Georgina Wheatcroft, originally as Georgina Hawkes, skipped (captained) her own rink (team) at the 1985 Canadian Junior Curling Championships, representing British Columbia, but opted to join Pat Sanders rink as third in 1986. With Sanders she won the 1987 World Championships and moved to the position of second for the following season. After losing in the national finals both Wheatcroft and Sanders joined Julie Sutton’s rink and made it to the national championship once again, only to lose after their first playoff game. Wheatcroft then disappeared from the national curling scene for a while, although she was a provincial curling mixed champion in 1989 and 1993. She resurfaced under her married name with Sutton, now known as Julie Skinner, a decade later in 1999 to join Kelley Law’s rink. Wheatcroft won her second international gold medal at the 2000 World Championships and earned the right to represent Canada at the 2002 Winter Olympics the following year. The team entered the Olympic playoffs with an 8-1 record, but a loss to Great Britain and a win against the United States left them with a bronze medal. Wheatcroft stayed with Law until 2003, when the team was disbanded, and then began skipping her own rink, taking along Olympic teammate Diane Dezura as lead. The team won the 2004 British Columbia provincial championships, but has less success in 2005 after Dezura retired, and Wheatcroft then joined the Jennifer Jones rink for the 2005-2006 season. When Kelley Law returned in 2006 Wheatcroft rejoined the rink for a year as third, capturing another B.C. provincial title in 2007, but Law soon split up her team once more, which sent Wheatcroft and teammate Darah Provencal to Colleen Jones’ rink the following season. Since 2008 she has skipped her own rink but, as of 2010, has yet to see any major successes. She was inducted into the British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame in 1995.
Canada