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EspañolEven though the women’s world championship is just around the corner, two-time defending champ Team Rachel Homan will be sitting at home, watching on the television like everyone else.
In order to reach the women’s world championship in Canada, you need to win the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, something Homan’s team didn’t compete in this season.
However, according to Homan’s longtime teammate Emma Miskew, who has won five Scotties championships, it’s not because the team didn’t want to be there.
“We weren’t given a choice,” Miskew said on the Broom Brothers podcast, which was published Monday.
Miskew and teammates Homan, Tracy Fleury and Sarah Wilkes are coming off an Olympic bronze-medal win just over a week ago at Milano Cortina 2026.
But, now, their season as a team is over.
To wear the maple leaf at the Olympic Games, you have to win the trials, which Homan easily did. With the win, however, came a decision made by Curling Canada in the summer of 2025 that was relayed to all the teams competing at those trials.
Curling Canada “strongly recommended” the winner shouldn’t compete in the Scotties because of its proximity to the Olympics.
“Our viewpoint was based on focusing performance on the Olympics, and with the four-player teams’ departure scheduled for a couple days after the conclusion of the Scotties, it was determined that it would not be in the best interest of the women’s trials winners to compete in the Scotties, and go through the pressure and rigours of potentially 10 days of competition, and then turn around and fly to Europe and compete in an even more pressure-packed event less than two weeks later,” a Curling Canada spokesperson told Sportsnet.
“The teams and entire high-performance program understand that rest and preparation for the Olympics is paramount over competing in the Nationals.”
The Scotties took place from Jan. 23 to Feb. 1, while the women’s discipline at the Olympic event began on Feb. 12.
Miskew understands that logic.
“(Playing in the Scotties) probably wouldn’t be ideal prep heading into an Olympics,” she said.
But there are also larger issues, Miskew said.
“I think our biggest issue with it is that for the last 16 years now, so, multiple (quadrennials), the men can do both and the women cannot,” she said. “It’s always this scheduling-conflict reason, but no one has ever made any effort to change the schedule so that it doesn’t only affect the women.”
Not only did Miskew and her rink lose out on defending their Scotties championship for the third year in a row, but they also lost out on up to $100,000 of prize money.
“One of the biggest things about it too is the prize purse at the Scotties and the Brier is substantial, and we aren’t given the opportunity to play for any of that purse, nor do you get any compensation for winning the trials,” Miskew said on the podcast. “So, yeah, we were just a little disappointed that it’s continuing to be an issue where there’s an inequality between the men and the women.”
Asked by Sportsnet if Team Homan will receive compensation for winning trials and not getting to compete in the Scotties, a Curling Canada spokesperson replied, “They had access to financial incentives and support through the Canadian Olympic Committee, based on Olympic qualification and performance.”
Miskew said that when word was starting to spread that they chose not to go to the Scotties, Curling Canada didn’t tell people why.
“No one piped up from Curling Canada and said, ‘Actually, we said they couldn’t go.’ So, it made it look (bad), and, especially too, because the Scotties were in Mississauga (and) we’ve repped Ontario for years,” Miskew said. “We had a lot of people that bought tickets and stuff expecting us to be there.”
The spokesperson for Curling Canada said, “We did (put out a comment). Our response was distributed to media outlets that were asking this question in December.” In a story published on Dec. 2, The Canadian Press cited a statement provided by Curling Canada that said Team Homan would “not return to defend” its title, but more specifics were not given.
Curling Canada’s ticket announcement said, “With Team Rachel Homan’s victory at the Montana’s Canadian Curling Trials … her trip to the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy means she will not play as Team Canada at the 2026 Scotties.” No further reason was cited.
Would Team Homan have played if the schedule had been changed?
“It’s hard to know because we knew we weren’t given the option. Maybe we would have not played like the (Players’ Championship) and then done the Scotties,” Miskew said. “We don’t fully know what we would have decided to do, but we weren’t given a choice. Or, if it was like a week earlier, probably would have been a great opportunity to get some games.”
Miskew pointed to the fact Brad Jacobs (who won the Olympic gold medal) was allowed to play in the Brier that started just six days after his gold-medal match.
“Jacobs is (playing in the Brier). They’re probably tired, but (Curling Canada) doesn’t care because they’ve already played the Olympics, got the result, and now they can go and play free, for a good sum of money,” Miskew told John Cullen on the Broom Brothers podcast.
“Realistically, (Jacobs) is going to make the playoffs, which comes with at least 30 or 40 grand or whatever it is. I mean, it’s not even all about the money. It’s kind of the principle, too.”
Dates for the Scotties during the next Olympic year are already set and, if nothing changes, the same problem would happen. The Scotties are scheduled for Jan. 18-27, 2030, while the first day of the Olympics is Feb. 1, 2030.
So, will Curling Canada look into changing the schedule?
“Curling Canada will be discussing the schedule with the Athlete Council to get more feedback before we finalize any plans for the 2030 quadrennial. Changing dates would create some issues with other events such as the Grand Slam of Curling, the Rock League, and our Member Associations and their playdown systems but we will look at all avenues before making any final decisions for the next quadrennial,” the spokesperson said, adding shifting dates would create “many domino effects for other curling stakeholders.”
A spokesperson for The Curling Group, which owns the Rock League and Grand Slam of Curling, said it hasn’t nailed down dates beyond the 2027-28 season for Rock League or GSOC events.
