Success in the Winter Olympics is a surprising feature of Island sport, which is far better known for the Summer Games. But there have been Island gold medallists in the last three Winter Olympics, with hockey player Jamie Benn at Sochi 2014, freestyle-skier Cassie Sharpe at Pyeongchang 2018 and hockey player Micah Zandee-Hart at Beijing 2022, with Sharpe adding a silver for good measure.
Those are heady goals to shoot for, but Corey Chester and Taylor Reese-Hansen, from the Victoria Curling Club, are up for the challenge as they look ahead to the process that will take them through the Canadian mixed-doubles Olympic qualifiers this year in Banff, Alta., and Liverpool, N.S., for the 2026 Winter Games in Milan-Cortina, Italy.
“We believe we have a good shot of representing ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ in the Olympics in Italy,” said Chester, the former two-time ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ junior men’s champion.
“There are going to be a lot of good teams in the Olympic trials, and mixed doubles is really unpredictable, but we are going there to win.”
Chester and Reese-Hansen are top quality and will be knocking on that door for Milan-Cortina. But first up is regular fours curling in the $22,000 Island Shootout, a World Curling Tour event, this weekend at the Victoria Curling Club. The winning rinks will earn berths into the men’s and women’s ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ championships in Langley on the road to the 2025 national men’s Brier and women’s Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
Reese-Hansen’s rink won the Curling ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ women’s U-25 Next Gen Classic in Edmonton to kick-off the season. Reese-Hansen, originally from Kitimat, led the Camosun Chargers to collegiate curling medals before becoming a rising star at the Victoria Club.
Chester graduated with a commerce degree from the University of Victoria and is a financial analyst for the ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ government’s sport branch: “Our biggest portfolio right now is the 2026 FIFA World Cup [with seven games of the men’s planetary soccer showcase to be played at ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ Place].”
Meanwhile, he could be playing in that year’s other big sporting event in Milan-Cortina.
“It’s a colliding of worlds,” said Chester, about the potential uncanny convergence of his civilian and athletic careers.
Chester and Reese-Hansen are just two of the shooting stars coming out of the Victoria Curling Club, which has produced the last two ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ men’s champions that have represented the province at the 2023 and 2024 Briers.
“We’ve built up a culture of excellence, and such a density of talent in our club the last five-six years, and we feed off each other’s successes,” said Chester.
The Island Shootout continues today at the Victoria Curling Club with draws at 9 a.m., 12:30 p.m. 4:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. leading to the men’s and women’s finals on Monday at noon.
