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Curling Canada has overhauled its mixed doubles qualification system — moving it forward a year — in an effort to boost the team’s medal chances. On Monday, Peterman and Gallant became the first athletes in any sport to be named to Team Canada for the 2026 Games.

“I’m trying not to cry here,” Gallant said. “For those of you who don’t know, mixed doubles Olympic curling is really the reason that Jocelyn and I got together both on and off the ice.”

It was almost a decade ago, when mixed doubles was announced for inclusion in the 2018 Olympics, that Peterman and Gallant teamed up and won their first event: the 2016 national championship.

“We’ve really been trying to get to the Olympics together ever since … it’s been quite a journey, you know, married three years ago and now with a little son in tow,” he said. “We’re going to do our best to stand on that podium for Canada next year in Italy.”

High-performance director David Murdoch says the changes made to qualify this team so much earlier — they won the Canadian mixed doubles Olympic trials in January — should help with that goal.

“We’ve got this opportunity to really deep dive into their data, their training, all the learnings that we had from last week (at the world mixed doubles championship) and all the performances throughout this season. What can we do better? What have we learned about our international opponents?”

Murdoch, who was a multi-medallist for Scotland and Great Britain before joining Curling Canada in 2023, says Canada does a lot of things right. But going for gold in a curling world that is advancing means adopting more of the tactics European and Asian countries are using, including selecting and supporting athletes sooner and a putting a greater focus on technical training.

Canada has more curling depth than any nation in the women’s, men’s and mixed doubles events, but that also means teams spend most of their time and energy trying to beat each other for the opportunity to wear the Canadian colours. They can arrive at the Olympics and world events exhausted and underprepared. The changes in mixed doubles are Canada’s first foray into changing that.

Peterman and Gallant are already Olympians from the 2022 Beijing Games, where they competed with their four-person teams. Gallant won bronze in the men’s event with Brad Gushue’s rink while Peterman was fifth with Jennifer Jones in the women’s event. 

They are both still playing on four-person teams with Olympics aspirations, Gallant with Brad Jacobs and Peterman with Kaitlyn Lawes, which opens the possibility of one or both of them doubling in Italy. Those four-person teams won’t be decided until November at the 2025 Canadian curling trials in Halifax.

Peterman says knowing about mixed doubles now will help them balance their training and preparation for both disciplines.

“When the season starts, we’ll be able to really pick days that are dedicated to mixed doubles and then kind of be upfront and honest with our four-person teams of our days that are dedicated to that,” she said.

It also makes life a lot easier off the ice knowing they can start booking family to come to Cortina, where the curling events are held, to support them and care for their nearly two-year-old son Luke.

“To have the time to not be stressed about that and even (ending) the financial burden of doing it so last minute, there’s so many benefits,” Peterman said. “I think it’ll go a long way in terms of, you know, having us be mentally and physically in a great spot in February.”