episode date: Feb 7th 2022

Anastasia: Whether she's Lead curler, as she was for ten glorious years with Rachel Homan, or alternate, as she is for Jennifer Jones current campaign here in Beijing, Lisa Weagle has a straightforward approach: be the best in the world. Coming from another athlete, that might sound glib…But with Lisa Weagle, you just know: that's how it's going to be.

It's Player's Own Voice, I'm Anastasia Bucsis

I saw you on the plane. How have you been since then? You have a good flight?

Lisa Weagle: Yeah, everything's been amazing. I've been enjoying it so much.

Anastasia: We're going to talk about curling in a second. But yeah, just overall feeling and mood in Beijing 2022?

Lisa Weagle: It's the Olympics. It's like, how can you have a bad time here? I've just been trying to really enjoy it and embrace it and make the most of it. And for me, being at a second Olympics, like you just don't know how many opportunities you're going to get. So just been trying to enjoy it. And soon the sport will start for us, for curling and we'll get down to business. But for now, I'm just having a good time.

Anastasia: What's the village like?

Lisa Weagle: It's really cool. It's pretty small and where we're situated for Canada, we have a really good location like close to the dining hall.

Anastasia: oh, that's the worst is when you have to walk like two miles.

Lisa Weagle: Yeah, no. We're very close and I have this beautiful view of the flag plaza. And it just it feels very Olympic.

Anastasia: food good?

Lisa Weagle: The food's OK. I brought some snacks from home too, so we're making do.

Anastasia: peanut butter?

Lisa Weagle: Yeah, oh yeah. Peanut butter, some bars.

Anastasia: So you walked into the opening ceremony, of course, with Mark Kennedy. What was that experience like?

Lisa Weagle: It was just incredible. It was something I really wanted to do. And in Pyeongchang, I remember it just went by so quickly. And I, you know, thinking back, like, I don't really remember it. So walking out and seeing the rings, just like I got teary just thinking about all the, you know, people and everything that it's taken to get here and the people that were part of this journey and walking around, I just tried to like, look at the floor and look at the crowd and just really take in the moment.

Anastasia: You, of course, did compete in 2018. Do you find yourself just comparing almost every day: Oh, this is different or this is the same or …What's that dialogue in your brain like?

Lisa Weagle: I think it's kind of natural, too, but I came in really thinking I wanted to have no expectations and knowing that this pandemic Olympics, it was going to be different. So I think when you're in the moment and just taking it for what it is, then you're not comparing as much. And it is a completely different experience for me. A different team, different role. So yeah, I'm just trying to take it for what it is.

Anastasia: So you brought it up. You had an opportunity about two years ago. What did that look like? What did that feel like knowing that you were part of Team Homan? And now you're obviously part of Team Jones?

Lisa Weagle: Yeah. You know, it was a call that I got from Team Homan that I wasn't really expecting. And so it was, yeah, I looked at it like an opportunity to see what I wanted to do next. And it was very quick that I got a call from Team Jones and we talked and we thought that this would be a good fit and join the team kind of as a five player team, which isn't something that's done so much in curling to have kind of a full five player rotation. And they've really embraced having me as part of the team, and I really loved it. And so, yeah, now I'm here in the role of alternate, and I'm really excited for the team to get here and to get it on the ice.

Anastasia: It kind of gives you the opportunity to define the role, like how do you define the alternate role?

Lisa Weagle: When I played lead, my goal was always to be the best lead in the world. And so being the alternate that is the same goal is just, I wanted to take this role and really make it my own, and I actually wrote a mission statement for myself when I started and just really tried to figure out what would it look like to be the best kind of support person for a team.

Anastasia: What have you learnt, though, through this journey?

Lisa Weagle: Just really embracing kind of whatever role you're in, and, you know, sometimes in life things happen that we don't have control over and I think being able to recognise what we can control and what we can't, and for me, it was really being able to control my narrative and my actions and my words and my thoughts and how I thought about the whole situation and just trying to look at it as a positive and focus on what was next for me going forward and not really dwelling on the past.

Anastasia: So what narrative are you telling yourself?

Lisa Weagle: This is a new chapter. And yeah, it's just like the most unbelievable chapter to my story. You know, I think when something difficult happens or you encounter some adversity, you hope that things happen for a reason, and that's what people kept telling me. And so for that reason to be this, I'm at the Olympics with Team Jones, and that's like something unbelievable. If you told me that two years ago, I wouldn't have believed you. So, you know, I think that that's part of the narrative for me is just taking something that seemed like such a negative and it becoming this positive beyond what I could dream for myself.

[music]

Anastasia: Is it harder to even just qualify for the Olympics than compete in them? Is it is that a true narrative that Canadians tell themselves

Lisa Weagle: looking at our results on the world stage, like the work's not done once you qualify out of Canada, that looking at this field here, there's really, really good teams. And and I think, have you ran this competition a few times over? You maybe have different medallists. So I think it really comes down to having the best week when you're here. And we saw that with team Homan and we just didn't have a great week. And you're off the podium.

Anastasia: Was that all it was?

