2023 Tim Hortons Brier begins in London

Brad Gushue (with permission)

The 2023 Tim Hortons Brier begins on Friday from the Budweiser Gardens in London, Ontario. This is the first of three significant curling events over the next two months in the province of Ontario. Ottawa will be hosting the 2023 World Men’s Curling Championship at Toronto Dominion Place Arena from April 1-9. Then, Toronto will be hosting the World Curling Tour Players’ Championship at the Mattamy Athletic Centre from April 11-16.

Canadian Olympic gold medalist Brad Gushue of St. John’s, Newfoundland will be entering the Brier as the defending champion representing Team Canada. At the 2022 Tim Hortons Brier in Lethbridge, Alberta, Gushue defeated Alberta’s Kevin Koe 9-3 in the championship final. Gushue, who won the gold medal in men’s curling at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Turin, has won four Briers in the past. In addition to the one in Lethbridge, he won in 2017 in St. John’s, Newfoundland, in 2018 in Regina, Saskatchewan, and in 2020 in Kingston, Ontario. Gushue also won the World Men’s Curling Championship in Edmonton, Alberta, in 2017.

The one thing different about the Gushue team in 2023 is his third. E.J. Harnden is the new second.

Other notable curling teams at the 2023 Tim Horton’s Brier are two-time World Champion Kevin Koe (2010 in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy and 2016 in Basel, Switzerland) representing Team Alberta, 2019 Curling World Cup champion Matt Dunstone representing Team Manitoba, 2017 Canadian Olympic Curling Trials finalist Mike McEwen representing Team Ontario, and 2021 Tim Horton’s Brier champion Brendan Bottcher representing the first wildcard team.

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