Krista McCarville still has her eyes on the 2018 Winter Olympics.
She’s excited about Northern Ontario getting its own women’s team.
But for now, the four-time provincial women’s curling championship says family comes first. A mother of two pre-schoolers, on a year-long maternity leave from her teaching job with the Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board, the well-decorated 30-year-old skip has decided to take at least a year off from competitive curling.
“Curling takes up a lot of your time. I love it to death and it’s gonna be really hard come next September when I don’t have the curling to go to, but I think it’s the right decision right now in my life,” McCarville said on Wednesday.
“I’m going to go year to year and I think maybe next year at this time I’ll know if I’m ready to come back or if I know it’s the right decision to continue on with taking some time off. I truly don’t know when I’ll go back.”
Looking back on her career so far, McCarville has no regrets. A three-time Northern Ontario representative at the national junior curling championships and four-time Scotties Tournament of Hearts competitor, she also led her team into the Olympic Trials in 2010, losing in the semifinal to Shannon Kleibrink.
Curling last month with Sara Lang, Ashley Miharija and Kari Lavoie – the latest rendition of a team that’s seen plenty of changes over the past decade or so – McCarville skipped her squad into the playoffs at the Ontario Scotties of Hearts.
Her run ended in the 3-4 Page Playoff with a 9-7 loss to Sherry Middaugh.
It’s not the way she wanted to go out, but she’s not letting it get her down, either.
“I’m extremely proud what I’ve done the last six years. The work that we put in is overwhelming. It’s so much work. To take that and all of a sudden to have to leave is so tough, because we have worked so hard accomplishing our goals and dreams.
“But I know there will be a future for me. I know I will come back to curling, maybe when the kids are a little older, or maybe next year or the year after. Who knows? And I’ll still have those goals and still have those dreams. There’s going to be more Olympics and I hope to be in the trials and pre-trials, that sort of thing.”
McCarville said she expects Lang, Lavoie and Miharija to stay together as a squad, adding a fourth between now and the start of next season.
