Jennifer Jones is out of medal contention at the Beijing Olympics after the Canadian rink didn’t get the results it needed in the final draw of women’s curling round-robin play.
Jones (5-4) beat Denmark’s Madeleine Dupont 10-4 in eight ends, but then watched three other games end with the wrong results for the Canadians on Thursday.
We finished on a winning note but our final round robin result came up short of what we wanted for these Games.
We fought hard and never gave up.
It’s been an absolute privilege to compete at the Olympics for Canada.
Thank you for all the love, .
: Stephen Fisher/WCF pic.twitter.com/Ask2IZdmeW
— Team Jennifer Jones (@TeamJJonesCurl) February 17, 2022
As a result, Canada will not win a medal in women’s curling for the second Olympics in a row after Rachel Homan also missed the semifinals in 2018.
“It was totally out of our control,” Jones told CBC. “You just kind of (wait) out there and obviously we’re hoping for results and it didn’t happen … It just didn’t work out the way we wanted it to.”
The easiest path for Jones, Kaitlyn Lawes, Jocelyn Peterman and Dawn McEwen to make the semis was a win combined with a Japan victory over Switzerland. But the Swiss scored three in the ninth to pull away and beat Japan 8-4.
With Japan’s loss, the combination of Great Britain’s win over the Russians and Sweden’s win over South Korea eliminated Canada.
Great Britain scored four in the ninth end to cap a 9-4 victory over the Russians. Sweden, coached by Canadian Wayne Middaugh, then sealed Canada’s fate with a 8-4 win over the Koreans.
Just two of eight potential scenarios — if Canada beat Denmark — had the Canadians missing the playoffs. But one of them played out and eliminated the Winnipeg rink based on the pre-game draw shot challenge tiebreaker, where the 2014 Olympic champs struggled.
“We came here and we enjoyed the Olympic experience from start to finish,” Jones said. “I can tell everybody at home that we tried our very best. There was probably about six shots that I can really remember that we’d probably like to have over again. We’re really sorry we don’t get to play again. We tried our very hardest and we had a ton of fun.
“I think we embodied what the Olympics is all about – enjoying the experience, laying it all on the ice and not being scared to lose and just trying to be our very best. We did that all week. It’s devastating to not move on, but at the end of the day we have no regrets.”
Canada fought back from a 1-3 start to put itself in playoff contention, but an extra-end loss against China in the penultimate draw forced Jones into a position where help was required to make the playoffs.
Lawes was fighting back tears in her CBC interview.
“I’m really proud of our fight. Like Jocelyn said, we never gave up,” Lawes said. “We got off to a little bit of a slow start but we didn’t let that deter us from our end goal. Just really, really proud of this team. Really grateful.
Japan and Great Britain, which finished with the same record as Jones, got the final two semifinal spots.
Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni (8-1) will face Japan’s Satsuki Fujisawa and Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg (7-2), the reigning Olympic champ, will meet Great Britain’s Eve Muirhead in the semifinals Friday at 7:05 a.m. ET.
Jones’ elimination was another rough curling moment for Canada in Beijing. The mixed doubles team of Homan and John Morris was eliminated when Canada missed its final shot in the final draw of round-robin play.
Brad Gushue will try to prevent a curling shutout for Canada. He faces Niklas Edin of Sweden in a men’s semifinal Thursday at 7:05 a.m.
