Kaitlyn Lawes

Lesley Kaitlyn Lawes (born December 16, 1988) is a Canadian curler.

Lawes is a two-time Canadian junior champion (2008, 2009) and went on to win a silver and bronze medal each at the World Junior Curling Championships.

Lawes first came into the spotlight in 2008 when she won the Manitoba Junior women's championship with teammates Jenna Loder, Liz Peters and Sarah Wazney.

With Lawes skipping the team, the rink represented Manitoba at the 2008 Canadian Junior Curling Championships, where she led her team to a 10–2 round robin record, in first place.

In the finals, her team beat Saskatchewan's Stephanie McVicar rink, claiming the national championship.

This qualified her team to represent Canada at the 2008 World Junior Curling Championships.

There, she led Canada to a 5–4 round robin record, tied with Denmark's Madeleine Dupont team.

She would go on to beat Denmark, but lose in the 3 vs. 4 playoff game against Russia's Liudmila Privivkova.

This put her team into the bronze medal game, where she would face-off against Russia again.

This time her rink got the best of the Russians, beating them 9–8, and taking home the bronze medal in the process.

2009 was another great season for the Lawes team.

They once again won the Manitoba junior championship, with a new front-end of Laryssa Grenkow and Breanne Meakin replacing Peters and Wazney.

At the 2009 Canadian Junior Curling Championships, Lawes led Manitoba to an 8–4 round robin record, in third place.

In the playoffs, however, they downed Alberta's Casey Scheidegger rink and Ontario's Rachel Homan to defend their title and once again represented Canada at the World Juniors.

At the 2009 World Junior Curling Championships, Lawes would lead Team Canada to a 6–3 round robin record, in third place.

In the playoffs, she beat the Russians (skipped by Margarita Fomina) and Switzerland (skipped by Martina Baumann) before losing to Scotland's Eve Muirhead in the gold medal final, settling for silver.

In addition to their great showing in junior competitions, the Lawes team also played well on the World Curling Tour, making the semi-finals in a Grand Slam event, the Casinos of Winnipeg Women's Curling Classic.

After Juniors, Lawes teamed up to play third for Cathy King who was needing a third after Lori Olson left the team to play for Crystal Webster.

In her one season with the King rink, Lawes would win the September Shoot-Out, and played in three Grand Slams, making it to the semifinals of the 2009 Trail Appliances Curling Classic.

Following the 2009–10 curling season, Team King decided to step back from the game for a while, leaving Lawes without a team to play for.

The team played in the 2010 Alberta Scotties Tournament of Hearts, where they would finish in third place.

Shortly after, it was announced that Team Jennifer Jones had dropped third Cathy Overton-Clapham, and had replaced her with Lawes, in time for the 2010–11 curling season.

The team found immediate success in their first season together, winning two slams (the 2010 Sobeys Slam and the 2011 Players' Championship), as well as the Sun Life Classic, the Karuizawa International Curling Championship and the Victoria Curling Classic Invitational events on the World Curling Tour.

As Jones had won the 2010 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, the team represented Team Canada at the 2011 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, Lawes' first women's national championship.

There they would make it to the finals, where they lost to Saskatchewan's Amber Holland rink.

The Jones rink continued their success into the 2011–12 season, winning the Radisson Blu Oslo Cup and the 2011 Canada Cup of Curling.

The team won the 2012 Manitoba Scotties Tournament of Hearts and represented Manitoba at the 2012 Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

There, they would win the bronze medal.

For the first half of the 2012–13 season, Lawes skipped the team, with Kirsten Wall throwing third, as Jones was expecting her first child and sat out until January.

Lawes won The Shoot-Out event on the World Curling Tour as skip.

As skip, she would play in four slams, failing to qualify at the 2012 Curlers Corner Autumn Gold Curling Classic and the 2012 Masters, making it to the quarterfinals of the 2012 Manitoba Lotteries Women's Curling Classic and the round of 16 at the 2012 Colonial Square Ladies Classic.

Lawes was the long time third for the Jennifer Jones team that represented Canada at the 2014 Winter Olympics where they won the gold medal.

They were the first women's team to go through the Olympics undefeated and the first Manitoba based curling team to win at the Olympics.

She also won a silver medal at the 2015 World Championships.

Lawes was a winner of the 2015 Scotties Tournament of Hearts and has had two runner-up results at the Scotties in 2011 and 2013.

Lawes curled with John Morris in the mixed doubles event at the 2018 Winter Olympics where they won gold.

This win made her and Morris the first Canadian curlers to win two Olympic gold medals, and Lawes was the first to win gold in two consecutive Olympics.

Lawes was a member of the world champion team as a third at the 2018 Ford World Women's Curling Championship, where the team went through the event undefeated.

In 2019, Lawes was named the seventh greatest Canadian curler in history in a TSN poll of broadcasters, reporters and top curlers.

Lawes began curling at the age of four.