By Adam Laskaris
When Val Sweeting was trying to figure out what was next in her curling career, she admits there was a little hesitancy over what the upcoming few seasons would look like.
“There's been moments in the last couple years where I wasn't too sure what was going to be next for me, if it was my time to move into something else or take on a different role in the sport,” Sweeting said in an interview with GSOC. “It wasn’t any one thing in particular. I think it was just looking at the big picture.”
After weighing her options, the five-time Scotties Tournament of Hearts champion, eight-time Grand Slam winner, and recent world silver medallist ended up linking up with the Victoria-based Team MacMillan for the next chapter of her story.
“I just realized that I wanted to keep going,” Sweeting added. “Ultimately, there's still that motivation, and that fire is still there.”
The 38-year-old Sweeting’s new rink consists of players a decade younger than her or more: 28-year-old skip Kayla MacMillan, 26-year-old second Lindsay Dubue, and 25-year-old lead Lauren Lenentine.
With the mix of her experience combined with her new teammates’ motivation to reach new heights in their careers, Sweeting is optimistic about the new opportunity with a team that finished this season ranked 23rd in the world and seventh in Canada.
“I think we're very similar in a lot of ways,” Sweeting said. “We have that kind of quiet confidence and calm confidence, and I think that will feed off each other really well.”
Reflecting on Team Einarson
Sweeting had spent the last eight years playing alongside Kerri Einarson and Shannon Birchard, with a few lineup changes seeing Briane Harris, Karlee Burgess, and Krysten Karwacki in the mix at various points over the last two quadrennials.
Dealing with the challenges of seeing a world championship berth taken away due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a provisional suspension to Harris due to a banned substance that was later overturned, and an injury to Birchard that resulted in bringing in Burgess midway through the 2024-25 season, there certainly was no shortage of storylines surrounding the team.
“That was wild,” Sweeting said of her team’s several lineup changes. “There's always going to be adversity, I think some of those situations are a little bit unique. But I think to still be where we were at while going through that, I think said a lot about the resilience that the team had. I’m definitely grateful for the success that we had all those years.”
Einarson’s team was ranked as high as No. 1 and landed on the world podium three times, including the aforementioned silver medal earlier this year. The team suffered a few other tough losses — in the Canadian Olympic Trials semifinal this past year and a tiebreaker in the same event in 2021, the 2025 Scotties final and nine Grand Slam finals.
But there’s not too much dejection at the “what-ifs” of her former rink’s time together.
“Even though there were things we could have done differently, for sure … overall I was happy with our performance, and what we were still able to accomplish,” Sweeting said.
With schedules still to be finalized for next season, plenty of eyes will be on the first MacMillan vs. Einarson matchup, though Sweeting downplayed the added hype around it.
“I think it's probably always a little bit weird playing your old teammates for the first time, but we’re probably going to be at a lot of the same events and see each other. I'm sure that it'll be fine,” Sweeting said of the first time she’ll face her old rink.
The next great Canadian women’s rink?
It’s no secret that trying to climb up the sport’s various ranking systems — the World Curling rankings, the Canadian Team Ranking System and the newly introduced GSOC ranking system — can be a daunting task for many teams on the rise. In theory, it’s simple: the more you win, the better you’ll rank.
But an issue that’s plagued many a Canadian women’s rink over the past few years: how exactly do you make the jump to the world’s elite?
“Although it's a little bit more condensed, there's more avenues to get into the Slams,” Sweeting said, referencing the new satellite event structure, which allows direct entry into events. “I think getting off to a good start in the season will help accumulate those points, which will also help break into the top in the world [rankings].”
Each of the past two editions of the end-of-season Players’ Championship Grand Slam events showcasing the sport’s best-of-the-best have featured just two Canadian women’s teams, skipped by Rachel Homan and Sweeting’s former rink.
A decade ago, there were seven Canadian women's teams in the 12-team field, and 13 of 15 in 2006. It’s no secret that while the top teams in Canada have remained successful on the world stage, the depth of talent has been a step behind previous generations relative to other teams in the world.
