Joanne Courtney
Joanne Courtney is a Canadian curler from Edmonton, Alberta. She plays lead for the Rachel Homan rink which won the 2017 World Women's Curling Championship and represented Canada at the 2018 Winter Olympics.
Career
Alberta playing for Sweeting
Courtney played third for Valerie Sweeting. She gained recognition in the curling world for her aggressive sweeping style together with Rachelle Pidherny. Though Courtney threw third rocks, she did not hold the broom for the skip, but instead brushed with the front end. Dana Ferguson, the team's second, served as vice-skip for Sweeting.Move to Ontario
It was announced that Courtney would join the Rachel Homan rink for the 2014–15 season, replacing Alison Kreviazuk at second position. The team did not win any Slam events their first season, losing in the finals of the 2014 Curlers Corner Autumn Gold Curling Classic and the 2014 Canadian Open of Curling. Courtney lost in the final of the 2014 Canada Cup of Curling against former teammate Valerie Sweeting. As defending champions, the team represented Team Canada at the 2015 Scotties Tournament of Hearts. The team nearly missed the playoffs but won their last round-robin game against Tracy Horgan to finish the round robin in 4th place with a 7–4 record. In the playoffs they would lose to Saskatchewan's Stefanie Lawton in the 3 vs. 4 game, but rebounded in the bronze medal game in a re-match against the Lawton rink, beating them 7–5. That season, the team would win one World Curling Tour event, the Pomeroy Inn & Suites Prairie Showdown held in March. That season, the team also won the inaugural 2016 Women's All-Star Curling Skins Game, taking home $52,000.The team found much more success in the 2015–16 curling season, but were still wrought with some disappointment. They began the season with a win in the Stu Sells Oakville Tankard, followed by a loss in the first Slam, the 2015 GSOC Tour Challenge against Switzerland's Silvana Tirinzoni. The team then went on to win six Tour events in a row, the Stockholm Ladies Cup, the Curlers Corner Autumn Gold Curling Classic, the 2015 Masters of Curling, the 2015 National, the 2015 Canada Cup of Curling and the 2015 Canadian Open of Curling, amassing a huge lead in both the World Curling Tour Order of Merit and Money standings in the process. After this impressive run, the team's success seemed to dry-up. They were upset in the finals of the 2016 Ontario Scotties Tournament of Hearts against their club mates, the Jenn Hanna team, meaning the World #1 ranked Homan team would not be able to play in the national championships that year. The team was invited to play in the 2016 Elite 10 men's Grand Slam event, making history in the process. The team would only win one game in the event though, beating Charley Thomas' team. The team ended the season losing against Jennifer Jones in the final of the 2016 Humpty's Champions Cup. The Homan rink's success over the course of the season meant the team would end the season ranked number one in the world in both the Women's money list and order of merit standings.
The 2016–17 curling season was one of Courtney's best season to date. Her team began the season winning their first event, the 2016 AMJ Campbell Shorty Jenkins Classic. They followed this up by winning the Canad Inns Women's Classic the following month. A week later, the team lost in the final of the 2016 Masters of Curling against the Allison Flaxey rink. A month later, they lost in the final of the 2016 Canada Cup of Curling. In playdown play, the rink struggled in the round robin of the 2017 Ontario Scotties Tournament of Hearts, losing two games, and finishing second behind Jacqueline Harrison. However, they won both their playoff matches, including defeating Harrison in the final, qualifying the team to represent Ontario at that year's Scotties. Team Homan defeated Manitoba's Michelle Englot to win the 2017 Scotties, her third Scotties title in four years. She won in an extra end in what many considered to be one of the most exciting Scotties finals ever. Both teams went 10-1 in the round robin, with Homan's lone loss coming at Englot's expense. Englot beat Homan once again in the 1 vs. 2 game, forcing Homan to beat Northern Ontario in the seminal to force the re-match against Englot. At the 2017 world championship in Beijing the Homan rink became only the third in tournament history to go unbeaten in round-robin play, joining fellow Canadian Colleen Jones from 2003 and Sweden's Anette Norberg from 2005. She ended up going unbeaten right to the end, the only team to do so to date, winning the gold medal by beating Anna Sidorova 8–3 for the gold medal, her first world title and completing her medal set at worlds. The Homan rink finished the season by winning the 2017 Humpty's Champions Cup.
