Quebec's Team St-Georges add veteran curlers Larouche, Sinclair
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Quebec's Team Laurie St-Georges announced two major additions to their lineup starting in the 2023-24 season.
Team St-Georges, who have represented the province at the past three Scotties Tournament of Hearts, revealed on social media Wednesday evening that they've added seven-time provincial champion Marie-France Larouche as well as Jamie Sinclair, who has represented the United States at the World Women's Curling Championships on two occasions.
The two veteran curlers join a young team led by 25-year-old skip St-Georges as well as 25-year-old Emily Riley and 23-year-old Kelly Middaugh. Earlier this month, Team St-Georges announced Alanna Routledge would be leaving the team. The Quebec rink haven't announced a throwing order going into next season.
Larouche, 42, has skipped Quebec at the Tournament of Hearts seven times in her career with her best result coming at the 2004 Scotties in Red Deer when her rink fell to Nova Scotia's Team Colleen Jones in the final. Larouche also captured the bronze-medal at the 2009 Scotties in Victoria. Her last appearance as a regular player came in 2016 when she finished with a 5-6 record.
The native of Levis won gold at the 2022 World Mixed Curling Championship earlier this season in October.
Sinclair, a 31-year-old dual citizen, grew up in Ontario, but has represented the United States during her pro curling career, winning national titles in 2017, 2018 and 2019. She posted a 6-6 record at the women's worlds in 2018, losing to Jennifer Jones and Team Canada in the semi-final. She went 6-6 again at the 2019 worlds, but it wasn't good enough to make the playoffs. She played two seasons for Rachel Homan back in junior, winning gold at the 2007 Canada Winter Games in Whitehorse.
St-Georges and company almost got Quebec into the Scotties playoffs for the first time since 2012 last month in Kamloops, B.C., after a 5-3 round-robin, but fell to British Columbia's Team Clancy Grandy in a tiebreaker.
Larouche was the last skip to get the province into the Scotties playoffs.
Team St-Georges went 3-5 last year and 6-6 in her Scotties debut inside the Calgary bubble in 2021. Due to COVID-19 cancelling playdowns, Curling Quebec selected St-Georges to represent the province at the 2021 and 2022 Scotties before she won her first provincial title in January.
St. Georges, Riley and Larouche all live in Quebec while Middaugh and Sinclair reside in Ontario. Teams are only allowed one import to compete at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.