schraeder), whom they beat 5–3. The win put them in the final, against the first place Saskatchewan rink, skipped by Sherry Linton. The team beat Saskatchewan 8–5, claiming the 1994 Canadian Junior title. Ordinarily this would mean a berth in the following year's World Junior Curling Championships, but a change in the ruling forced her to play in a playoff the following year for the right to attend, which she lost- to her former teammate Kelly Scott.

Early women's career

After juniors, Jones would later partner up with Karen Porritt, Porritt's twin sister Lynn Fallis-Kurz, and Jones' junior lead, Dana Allerton. The team would lose in the final of the 2001 Manitoba Scott Tournament of Hearts, the provincial women's championship to Karen Young. However, the following year, the Jones rink won the Manitoba Hearts, which earned them the right to represent the province at the 2002 Scott Tournament of Hearts, the Canadian national women's championship. At the 2002 Hearts, she led her Manitoba rink to an 8–3 round robin finish, which placed them in third place. This placement put them in the playoffs, where she lost to Ontario's Sherry Middaugh. The following season, Jones replaced Porritt with Kimberly Keizer at third. The team made it to the final of the 2003 Manitoba Scott Tournament of Hearts, but lost to Barb Spencer in the final. The following season, Porritt was brought back on to the team, replacing Keizer. The team had less success at the 2004 Manitoba Scott Tournament of Hearts, losing in the quarter final to Joelle Duguid.

2005 and "The Shot"

"The Shot": Jones had to make a difficult in-off to score four and win the 2005 Scott Tournament of Hearts.

Jones would return to the Scott at the 2005 Scott Tournament of Hearts, which she won by defeating Team Ontario, skipped by Jenn Hanna in the championship game. Jones faced an extremely difficult shot to win, having to hit a rock outside of the house and roll to the button taking out an Ontario rock. Had she missed, she would have lost both the game and the tournament. The shot was perfect, scoring 4 points with her final stone and winning the game. Revered by Canadian sports media and admiring curling fans, Jones' accomplishment under pressure was quickly dubbed "The Shot", and, in the following weeks, became the source of talk and of attempts by novice curlers to repeat the feat in curling clubs across the country. The team's win qualified them for the 2005 World Women's Curling Championship in Paisley, Scotland. The Worlds were a disappointing tournament for her and her team, where they struggled constantly with poor ice conditions. They were knocked out of the playoffs in the 3–4 game against Dordi Nordby and her Norway rink.

Team changes

In the off-season, Jones replaced Gauthier at lead with 2002 Olympic bronze medalist Georgina Wheatcroft. This was done in part to boost the team's chances at the Olympic trials in December 2005. However, the team finished a disappointing 5–4 and out of the playoffs.

Because Jones had won the 2005 Scott Tournament of Hearts, she got to return to the 2006 Scott Tournament of Hearts as Team Canada. At the Hearts that year, she managed to defeat Colleen Jones's Nova Scotia rink in the semi-final before losing to Kelly Scott of British Columbia in the final.

In 2006, Wheatcroft moved back to her home of British Columbia to play with her former skip, Kelley Law. She was replaced by Dana Allerton. Midway through the season however, she was dropped in favour of Janet Arnott just before the provincial playdowns. Jones was criticized within the curling community for this move.

Jones won another provincial championship in 2007, earning her a berth at the 2007 Scotties Tournament of Hearts. Jones made the playoffs again, but lost to Kelly Scott again- this time in the semi-final.

Later on in the year, Jones switched leads again, gaining Dawn Askin who had moved from Ottawa from Jenn Hanna's rink. Jones won her first Canada Cup of Curling on March 17, 2007.

After a bittersweet 2009/2010 curling season in which Jennifer Jones' rink won the 2010 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, took bronze in the 2010 Ford World Women's Curling Championship, and lost out in the 2010 Players' Championships, the team decided to replace third Cathy Overton-Clapham, replacing her with the younger Kaitlyn Lawes in time for the 2010/2011 curling season. Clapham said in a recent interview that she was blindsided by the team and the team could not look in her eyes to tell her so she knew something similar to this was being stirred up.

