Canada's top mixed doubles curling teams gear up for shot at 2026 Olympics

The winner of the Canadian mixed doubles curling trials that start Monday will take on double duty.

That duo not only earns the right to represent Canada in the 2026 Olympic Games, but in order to do that, must first qualify their country for the Winter Games at the 2025 world championship in order to get to Milan-Cortina, Italy.

The 16-team trials field divided into two pools starts play Monday at Queens Place Emera Centre in Liverpool, N.S.

The top three teams from each pool advance to Thursday's playoffs and the final is Jan. 4.

The winner represents Canada at the world championship April 26 to May 3 in Fredericton.

The top eight countries in World Curling's rankings will compete in the Olympic Games.

The 2024 world mixed doubles championship was also a qualifying factor. Canada ranks fifth in the world after Colton and Kadriana Lott of Gimli, Man., reached the playoff round in Aberdeen, Scotland.

The Lotts, Brendan Bottcher and reigning women's world champion skip Rachel Homan, Lisa Weagle and John Epping, Laura Walker and Kirk Muyres, and the husband-and-wife duos of Jennifer Jones and Brent Laing, and Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant, are in the trials field.

Peterman and Gallant were world championship silver medallists in 2019 and Walker and Muyres, the top-ranked team in Canada, were bronze medallists in 2018.

Mixed doubles made its Olympic debut in 2018, when Canada's Kaitlyn Lawes and John Morris claimed the first gold medal in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Morris and Rachel Homan placed fifth in Beijing in 2022.

Eight teams gained entry to the 2025 trials via the 2024 national mixed championship, last season's Canadian rankings or at one of three direct-qualifying events.

The remaining eight top-ranked teams