Colleen Jones, champion curler and CBC reporter, dies at 65

Curling legend and veteran CBC reporter Colleen Jones has died following a battle with cancer. She was 65. 

Jones won world women’s championships in 2001 and 2004 and was a six-time Canadian women’s champion. Jones made 21 appearances at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts national championships and played more Scotties games than any curler in Canadian history.

She also skipped Canada to the world senior women’s championship in 2017.  

She was inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2016.

She was also a fixture on CBC News for nearly 40 years as a reporter and host, bringing stories of everyday Canadians with extraordinary stories to viewers. 

She retired from broadcasting in 2023 after a career that broke barriers — when she joined CBC in 1986, Jones was the first female sports anchor in Halifax. 

By then, Jones was already a curling champion. In 1979, at the age of 19, she won the first of 16 provincial women's titles, and a silver medal at that year's Canada Games.

Champion curler and CBC reporter Colleen Jones dies after battle with cancer

She also claimed the title of the youngest skip ever to win a Canadian women's title in 1982.

She said being known as a sports figure helped her be accepted in what, at the time, was a male-dominated field.

She went on to cover 10 Olympic Games over the span of her broadcasting career, reporting from Atlanta to Pyeongchang.  

Colleen Jones inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame

This past June, she was inducted into the Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame as an individual athlete. She had already been inducted in 2011 as part of her team, which included Nancy Delahunt, Mary-Anne Arsenault and Kim Kelly. 

At the time, Jones told CBC News that sport helped her create a dream. 

“Fo