Lisa Weagle: I think there were a lot of factors, but I do. I mean, we'd won the World Championships the year before. Like, we were a really good team. We were really well prepared and and just didn't perform to our abilities that week. And, you know, it was a few shots here and there. They weren't blow-out games, but I think that's curling as sometimes the breaks go your way and sometimes a miss or two is going to define how, whether you have a win or loss on the scoreboard.

Anastasia: that's like speed skating too, you can be so prepped and then you toe in and it's just done. Your day's done.

Lisa Weagle: It's a lot of these sports here and these athletes, you know, we all work our whole lives and four years and however long it is to get to this moment, and there's a lot of athletes who are going to go home disappointed. So to me, I, you know, at the closing ceremony at Pyeongchang, I looked around and noticed how few athletes actually had medals and I felt like such a failure. But looking around, I was like, Well, I don't think they're all failures, so why am I putting that on myself? But it was difficult, you know, just coming to an event like this and not achieving your goals because that's not what you dream of.

Anastasia: Marnie McBean said that once you think, Oh gosh, I'm dating myself 2010, she said most people leave the games actually pretty disappointed in themselves, probably

Lisa Weagle: borrowed it from. I read her book, so I probably borrowed that from her, but like that really made an impact on me. Yeah.

Anastasia: So what does Team Jones need to do to feel pretty good about their tournament?

Lisa Weagle: Our big thing is just living in the moment and enjoying it, supporting each other, having great communication, finding clarity and everything, and just feeling grateful. You know, it's the Olympics, like so many people would dream to be here. So, you know, just really enjoying it and enjoying the moment, enjoying the crowd, like there's actually fans in the stands, which is going to be amazing. And being part of Team Canada, like there's just so many things to be grateful for. And when we're on the ice, you know it's business, but we can also enjoy it.

Anastasia: What is the vibe of Team Jones right now?

Lisa Weagle: It's been really good, so we centralised just outside Toronto. So I was with the team for about a week and then I came out here early. But I've been getting messages from them and we've been having video chats and everyone just seems so excited and I've been sharing my experience here with them and I think it's getting them excited too, knowing you know how wonderful everything is here and what a great time I'm having and I can't wait to share it with them.

Anastasia: One of my favourite people in the world is Kaitlyn Lawes. What's it like to call her a team-mate?

Lisa Weagle: Kaitlyn 's amazing. She's just like the sweetest person and just a phenomenal athlete. I mean, to have won two gold medals in curling is incredible. I love spending time with her. She's just so much fun.

Anastasia: Fun fact: We were in a hit and run together. Oh yeah. And like, she looked at me, I looked at her. I'm like, Is this happening in my like 2004 Jeep Liberty? Yeah, it was wild. Had some great experiences.

Lisa Weagle:. You didn't do the hit and run?.

Anastasia: No, no. I would never do that!...Jennifer Jones. I would never bet against. What makes her just such a fierce competitor.

Lisa Weagle: She's a big game player.

Anastasia: She's just the definition of a big game player.

Lisa Weagle: Right? I mean, she's just so determined, and she has so much belief in herself and in her team, and I've learnt so much from playing with her. And you know, you just see when she has that look in her eyes like, I feel so confident because I know we're going to win. And, you know, she's just such an incredible shot maker.

Anastasia: What does a skip need to have to really be world class like her?

Lisa Weagle: I think leadership is a really important thing in curling. You know, there's only four players and you will five players, I guess in our case, but you really look to this group to be the leader. So I think that that's really important. You need, you know, great shot making you see all these other players out here and they have all the skills and definitely need that. And I think a good strategic mind and then a love for the game. I think that's really what I see in Jen is just she's so passionate about curling and loves it so much and loves being out there, and it makes it fun to be your team-mate when your skip is like that.

Anastasia: Well, before we started recording, I mean, you and your dear media attache, of course, we're in the international broadcast centre right now. You just carry around a laptop and watch curling all day every day. You must just have a very pure love for your sport.

Lisa Weagle: Yeah. You know, I started when I was eight and just fell in love with it and loved watching the Scotties loved watching the Olympics. The briar like anytime there's curling on TV, I would watch it. And yeah, right now we're trying to connect to Canada and watch the Scotties and see what's going on there. And I think I'll always love curling and I'll always be. It'll always be a part of me, and I hope I'm always a part of the sport because it's just given me so much.

Anastasia: What about shuffleboard? When you're at a bar, you just drawn to the shuffleboard ?

Lisa Weagle: And bocce! I'm pretty good at Bocce.

Anastasia: I know that you you're not competing for a few days, but what does the next 72 96 hours look like for you?

Lisa Weagle: The team gets in shortly, so I'm super excited. I told them I woke up with a smile on my face because they were coming in today, so getting them all settled and then we're going to try and watch some sports. You know, that's a big part of the Olympics. And so since we have a few days off trying to get some tickets to speed skating, figure skating, women's hockey. So we're going to have some fun and then we're going to get down to business once the competition starts for us.

Anastasia: I can promise you, the Canadians are incredibly excited to watch you compete. So thank you so much for taking the time on the POV podcast. This is a short interview. We got to get you on in non games time for like a 45 minute sit down, but I really appreciate you, Lisa.

Lisa Weagle: OK, thank you.

Anastasia: Peace.

Lisa Weagle hurried hard into the International Broadcast center to chat with us here in Beijing.

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Thanks for listening... Lots more from Beijing on the way...