Kara Thevenot from team Silvernagle. (supplied photo/Anil Mungal)

By Keaton Brown

equal opportunity

Curling Canada leads the way in equality between men’s and women’s events

Dec 2, 2019 | 2:32 PM

Curling is leading the way when it comes to equality in men’s and women’s sports.

Curling Canada announced yesterday at the Canada Cup finals that the men’s and women’s curling teams will play for the same prize money at the 2020 Tim Hortons Brier and Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

The Brier and the Tournament of Hearts are the national championships for the Canadian men’s and women’s teams respectively. They will now offer a total purse of $300,000 to the competing teams.

The prize breakdowns will be $100,500 for first place, $65,000 for second place and $45,000 for a third place finish. The remaining $85,000 from the purse will be distributed to the other 13 teams based on their standings.

In the previous years, the men’s championship had a total purse of $293,000, with the team winning the Brier taking home $100,500. The women’s championship had a total purse of $165,000 with the winning team taking home $59,000.

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The teams that wins the national championship at either the Brier or Scotties will also continue to earn Sports Canada Funding which has provided nearly $170,000 per team over the last two years.

Kara Thevenot, who plays lead on team Silvernagle and finished with a bronze medal at last year’s Tournament of Hearts, said this was exciting news for all female curlers in Canada.

“We think it is fantastic; it is a sport where all the competitors are putting in the same time and effort. To be recognized at a national level is fantastic. It is just great for our sport and it is great we get the same money as the men for playing in basically the same event,” she said.

Thevenot said a lot of time and effort goes into competing at these events and it is nice to see equal rewards for their endeavor.

“It is just great to know that there is a big amount. There is a lot of time and effort that goes into it. You are away from work to play at these big events so it is great that when you do well you are rewarded with those prize amounts at the end of the day,” she said.

Team Silvernagle will have this week off before they travel to Newfoundland to compete in The National Grand Slam of Curling event Dec. 10 to 15.

Thevenot also said team Silvernagle has qualified through points on the Canadian Team Ranking System to compete in provincials in Melville, Saskatchewan in January. The cut off to qualify through points was today, but no official word yet from Curl Sask.

The Tim Hortons Brier will be Feb. 29 to March 8 in Kingston, Ontario and the Scotties Tournament of Hearts runs from Feb. 15 to 23 in Moose Jaw, Sask.

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Keaton.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow