With the COVID-19 global pandemic putting a halt to most sports - including curling - for the foreseeable future, TSN will deliver classic curling matches every Sunday night to help fill the granite void. Check out the preview for this Sunday's games featuring the 2009 and 2013 Roar of the Rings Olympic trials.


The toughest bonspiel in Canadian curling is the Roar of the Rings Olympic trials.

The ultimate goal in the granite game is to capture gold at the Olympics and the only way to get there - if you’re Canadian - is to win the trials against the best of best from across the country. Nowadays, elite-level teams build their squads with the sole intention of qualifying and winning the prestigious tournament that happens at the end of every four-year cycle.

On this weekend’s version of Sunday Sweeps, you can relive the men’s and women’s finals from both the 2009 and 2013 Olympic trials as well as the game that featured a special appearance from the legendary Ron Burgundy.


Sunday Sweeps Broadcast Schedule

10am ET on TSN1, TSN Direct - 2009 Roar of the Rings Women’s Final: Cheryl Bernard vs. Shannon Kleibrink

1pm ET on TSN1, TSN Direct - 2009 Roar of the Rings Men’s Final: Kevin Martin vs. Glenn Howard

4pm ET on TSN1, TSN Direct - 2013 Roar of the Rings: Ron Burgundy game (Jennifer Jones vs. Chelsea Carey)

7pm ET on TSN1, TSN Direct - 2013 Roar of the Rings Women’s Final: Jennifer Jones vs. Sherry Middaugh

10pm ET on TSN1, TSN Direct - 2013 Roar of the Rings Men’s Final: Brad Jacobs vs. John Morris


Grande Prairie’s Cheryl Bernard came into the 2009 Olympic trials as a contender, but maybe not the favourite. Jennifer Jones was the two-time defending Scotties Tournament of Hearts champion while Kelly Scott had won back-to-back titles the previous two years.

However, playing in front of hometown fans at packed Rexall Place in Edmonton, it turned out to be Bernard’s week. Team Bernard including third Susan O’Connor, second Carolyn Darbyshire and lead Cori Bartel finished first in the round robin with a 6-1 record as Team Jones and Team Scott both struggled, going 2-5 and 1-6, respectively.

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Team Bernard got a bye straight to the final and would face Alberta counterpart Shannon Kleibrink with a spot to the Olympics on the line, the first game of TSN’s curling marathon, starting Sunday morning at 10am ET on TSN1.

This was Kleibrink’s third career Olympic trials final. The 2006 Olympic silver medalist lost the 1998 trials final to Sandra Schmirler and then beat Scott in 2005. However, not much could have matched the pressure of the 2009 final as the winner would represent Canada at the Winter Olympics on home soil just a province over in Vancouver.

Bernard led 4-2 after six ends before Kleibrink put up the first multi-point end, notching three in the seventh to lead 5-4. Bernard took the lead back with a pair in the next end before Kleibrink squared everything up in the ninth. Like all great finals, it came down to the last shot as the skip needed to draw to the eight-foot for a chance to wear the Red and White. The sweepers never touched it out of Bernard’s hand and it looked as though it might slide too far, but it didn’t and Team Bernard booked a ticket to the Olympics in dramatic fashion.

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During that very same week in Edmonton, the likes of Kevin Martin, Glenn Howard, Jeff Stoughton, Kevin Koe, Randy Ferbey, Wayne Middaugh, Pat Simmons and Jason Gunnlaugson were battling it out for the same honour.

Martin’s squad of third John Morris, second Marc Kennedy and lead Ben Hebert came into the week as back-to-back Canadian champs, having beat Team Howard in the 2008 final.

At the 2009 Roar of the Rings, Martin and Howard were once again the top two contenders by a wide margin. Both finished at the top of the table with 6-1 records following round-robin play with Martin getting the bye to the gold-medal game after edging Howard 8-6 in the seventh and final draw.

Howard beat Stoughton 11-6 in the semi to set up another classic championship tilt with the Old Bear, a game you can catch at 1pm ET on TSN1.

