Victoria coach Dagg-Jackson guides Canadian women curlers into another Olympics

There are five Olympic rings. There would need to be two more added to match Elaine Dagg-Jackson’s connection to the Games. In her seventh Winter Olympics as Canadian women’s team coach, the legendary Victoria mentor will be there every shot along the way as Jennifer Jones begins her quest for Games curling gold in Beijing.

The partnership goes back a long way, through Jones’s Olympic gold medal at Sochi in 2014, world titles in 2008 and 2018, world silver in 2015 and world bronze in 2010. They realize this is the last shot at Olympic glory together.

“I’ve known Jennifer since she was on the junior national team. We’ve been to six world championships and Sochi and have a lot of stories to tell,” said Dagg-Jackson.

“Jennifer and I are such good friends but we both know this is our last Olympics together, because for sure, this is it for me.”

Their last hurrah Olympics will be a surreal one. After the delayed 2020 Tokyo Summer Games, many thought normalcy would return in time for the 2022 Beijing Winter Games. But many of the same restrictions still apply as the pandemic has proven stubborn to shake.

“We isolated in Ontario in total lockdown before departing for Beijing,” said Dagg-Jackson, knowing full well a positive test would end the chance to compete.

“We even had the groceries left at the front door and gym equipment brought into the house. We know there are no Canadian fans allowed at the Games to cheer us on and the whole Games atmosphere is different this time and won’t be the same as in previous Olympics. But you still get that feeling of being in the Olympics once you enter the Athletes Village.”

Dagg-Jackson remembers the before times and Victoria swimmer Ryan Cochrane winning Canada’s lone pool medal in the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. Fourteen years later, the Water Cube has been transformed into the Ice Cube and is the curling venue.

“I’m a Summer Olympics junkie, too, and watched every moment of Beijing 2008. It’s so cool that the Water Cube has become the Ice Cube and I can experience all this. Despite that it’s a different kind of Olympics [with the pandemic restrictions], it’s the place you want to be. The world loves sports. The Olympics makes you feel part of something greater. You forget about other things for two weeks as wonderful stories of the human spirit emerge. It brings hope and happiness.”

And medals, which Canadians love. They should be easy to come by in the Winter Olympics for a country defined by winter. Curling, like ice hockey, is seen as an intrinsically Canadian sport. But as Italy’s shock gold medal, and the Canadian shutout off the podium in mixed doubles proved, the rest of the world may be catching up.

“Olympic medals are so valuable and a lot of countries are seeing curling as low-hanging fruit and so are putting investment into it,” explained DaggJackson, a fixture at the Victoria Curling Centre, who is also the national women’s program manager.

“While that’s very good for the growth of curling around the world, it also means we’re not going to win all the gold medals.”

That said, both Jones and the Canadian men’s rink of Brad Gushue are past Olympic champions and favoured in Beijing.

“Jennifer [Jones] is a perfectionist and is relentless and passionate about everything she does,” said Dagg-Jackson.

“As Canadian coach, I’m glad she chose our sport. She reads situations so well. She is one of a kind.”