Joan McCusker (born Joan Elizabeth Inglis; June 8, 1965) is a Canadian

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece bet ...

gold medallist curler and broadcaster.

Career

McCusker's greatest successes in curling came during the years she played

second The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...

on the team of

Sandra Schmirler Sandra Marie Schmirler (June 11, 1963 – March 2, 2000) was a Canadian curling, curler who captured three Canadian Curling Championships (Scott Paper Company, Scott Tournament of Hearts) and three World Women's Curling Championship, World Cu ...

(

skip Skip or Skips may refer to: Acronyms * SKIP (Skeletal muscle and kidney enriched inositol phosphatase), a human gene * Simple Key-Management for Internet Protocol * SKIP of New York (Sick Kids need Involved People), a non-profit agency aiding ...

), Jan Betker (

third Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (di ...

), and

Marcia Gudereit Marcia Gudereit (born September 8, 1965 as Marcia Schiml) is a Canadian curler. Born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, she was part of Team Schmirler, the women's curling team that won a gold medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics. This team is the only 3 ...

(

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). In 1993, 1994 and 1997, they won the

Scott Tournament of Hearts The Scotties Tournament of Hearts ('; commonly referred to as the Scotties) is the annual Canadian women's curling championship, sanctioned by Curling Canada, formerly called the Canadian Curling Association. The winner goes on to represent Cana ...

, the Canadian women's championship, the first Canadian women's team to win multiple times with the same lineup. As the Tournament of Hearts champions McCusker's team went on to represent Canada at the

World Curling Championships The World Curling Championships are the annual world championships for curling, organized by the World Curling Federation and contested by national championship teams. There are men's, women's and Doubles curling, mixed doubles championships, as ...

three times and won each time. At the

1998 Winter Olympics The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the and commonly known as Nagano 1998 (), were a winter multi-sport event held from 7 to 22 February 1998, mainly in Nagano, Nagano, Nagano, Nagano Prefecture, Japan, with some events ...

McCusker and the rest of the Schmirler rink represented Canada, defeating Denmark to win the gold medal. The success of the team of Schmirler, McCusker, Betker, and Gudereit came to an abrupt end in 2000 when Schmirler died of cancer. In 2000, McCusker and her teammates were inducted into the

Canada's Sports Hall of Fame Canada's Sports Hall of Fame (; sometimes referred to as the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame) is a Canadian sports hall of fame and museum in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Dedicated to the history of sports in Canada, it serves as a hall of fame and mu ...

. In 2019, McCusker and her Olympic teammates were named the greatest female Canadian curling team of all time as part of a TSN poll of broadcasters, reporters and top curlers.

Personal life

Born on June 8, 1965, in

Yorkton Yorkton is a city located in south-eastern Saskatchewan, Canada. It is about north-west of Winnipeg and south-east of Saskatoon and is the sixth largest city in the province. Yorkton was founded in 1882 and incorporated as a city in 1928. ...

, McCusker grew up with her 6 siblings on a farm near Saltcoats, Saskatchewan. She comes from a family of curlers and her sisters Cathy Trowell, Karen Inglis and Nancy Inglis have also curled competitively at the provincial and national levels. Her husband Brian is also a curler and is a three time Saskatchewan champion. Joan and Brian have three children. McCusker was an elementary school teacher until 1998, when she quit to focus on her curling and broadcasting career. From 2001 to 2024, McCusker had been part of CBC's curling coverage and then

Sportsnet Sportsnet is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language Discretionary service, discretionary sports broadcasting, sports specialty channel owned by Rogers Sports & Media. It was established in 1998 as CTV Sportsnet, a joint venture betw ...

's coverage, working with

Rob Faulds Rob Faulds (born September 29, 1955) is a Canadian sportscaster on Sportsnet. Faulds graduated from University of Western Ontario, Western University and started his broadcasting career at CFPL (AM) in London, Ontario, London, Ontario. He then w ...

, Bruce Rainnie and

Mike Harris Michael Deane Harris (born January 23, 1945) is a retired Canadian politician who served as the 22nd premier of Ontario from 1995 to 2002 and leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PC Party) from 1990 to 2002. Taking the PC ...

. She also is a motivational speaker. She currently coaches the

Casey Scheidegger Casey Scheidegger (born January 31, 1988) is a Canadian curler from Lethbridge, Alberta. She is a former provincial junior champion. She currently coaches the University of Lethbridge curling team. Career Juniors Scheidegger won the 2009 Albert ...

rink.

References

External links

* 1965 births Canadian women curlers Canadian women's curling champions Curlers at the 1998 Winter Olympics Curlers from Saskatchewan Curling broadcasters Living people Medalists at the 1998 Winter Olympics Olympic curlers for Canada Olympic gold medalists for Canada Olympic medalists in curling Sportspeople from Yorkton University of Saskatchewan alumni World curling champions Canada Cup (curling) participants Canadian curling coaches 20th-century Canadian sportswomen {{Canada-curling-bio-stub