World Championship success

In the 2007/2008 curling season Jones celebrated several successes including winning the 2007 Autumn Gold Grand Slam as well as the 2008 Manitoba Provincial Championship.

Winning the 2008 Manitoba Provincial Championship qualified her to represent the province at the 2008 Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Regina, Saskatchewan. Jones got off to a slow start, having just a 3–4 record to start off the week, but rebounded to make it to the tiebreaker where she defeated Newfoundland and Labrador's Heather Strong by a score of 6–3.

In the 3–4 playoff game, Jones edged Québec skip Marie-France Larouche with a score of 6–5. She advanced to the semi-finals, where she defeated Ontario's Sherry Middaugh 9–8 by stealing a point in the extra end. In the final, Jones faced Alberta's Shannon Kleibrink.

With Jones leading 5–4 without hammer, Kleibrink managed to fill the house, but an excellent draw to the four foot behind cover by Jones forced Kleibrink to try a tricky runback of a Manitoba stone just outside the 12 foot to win. The raised stone jammed on Jones' last draw and Manitoba managed to steal a single point for the 6–4 victory.

At the 2008 World Women's Curling Championship in Vernon, British Columbia, Jones defeated China to capture her first World Championship by a score of 7–4. Jones finished the week with an overall record of 11–3.

Repeat championships

In 2009, Jennifer Jones and her Team Canada went on and won gold at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts. They defeated the BC team 8–5 with a big 2 point steal in the 6th end. The win at the Scotties sent the Jones rink back to the World Championship. But as in 2005, the outcome was disappointing. Jones was defeated in the bronze medal game by Angelina Jensen from Denmark. She ended the season by winning her third Players' Championship.

Jones began her season with the 2009 Canadian Olympic Curling Trials, there the team performed poorly and finished with a record of 2–5 and out of the playoffs.

Jennifer Jones and team again returned to the Scotties as defending champions, Team Canada. In round robin play the team managed to finish tied for first but second overall to upstart PEI with an 8–3 record. The page 1 vs 2 playoff featured PEI facing Jennifer Jones which saw Jones winning and through to the final. PEI would go on to beat Ontario in the semifinal to force a rematch of the 1 vs 2 page playoff. PEI jumped out to a 6–3 by the 6th end, but steals of one in the 7th, 8th, and a steal of two in the 9th saw Team Canada up by one point going into the tenth and final end. PEI would take one point in the 10th, forcing an 11th and final end which Jones won, completing another Scotties comeback, and secured her 3rd consecutive Tournament of Hearts victory and 4th STOH victory in total.

Jones third win in a row put her in the elite company of Vera Pezer and Colleen Jones (no relation to Jennifer) as the only skips to have won 3 Tournament of Hearts in a row. As this was also her 4th win in total she and second Jill Officer became part of a group of 4 to have won 4 Scotties, they joined Vera Pezer and Lee Morrison of Saskatoon. The win was Cathy Overton-Clapham's 5th in total this moved her one off Colleen Jones in the record book and alongside the legendary Joyce McKee of Saskatchewan and Nova Scotians Mary Anne Arsenault, Nancy Delahunt and Kim Kelly.

At the 2010 Ford World Women's Curling Championship, Jones would disappoint once again. After finishing the round robin with a 10–1 record, she lost all her playoff games, except the bronze medal final against Sweden. With that bronze, Jones claimed her second world championship medal in four tries.

At the 2013 Tournament of Hearts, where her Manitoba rink finished second, Jones became the second Canadian woman to record 100 wins as a skip at the Canadian championships.

2014 Olympics

Jones competed at the 2013 Canadian Olympic Curling Trials where she managed to qualify as the top seed through the round robin play which meant the team went directly to the finals. There she defeated Sherry Middaugh ten to four and won the right to represent Canada at the Olympics for the first time. She skipped the Canadian women's team at the 2014 Winter Olympics to a Gold medal. She is the first ever female skip in Olympic history to be undefeated throughout the tournament.

