A house in order

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This article was published 30/08/2025 (364 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One of Canada’s most famous and most successful curlers, Jennifer Jones reflects on her action-packed life in the utterly readable and inspiring memoir Rock Star, with an assist by veteran Toronto journalist Bob Weeks, who helped her “shape the manuscript.”

The Winnipeg-born Jones, now 51, dominated the curling scene for many years, winning the national women’s title six times and the world championship twice. She credits her father Larry with teaching her the fundamentals of the game at an early age. Her mother Carol was always solidly behind Jennifer, and her older sister Heather became her No. 1 fan.

At age 12, Jones was already perfecting her game in late-night junior bonspiels. She was eventually asked to play third on Jill Staub’s rink, and the team went on to win the Manitoba junior championship in 1991, but were beaten in the Canadian final by New Brunswick. That caused Jones to break down crying, a reaction that became a lasting memory — it was an indication that showed not a weakness, but how deeply she felt about the sport of curling.

She vowed that, in the future, “I would certainly try my best to win, but I wouldn’t be scared to lose.”

In 1993, Jones skipped a new rink that became Manitoba junior champs. That same team won the provincials again the next year and went on to become Canadian junior champs.

Jones played with a black eye caused by her slipping and hitting herself with her broom on national TV — particularly tough for someone who says she was an introvert, which she had to deal with as she became a winning skip.

Meanwhile, Jones was perfecting her ability to handle other aspects of her life off the ice.

After graduating from Windsor Park Collegiate, she went on to get arts and law degrees at the University of Manitoba. Through those years, she became adept at keeping up her curling — even games that were out of town — and fulfilling her articling duties with a popular law firm.

In 1995, at age 21, Jones played third on Karen Fallis’s rink and, a year later, Fallis asked her to skip; Jones would never again play any other position.

She explains how she had to adapt to the role, given her introvert nature, finding that curling was perfect for her — she was “a big part of a small team,” she writes.

Her team won the Manitoba championship in 2002, losing in the finals of the Scotties, the national championships; when they didn’t win the provincials the following year, the team disbanded.

In 2005, Jones skipped a determined group (Cathy Gauthier, Jill Officer and Cathy Overton-Clapham) to the Manitoba championship; they went on to the Scotties, in St. John’s, N.L.

The final, pitting Manitoba against Jenn Hanna’s Ontario rink, ended with what might be the most famous curling shot ever — described in detail by Jones in her chapter The Shot Heard Round the World. (As if to balance the splendour of that victory, she bemoans the ugly and uncomfortable baggy pants event managers forced her team to wear.)

In 2008, with a fine new lead, Dawn Askin (who became Dawn McEwen), the team won Manitoba and the Scotties, and then beat China in at the world championships with another clutch shot from Jones. Such shots reflected what Jones was gradually mastering — the ability to concentrate and stay in the moment.

After the 2010 world championship, where Jones’ rink won a bronze medal, the team seemed to be “starting to completely unravel,” she writes. A lengthy team meeting ended with Overton-Clapham no longer a member of the team.

In the chapter Up Close and Too Personal, Jones recalls the media’s harsh reports of the change. “I was referred to as cold and heartless. In most of the stories, I was cast as the villain and sole perpetrator of the move, which wasn’t true.” She goes on to explain that such moves are all a part of curling.

Over the next few years, with Kaitlyn Lawes replacing Overton-Clapham at third, the team stayed competitive while life took a few off-ice twists. Jones met and fell in love with Brent Laing, who curled with Ontario’s Glenn Howard. In 2012, Howard’s team won the Brier (one of many over the years); on vacation that year before the men’s world championships in Switzerland, Jones wrecked her knee skiing. She needed surgery, and for a time a wheelchair. And she was pregnant; Jones and Laing’s daughter Isabella would be born in November 2012, six weeks early.

By January of the following year, Jones was back at work and curling. Her rink won the Olympic trials in Winnipeg, which sent them to the Sochi, Russia in 2014, where the skip’s final shot won Canada Olympic gold.

“The ride to get there, to build the team, to win the trials, to support each other every step of the way was magical. My personal trip from busted knee to surgery to motherhood to the trials to stress fracture to a gold medal was amazing,” Jones writes. Throughout Rock Star, she never misses a chance to describe how a particular curling experience affected her as a human being.

Jones and Laing married in 2015, and their second daughter, Skyla, was born in August 2016. Two years later, Jones’ rink won their sixth national championship, but failed to qualify for the 2018 Winter Olympics. Laing was now curling with Kevin Koe; their rink won the men’s Olympic qualifiers and headed for the Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, while Jones, invited by the Canadian Olympic Committee, hosted some of the corporate clients attending.

Later that year, Jones’ rink won the world championship, her second, beating Sweden in North Bay, Ont. in front of a lively crowd.

Over the next few years, Jones and Laing found time to play together in mixed doubles. They went on to win the Canadian championship in 2023.

Rock Star is inspiring as an example of positive thinking, showing how concentration, love and appreciation bring success. Jones’ memoir is a great read even if you’ve never watched a curling game.

One winter, Winnipeg writer Dave Williamson played lead on a fun-league rink skipped by former world champion curler Orest Meleschuk.