Image credit: CFJC Today/Anthony Corea

By Marty Hastings

ON PEBBLED ICE

After stellar start to season, Dunstone takes aim at Olympic trials, Kamloops curling history

Nov 17, 2025 | 5:42 PM

KAMLOOPS — Kamloops resident Matt Dunstone is in position to reach the pinnacle of his sport, his team ranked No. 1 in the country, No. 2 in the world and among favourites to represent Canada in curling at the Olympic Winter Games in February in Italy.

“Everything’s about the Olympic trials this year,” Dunstone said. “Everybody knows that. And, yeah, being able to put ourselves in a lot of big finals against the world’s best is something that this team needed. This is certainly the most set up I’ve ever been to win an Olympic trials.”

The 2025 Montana’s Trials are scheduled to run from Nov. 22 to Nov. 30 in Halifax, with winners on the men’s and women’s sides advancing to represent Canada at the Games, slated to run from Feb. 6 to Feb. 22 in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo.

Dunstone, third Colton Lott, and the Brush Brothers — second E.J. Harnden and lead Ryan Harnden — have banked about $140,000 in 2025-2026 prize-purse earnings, thanks to a victory at the PointsBet Invitational and three Grand Slam medals (one gold and two silver).

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They boast a record of 17-4 in three Grand Slam events, reaching the final in each of them and falling twice to world No. 1 Bruce Mouat of Scotland.

Most recently, Mouat edged Dunstone in a title-tilt shootout — by .03 of a centimetre.

“The rankings, the previous results, the future results — all totally meaningless,” said Dunstone, whose rink has reached the gold-medal game in four of six events this season.

“Every four years, you get to play for the biggest prize in curling. There’s no sugarcoating that it’s a much bigger event — and you feel it.”

Eight Canadian curling trials have been held since 1987 to determine four-person teams that advanced to Olympic Games and while none of them featured a rink from the River City, three Kamloopsians have participated.

Erin Pincott (Dunstone’s significant other) competed as an alternate in 2021; Jim Cotter, who is from Kamloops but no longer lives in the city, has curled at three trials (2005, 2013, 2017); and Dunstone, a Kamloops resident from Winnipeg, has two trials appearances (2017, 2021) under his belt.

Cotter, who coached the South Korean mixed doubles curling team at the 2018 Olympics, also participated at the Canadian mixed doubles trials for the 2026 Games, partnering with his Kamloops-born daughter, Jaelyn.

Nobody from Kamloops has curled in the Olympics.

Dunstone’s competition at trials includes John Epping, Brad Gushue, Brad Jacobs, Rylan Kleiter, Kevin Koe, Jordon McDonald and Mike McEwen.

“Emotionally, that’s where it’s obviously different,” said Dunstone, who moved to Kamloops in 2018.

“Even in the last two trials I’ve gone to, you know right away which teams are wound up a little bit too tight and really don’t have a chance. You get that feel very early on. This is the event where the more experienced teams will thrive, for sure. It’s an indescribable feeling, but it’s the best one.”

Dunstone, a two-time bronze medallist and two-time silver medallist at the Brier, and Pincott, a four-time national Scotties participant, are in with a shot of becoming Olympic teammates.

Pincott belongs to Team Brown, which will become the first Kamloops Curling Club rink to compete in the Canadian Olympic curling trials when it steps onto the ice in Halifax.

CFJC Today will have more on the Brown rink later this week.

“Our poor cat (Winston) would be left alone for a long time if we were to both go to the Olympics,” Dunstone said. “That’s obviously a dream scenario.”