“You see a lot of the international teams, they play a lot of events, they train really hard, and I think that's what it's going to take [to crack into the elite tier of teams]. We've been doing a lot of planning on what we can do, and I think it's going to take practicing more, getting together as much as we can, and just really working harder than a lot of the international teams,” Sweeting said. “I think that this team is completely on board to do that.”
Sweeting mentioned Xenia Schwaller’s rink out of Switzerland — who picked up their first world title with four players 23 or younger — as a blueprint for the effort and training level needed to jump.
“[My new teammates] work super hard, they look at the little details and have focused training,” Sweeting said. “I felt really aligned with how they operate, and on the same page. I think that's key in building a new team, is having similar philosophies.”
Both MacMillan and Dubue have jobs in curling, working with Curl BC’s high performance team.
And while there will be challenges to crack the next level, the MacMillan rink does have a bit of a secret weapon, though — the guidance of Niklas Edin, who has coached them in the past.
“We still need to finalize his role within the team, and what that could look like, because there's a lot of layers to that. I look forward to learning with the team,” Sweeting said. “I was joking with him, he just knows how to win world championships, but yeah, he's a super talented player and has kind of a different eye for the game.”
Navigating the real-life balance of curling
Based near St. Paul, Alta., about two-and-a-half hours north of Edmonton, Sweeting’s the odd one out among her new lineup, who all reside in British Columbia. But splitting her individual practice time between her home province and B.C. won’t be all that different from her time representing Manitoba the last eight years, even if she’ll find herself training in a few different rinks in St. Paul, Edmonton, and Victoria.
“They're flexible about coming to Edmonton as much as they can, or getting together before events, or it could be me going there,” Sweeting said, mentioning the team already had an end-of-April training camp shortly after their new roster was announced.
Planning out the season requires added care for Sweeting, as her son Jaxen has the rare genetic disorder SATB2 syndrome, which affects speech, cognitive function and motor skills. But support from her boyfriend, Jaxen’s father and their families, as well as the help of a live-in caregiver, allows Sweeting to navigate motherhood alongside her curling career.
“It definitely takes a good team of support people here,” Sweeting said. “He's a very avid sports fan, so I know he's cheering me on too when I'm gone. It takes a lot of planning and organization [to be a parent and a curler], and especially in my situation with Jaxen’s extra needs, but he's very well supported.”
Outside of curling, Sweeting holds a job with the federal government, though she’s extended a leave from earlier this season in order to be prepared for the next one.
“[With the extended leave], I can commit more to the off-ice training, and also focus on the mental side of the game," she said.
Mental performance has been a key part of her success over the years, as Sweeting also operates her own wellness business, working as a hypnotist to help curlers and other athletes elevate their own confidence and self-belief.
“I think it's really helped me learn a lot about myself too, but I'm eager to share that with other athletes,” she said.
The Olympic lure
Coming off a Scotties Tournament of Hearts win while preparing for the world championship earlier this year, Sweeting found herself cheering on Brad Jacobs and Rachel Homan’s rinks as they landed on the Olympic podium in Italy.
“Watching the experience, even just from home, definitely motivated me. I'd love to get there,” she said.
And a loss from eight years ago still pushes Sweeting’s desire to wear the maple leaf on the sport’s biggest stage.
In 2018, Sweeting and Brad Gushue teamed up for the mixed doubles Canadian Trials, ultimately falling in the final to eventual Olympic gold medallists Kaitlyn Lawes and John Morris.
While the 2029 Canadian Trials are more than three-and-a-half years away, Sweeting hopes her experience at the event in both the mixed doubles and four-person game will help the team reach those heights.
“It's tough to come one game away from going [to the Olympics]. It definitely fuels that fire,” Sweeting said. “I really would love to go to the Olympics and win an Olympic gold. [My new teammates] are super eager, and they want those things, and I look forward to chasing it with them.”
