Iced Out: Team Christina Black extra motivated after National Team Program snub

Christina Black’s curling team was already motivated to achieve big things this season after making it all the way to the final of the Olympic Trials last fall.

Missing the cut for Curling Canada’s national team program has only added fuel to the Halifax rink’s fire.

“We’ll just go out there and win on our own and just show them what we can do,” Black said.

Teams skipped by Rachel Homan and Kerri Einarson were slam dunks for this season’s NTP women’s team list that was communicated to teams last May and publicly released in August.

However, the selection of teams skipped by Taylor Reese-Hansen and Serena Gray-Withers raised eyebrows since Curling Canada policy states at least one athlete from each team must have competed at the Trials.

The Reese-Hansen and Gray-Withers rinks didn’t play at the competition won by Homan, yet were still selected.

That meant teams skipped by Black and Selena Sturmay just missed the cut, denying them the high-performance support and funding provided to NTP teams.

“They decided other teams were better suited with what they wanted moving forward,” said Team Black third Jill Brothers. “So we kind of got left behind and it was definitely a disappointing, upsetting time.

“We have put in so much work over these past three years to prove that we belong there and belong in an area to have that support.”

The Black and Sturmay rinks teamed up to appeal the Curling Canada decision with the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada. However, an arbitrator sided with the national sport organization in a ruling on Aug. 31.

“None of us had ever experienced anything like this before,” Black said of her team. “We didn’t really know what to expect at all, but learned a lot.

“I felt like I became a bit of a lawyer over a couple months there, trying to figure out how to do all of it. It was quite involved and quite thorough.”

In the 23-page decision, it was noted that Curling Canada’s selection panel exercised discretion under its selection policy to pick Reese-Hansen’s team.

In addition, Team Gray-Withers second Laura Walker, a non-playing alternate on Team Kaitlyn Lawes at the Trials, was deemed a competitor at the event even though she didn’t play.

Section 14.2 of Curling Canada’s selection policy says the organization’s executive director may approve exceptions or adjustments to maintain alignment with its high-performance strategy.

“Team Gray-Withers met the eligibility criteria through having a team member who did compete in the Olympic Trials, while Team Reese-Hansen and other applications were considered under the additional provisions within the published selection policy,” executive director of high performance David Murdoch said Thursday in an emailed statement.

“All teams were assessed against the relevant selection criteria as part of the established process.”

Team Kayla MacMillan was named as a development team on the Curling Canada list. Teams skipped by Brad Jacobs, Matt Dunstone, Tyler Tardi and Brendan Bottcher were named on the men’s list while Jordon McDonald’s rink was named as the men’s development team.

“We felt we had a very strong application,” Brothers said. “We had the credentials to back it up. We are ready to compete with the rest of the world. We’ve proven that.”

Black, who finished third at the national championship last year and in 2018, has gone undefeated in her last two tour events. Her next competition is the Nov. 17-22 HearingLife National, a Grand Slam of Curling stop in Sydney, N.S.

“We’re capable of winning every game when we go out there,” Black said. “We’re good. We love curling and we’re a great team. So I think we’ve proven it enough over and over again.”

Sturmay is also enjoying a solid season. She beat Homan en route to a semifinal appearance at the P&H Masters this month in Medicine Hat, Alta.

The Edmonton skip, whose team still qualifies for next-gen funding, has put the lost appeal behind her.

“I wouldn’t really say it’s necessarily a motivator,” she said. “All of those teams that they picked are great teams. They’re really strong individual athletes. So I think going into this season, we just really wanted to improve.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2026.

Gregory Strong, The Canadian Press