Olympic run (2017–2018)
Courtney began the 2017-18 curling season by winning the 2017 Prestige Hotels & Resorts Curling Classic and then the Curlers Corner Autumn Gold Curling Classic the following week. Courtney and her team won the 2017 Canadian Olympic Curling Trials in her hometown of Ottawa, defeating previously unbeaten Chelsea Carey. The Homan rink had lost just one game in the tournament, against Carey in the round robin. After her Trials win, the Homan rink began to struggle. The team would then go on to play at the 2018 Winter Olympics where they started disastrously. Losing to the team from Denmark meant that Canada was 0-3 for the first time ever at an Olympics. The game against Denmark was marked with controversy when Denmark burned a rock as it was coming to a rest. Rather than letting the rock be adjusted Courtney's skip Homan removed the stone. Joan McCusker commentating for CBC at the Olympics said of Homan's move that "I think that was a rash move to take it off. They should have left it in play. It doesn't look good on you." Courtney and team would win their next three to stay in the fight for the medals but would lose their next two, with their fifth loss against Eve Muirhead officially eliminating them from medal contention. This made Homan's team the first Canadian Olympic curlers to not play for or win a medal. They won the final event of the year, the 2018 Humpty's Champions Cup.Post Olympics (2018–present)
Team Homan's 2018-19 curling season began by winning the first leg of the Curling World Cup, defeating Sweden's Anna Hasselborg in the final. Hasselborg got the best of Homan the following month, beating her in the final of the 2018 Masters. Homan then went on to win the next grand slam event, the 2018 Tour Challenge, defeating Tracy Fleury in the final. The Homan rink struggled at the 2018 Canada Cup, going 5-2 in the round robin, and losing in the semifinal to Jennifer Jones. The team rebounded a week later to win the 2018 National, beating Kerri Einarson in the final. The next month, Courtney won her third Grand Slam of the season, the 2019 Meridian Canadian Open, defeating Silvana Tirinzoni in the final. Homan and her rink played in the 2019 Ontario Scotties Tournament of Hearts, having missed the previous year's event due to the Olympics and having won the 2017 Scotties). At the event, the team lost just one game en route to Courtney's third Ontario provincial title. However, controversy brewed due to an incident of bullying aimed at Courtney's skip Homan. A "number of curlers" at the event voted for her to win the tournament's sportsmanship award to protest the fact that the team had two members living in Alberta. At the 2019 Scotties Tournament of Hearts her team finished the round robin at 5-2 as third seed. The team qualified for the final beating Northern Ontario's Krista McCarville and Saskatchewan's Robyn Silvernagle but eventually finished as runner up, losing the final to Alberta's Chelsea Carey in an extra end despite leading 5-1 in the fourth end. At the 2019 Players' Championship, the team struggled and ended up missing the playoffs after posting a 2-3 round robin record and losing the tie-breaker to Satsuki Fujisawa. They finished off the season with a semi-final finish at the 2019 Champions Cup.Courtney missed the teams first event of the 2019–20 season, the 2019 AMJ Campbell Shorty Jenkins Classic. Team Homan had a semi-final finish with spare Lindsay Dubue. She returned for the 2019 Colonial Square Ladies Classic, where the team would win the event. The team would appear in another final in mid-October at the 2019 Canad Inns Women's Classic where they lost to Elena Stern. They missed the playoffs at all four Slams of the season as both the Players' Championship and the Champions Cup were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Team Homan would win the first spot in the 2021 Canadian Olympic Curling Trials by defeating Tracy Fleury in the final of the 2019 Canada Cup. The team went undefeated at the 2020 Ontario Scotties Tournament of Hearts, defeating Hollie Duncan in the final. At the 2020 Scotties Tournament of Hearts they would win their second straight silver medal, losing the final this year to Manitoba's Kerri Einarson. Team Homan announced on March 12, 2020 that the team was parting ways with longtime lead Lisa Weagle. Five days later on March 17, 2020, the team announced they would be adding Sarah Wilkes as their new second while Courtney would move to playing lead.
In addition to playing women's curling, Courtney won the 2017 Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Trials with partner Reid Carruthers. The pair would go on to represent Canada at the 2017 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship where they won the silver medal.