Valerie Sweeting (born July 9, 1987 in Redvers, Saskatchewan) is a Canadian curler from Lottie Lake, Alberta[2] She currently plays third for Team Kerri Einarson.
[4] After juniors, Sweeting moved to Alberta where she formed her own team with Megan Anderson at third, Carly Quigley at second and Whitney Eckstrand at lead.
[5] In the 2012–13 season, Sweeting's rink narrowly missed the playoffs at the 2013 Alberta Scotties Tournament of Hearts,[10] but the team was able to gain enough CTRS points to qualify for the 2013 Canadian Olympic Pre-Trials.
[13] Sweeting continued her success that season by going undefeated at the 2014 Alberta Scotties Tournament of Hearts, where her team beat Cheryl Bernard in the final.
[15] After the 2013–14 season, Sweeting's third Joanne Courtney left the team to play for the Homan rink, whom they had lost to in the 2014 Scotties final.
There, Sweeting led her rink to a 9–2 round robin record, good enough for second place, behind Team Manitoba, skipped by Jennifer Jones.
They won just one tour event (the 2015 HDF Insurance Shoot-Out), though they still made the playoffs in five of the six slams of the season, including making it to the finals of the 2015 Masters, where they lost to Homan.
[22][23] In the 2016–17 season, the Sweeting rink made the playoffs in five of the six slams, including winning the 2016 GSOC Tour Challenge and losing in the final of the 2017 Players' Championship.
[13] The team again lost in the finals of the 2017 Alberta Scotties Tournament of Hearts, this time losing to Shannon Kleibrink.
[28] In addition to winning the Tour Challenge, the Sweeting team made the playoffs in one more slam that season, the 2017 Boost National.
[29] They began the season by winning three straight World Curling Tour events in three weeks: the 2018 Stu Sells Oakville Tankard, the inaugural Morris SunSpiel and then the Mother Club Fall Curling Classic[30] with a fourth win at the Curlers Corner Autumn Gold Classic in October.
[32][33] Their strong play during the early part of the season earned them enough points to put team Einarson in the Wild Card game at the 2019 Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
[34] The team would rebound to have a strong finish at the end of the season, winning the 2019 Players' Championship and losing in the final of the 2019 Champions Cup.
[42] The team was set to represent Canada at the 2020 World Women's Curling Championship before the event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
[48] A month later, Sweeting was back in the Calgary bubble to compete with Marc Kennedy at the 2021 Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Championship.
The pair qualified for the playoffs with a 5–1 record before losing to Lisa Weagle and John Epping in the round of 12, eliminating them from contention.
[49] Sweeting returned to the bubble for a third time in April 2021, along with her women's team to play in the two only Grand Slam events of the abbreviated season.
Through the round robin, the defending Scotties champions posted a perfect 8–0 record, earning a spot in the playoffs.
They then lost in the seeding round to New Brunswick's Andrea Crawford, meaning they would have to win three straight games to defend their championship title.
[59] At the 2022 Champions Cup, the team secured their third Grand Slam title as a foursome with a 10–6 victory over Gim Eun-ji.
[63] Team Einarson was chosen to represent Canada at the 2022 Pan Continental Curling Championships where they qualified for the playoffs as the second seeds with a 7–1 record.
[66] In December, they travelled to Japan to compete in the 2022 Karuizawa International Curling Championships where they lost in the final to Kim Eun-jung.
[69] They then won both the 3 vs. 4 game and the semifinal over Nova Scotia and Northern Ontario respectively to reach another national final where they again faced Jones.
[75] Team Einarson reached the quarterfinals in their first event of the 2023–24 season, falling to Serena Gray-Withers at the 2023 Saville Shootout.
They had three semifinal finishes and one quarterfinal appearance before missing the playoffs at the 2024 Players' Championship, breaking their streak of qualifying at the previous twelve Slams.
Once there, however, they lost both their games to Team Homan and Manitoba's Kate Cameron, eliminating them from contention and ending their chance of a record setting fifth straight Scotties title.
[79] Following the event, in March, it was revealed that Harris had been provisionally suspended for up to four years for testing positive for Ligandrol, a banned substance.