Personal life

Jones, a lawyer, is a corporate counsel for National Bank Financial and a Windsor Park Collegiate graduate. She also attended the University of Manitoba. Jones is in a relationship with fellow curler Brent Laing. Jones gave birth to her first child, Isabella Laing in November 2012. Jones was previously married to Scott Labonte.

Grand Slam record

Jones has won a career eight Grand Slam victories, more than any other female skip. She has won in five different Slams, but two of which are defunct, and she has yet to win the two new Slams added in 2012.

Key
C	Champion
F	Lost in Final
SF	Lost in Semifinal
QF	Lost in Quarterfinals
R16	Lost in the round of 16
Q	Did not advance to playoffs
T2	Played in Tier 2 event
DNP	Did not participate in event
N/A	Not a Grand Slam event that season

Event	2006–07	2007–08	2008–09	2009–10	2010–11	2011–12	2012–13*	2013–14
Autumn Gold	Q	C	Q	C	SF	Q	DNP	QF
Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries	F	F	QF	F	QF	QF	DNP	C
Masters	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	DNP	SF
Colonial Square	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	DNP	C
Players'	C	Q	C	QF	C	SF	SF

Former Events

Event	2006–07	2007–08	2008–09	2009–10	2010–11
Wayden Transportation	QF	Q	C	N/A	N/A
Sobeys Slam	N/A	Q	Q	N/A	C

• Jones did not play at the beginning of the 2012–13 season due to her pregnancy. She returned to the team in January, in time for that year's Players' slam.

Teams

Season	Skip	Third	Second	Lead
1990–91	Jill Staub	Jennifer Jones	Kristie Moroz	Kelly Mackenzie
1992–93	Jennifer Jones	Trisha Baldwin	Jill Officer	Dana Malanchuk
1993–94	Jennifer Jones	Trisha Baldwin	Jill Officer	Dana Malanchuk
1998–99	Karen Porritt	Jennifer Jones	Patti Burtnyk	Jill Officer
2000–01	Jennifer Jones	Karen Porritt	Lynn Fallis-Kurz	Dana Allerton
2001–02	Jennifer Jones	Karen Porritt	Lynn Fallis-Kurz	Dana Allerton
2002–03	Jennifer Jones	Kimberly Keizer	Lynn Fallis-Kurz	Dana Allerton
2003–04	Jennifer Jones	Karen Porritt	Jill Officer	Lynn Fallis-Kurz
2004–05	Jennifer Jones	Cathy Overton-Clapham	Jill Officer	Cathy Gauthier
2005–06	Jennifer Jones	Cathy Overton-Clapham	Jill Officer	Georgina Wheatcroft
2006–07	Jennifer Jones	Cathy Overton-Clapham	Jill Officer	Dana Allerton / Janet Arnott
2007–08	Jennifer Jones	Cathy Overton-Clapham	Jill Officer	Dawn Askin
2008–09	Jennifer Jones	Cathy Overton-Clapham	Jill Officer	Dawn Askin
2009–10	Jennifer Jones	Cathy Overton-Clapham	Jill Officer	Dawn Askin
2010–11	Jennifer Jones	Kaitlyn Lawes	Jill Officer	Dawn Askin
2011–12	Jennifer Jones	Kaitlyn Lawes	Joëlle Sabourin (Sept–Dec) Jill Officer (Jan–April)	Dawn Askin
2013 1	Jennifer Jones	Kaitlyn Lawes	Jill Officer	Dawn Askin
2013–14	Jennifer Jones	Kaitlyn Lawes	Jill Officer	Dawn (Askin) McEwen

Notes

1. ^ Jones was on maternity leave for the beginning of the 2012–13 curling season, and returned to her team in January 2013.

Commercials

Jones has appeared in Canadian television commercials for Scotties facial tissues and Capital One credit cards.

External links

• Jennifer Jones on the World Curling database

Jennifer Jones on the World Curling Tour database (archived)

• Team Jennifer Jones
• Olympic profile