The Olympic Trials are looming large in mixed doubles curling with recent shuffling by Canada’s curling body. That means that local favourite Kirk Muyres, and long-time dedicated mixed doubles partner Laura Walker are in the home stretch toward the competition that sees who will represent Canada in the discipline at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina, Italy.
For Walker and Muyres, it’s all about curling against the top Canadian competitors and ramping up to peak at the right time. Kirk Muyres talked about the opening of the mixed doubles season in preparation for the critical juncture that’s fast approaching. The pair has already secured a spot in the Olympic Trials to be held in Liverpool, PEI from December 30, 2024 through January 4, 2025.
“We were in Abbotsford (for one of the pre-trials competitions), and early in the season we hope we play better. We’re playing pretty good, but not great. At the same time, that gives us opportunities to learn what we need to do and get better at.”
That desire for improvement was channeled into a week of training back in Laura’s hometown of Edmonton. The pair gathered with their coaches, hit the ice for some technical work and hit the strategy side. After a week off back home in Humboldt, the St. Gregor native is getting set for the next stop from November 21-24 in Guelph, ON for another qualifier and another chance to up the ante.
“As we go along in this process, we hold our standards higher and higher as we go. We’ve played in three events this fall; we qualified in three and lost one final. So, it certainly hasn’t been a bad season by any means – it's just some of the really small details we’re looking to fine tune. We’ve really focused on them in the last little while. Hopefully we can put that together for the next couple events leading into the Trials over the New Year.”
Those trials were bumped up considerably by Curling Canada with an eye to allowing a greater degree of preparation, particularly by curlers like Walker and Muyres who are singularly dedicated to the mixed doubles sport.
“I think in the past, they always wanted to treat it as a second fiddle after the men’s and women’s four player trials. Those always ran in the November before the Olympics, then after that they’d run the mixed doubles trials.”
That left only three weeks between the trials and the Olympics themselves, leaving precious little time for travel arrangements, logistics, training and preparation against world opponents, appearances and sponsor commitments. It left the players exhausted and on a very short runway into competition.
“Now the winners of the trials will have a year to do all those things instead of having only three weeks. It’s absolutely the right move and really well thought out by the curling association. It gives the best chance to our Canadian rep to be successful when it comes to the Olympics in 2026.”
The year gap allows the winning reps to have some time to prepare against their world competitors, all of whom have been engaged in international competitions and not just competitors in their own countries. It’s another strategic advantage the new timeline affords Canadian mixed doubles Olympic hopefuls, says Muyres.
Having a pre-booked spot in the end of year trials also allows Laura and Kirk to design their season in a way that allows for that peak in late December. The scramble of landing a trials spot isn’t there, so while the competition is intense, there’s a more strategic approach taken to the competitions leading up to the trials that better suits a training mode, Muyres offers.
Also in the off week, Muyres has his eyes set on organizing another set of events, this one geared for up-and-coming curlers. Corr Grain’s Community Rocks returns with its clinics taking place in three lucky Saskatchewan curling clubs. Those clubs are set to be announced this week, and preparations will soon be underway for Kirk and Laura to hit the road connecting with a new generation of curlers.
Keep your eyes open for the Community Rocks announcement and more from Kirk Muyres as he and Laura Walker pursue their Winter Olympics dreams.
Enjoy the full conversation with Kirk Muyres below.