CORTINA D’AMPEZZO — Canada’s Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant tried their best to get acclimated to their new time zone in Italy while preparing for mixed doubles competition at the Winter Olympics.
The wee-hours timing of last Sunday’s final at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts -- involving Peterman’s four-player team -- made things difficult for the Team Kaitlyn Lawes second, who missed the event to prepare for the Games.
“I sent them good-luck messages before bed and then tried as hard as I could not to check the scores (so I could) get a good night’s sleep,” Peterman said. “And then once it was an appropriate time to get up and watch the highlights, I watched some of the ends.
“It’s hard not to, you’re part of the team.”
Lawes dropped a 4-3 decision to Canada’s Kerri Einarson in the final. Einarson clinched it with a single point in an extra end.
The final started at 1 a.m. local time in Italy.
“I’m a big team gal, and those are my girls and we’ve been in the trenches together for four years,” Peterman said after a recent training session at the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium. “So not easy, you know, not being there and watching from afar.”
Laura Walker served as Peterman’s replacement during the 10-day competition in Mississauga, Ont., helping Lawes sweep the round-robin games before qualifying for the final.
Einarson, meanwhile, will represent Canada at the world women’s curling championship next month in Calgary.
LIGHTS OUT
There were no lingering power issues at the 3,450-seat Olympic curling venue Thursday after a brief outage in the opening round-robin session a night earlier.
Play was delayed for about five minutes in the opening end when most of the lights went out at the four-sheet facility.
Tom Brewster, the venue’s sports manager for curling and wheelchair curling, said he has yet to receive a full report on the cause.
“It was not a venue issue but a grid issue,” he said in a text message. “Half of Cortina had a power outage. We have good backups in place and could continue with no problems. Some lights took a few minutes to reset.”
Curling continues through the final day of the Games on Feb. 22.
OPENING CEREMONY
Gallant and Peterman are not planning to attend Friday’s opening ceremony near the main drag in Cortina.
Canada has a round-robin game against the United States on Friday morning. The ceremony was scheduled for late afternoon.
“I think we’re just sticking to the curling,” Gallant said. “We’d love to. I think that we’re going to watch it if we can, but we have such a busy schedule. A lot of games in a short amount of time.
“So we might dress up in our garb and take a few pictures with the rings, but just get our rest and get our relaxation when we can.”
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 5, 2026.
Gregory Strong, The Canadian Press