Team Martin blanked the first end, scored a deuce in the second and stole a single in the third en route to the convincing 7-3 victory.

Just a few months prior, Martin and company dropped the world final to Scotland’s David Murdoch in heartbreaking fashion in Moncton. The skipper elected to throw away his second last shot in that game, a strategic decision that backfired and led to the upset win by the Scots.

Martin says the bump in the road might have been the best thing for them at the time.

"If we go through and win the worlds in '09 and we hadn't already lost a game, what are the odds of us actually going to the 2010 Olympics?” Martin said in a recent interview. “I think complacency would of set in. I think Glenn [Howard] would of went [to the Olympics]. It wouldn't have been us. So, I think that loss in '09 gave us that shot to the chin we needed to wake us up."

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In Vancouver, Team Martin ran the table to strike gold while Team Bernard took silver.

Skip ahead four years and now the best curlers in Canada are in Winnipeg for the 2013 Roar of the Rings. That year’s tournament kicked off with quite the bang as well, not for who was playing on the ice, but for who was performing in the broadcast booth.

While on a promotional tour for Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, the legendary Ron Burgundy (played by actor Will Ferrell) paid a stop at MTS Centre to visit TSN curling commentators Vic Rauter, Linda Moore and Russ Howard. Burgundy hung out for a few ends during the opening draw match between Team Chelsea Carey and the hometown rink led by Jones, the third game airing this Sunday on TSN1 at 4pm ET.

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Jones hammered Carey 10-2 before winning five of her last six games in the round robin to book a spot in the gold medal-game.

After a disappointing result at the 2009 trials, Team Jones would go on to win their third straight Canadian championship a few months later. However, Jones surprised everybody when at the end of the season she decided to part ways with long time vice Cathy Overton-Clapham and replace her with youngster Kaitlyn Lawes, who had just wrapped up a successful run in juniors.

With her new lineup, Team Jones made another Scotties final in 2011, losing to Amber Holland of Saskatchewan. She would lose another Canadian final in early 2013, this time to Rachel Homan.

But, the 2013 trials was the real reason why the sudden change was made and now it was time to find out if it was the right one.

After beating Team Homan in the semi-final, Ontario’s Sherry Middaugh was the opponent for Jones in the final, the fourth game you catch Sunday at 7pm ET on TSN1.    

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Three spots in both the second and seventh ends proved to be the difference as Jones, Lawes, Jill Officer and Dawn McEwen were headed to the Sochi Olympics following the commanding 8-4 win.

"It's pushing 20 years," Officer said after the game. "Absolutely, we're totally like sisters. It's just so amazing to share it with her and to share it with Kaitlyn and Dawn, too. We just have such great dynamics on this team. We just love playing with each other."

On the men’s side of the draw, Brad Jacobs and his rink from Sault Ste. Marie entered the week as an emerging force in Canadian curling after winning their first Brier earlier in the year, topping Stoughton in the final. They qualified for the trials by finishing in the top two of the Road to the Roar Pre Trials a few weeks prior. 

In the round robin, Jacobs, Ryan Fry and brothers E.J. and Ryan Harnden won all seven of their games, shooting an impressive 87 per cent, highlighted by an epic winning-shot in Draw 13 against the defending Olympic champs Team Martin.

Jacobs would battle Morris, who also qualified via the Pre Trials, in the final after he defeated his former skip in the semis, the fifth and final game you can catch at 10pm ET on TSN1. The game was knotted at 3-3 at the break before Team Jacobs scored a pair in the sixth end. They put the game away with another deuce in the ninth, winning 7-4.

"Brad Jacobs might be the hottest curler in the world," TSN’s Russ Howard said after the game. "They were very impressive. To go through the Olympic trials 8-0, that's a pretty tough bonspiel."

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For Jones and Jacobs, the wins in Winnipeg were just the beginning as both dominated at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, to capture double gold for Canada.

Relive all the action this Sunday on TSN!