Sandra Schmirler
Jennifer Jones
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Sandra Schmirler leads 2 of 5 categories. Our all-time ranking places Sandra Schmirler at #3 and Jennifer Jones at #6.
The case for Sandra Schmirler
The most influential women's skip the sport has produced, and the reason curling had a face when it entered the Olympic programme. Schmirler's Regina rink of Jan Betker, Joan McCusker and Marcia Gudereit won the Canadian championship and then the world title in 1993, 1994 and 1997, a treble no other women's team had managed, and in 1998 she skipped Canada to the first Olympic women's gold at Nagano, finishing 8-1 and beating Denmark in the final. Her shot-making under pressure, particularly a series of last-stone doubles in Canadian playoffs, is still used as coaching footage. She died of cancer in March 2000, aged 36, less than two years after the Olympic title. The foundation established in her name has since raised millions for neonatal intensive care units across Canada, and the Sandra Schmirler Foundation broadcast remains a fixture of the Canadian curling calendar.
The case for Jennifer Jones
The most durable competitor in the modern women's game and the only skip to go through an Olympic curling tournament unbeaten in the women's event, finishing 11-0 at Sochi 2014. Jones won six Scotties Tournament of Hearts titles between 2005 and 2018, tying Colleen Jones's record, and world championships in 2008 and 2018, ten years apart. Her single most replayed shot came at the 2005 Scotties, where she hit an opposition stone outside the house and rolled to the button for four to win the final with the last stone of the game, a shot the broadcast analyst called the best he had ever seen. She reached eighteen Scotties in all before retiring from four-player curling after the 2024 season, then continued competing in mixed doubles with her husband Brent Laing.