Mike McEwen

Michael McEwen (born July 30, 1980 in Brandon, Manitoba) is a Canadian curler from Winnipeg, Manitoba, who grew up in Brandon, Manitoba.

In 1998, McEwen won his first of two Manitoba Junior championships, sending him and his team of David Chalmers, Bryce Granger and Kevin Schmidt to the 1998 Canadian Junior Curling Championships.

There, he led his Manitoba rink to 9-3 round robin record, in 2nd place.

This put the team in a semifinal match up against Ontario's John Morris.

McEwen would lose the match 8–4, settling for third place.

Three years later, McEwen and his new team of Denni Neufeld, Geordie Hargreaves and Nolan Thiessen won the Manitoba junior championships again, qualifying them to represent Manitoba at the 2001 Canadian Juniors.

There, they finished in 3rd place after the round robin, with a 9–3 record.

This put the team into the semifinals against Northern Ontario's Brian Adams.

McEwen beat Adams 8–3, qualifying for the final against Newfoundland's Brad Gushue.

McEwen and his Manitoba rink would lose to Gushue, by a score of 8–3, placing them in 2nd place.

In 2003, McEwen and teammates Denni Neufeld, Sheldon Wettig, Marc Kennedy and Nolan Thiessen represented Canada at the 2003 Winter Universiade.

McEwen and Wettig represented Brandon University, while his teammates represented the University of Manitoba (Neufeld and Thiessen) and the University of Alberta (Kennedy).

The team finished the round robin with a 6–3 record, in third place.

The team then went on to beat Great Britain's Paul Stevenson in the semi-final, then Switzerland's Cyril Stutz in the final, to claim the gold medal.

The following season, McEwen joined the James Kirkness rink as the team's third.

McEwen would play for Kirkness for two seasons, and won one World Curling Tour event, the Dauphin Clinic Pharmacy Cashspiel.

In 2005, McEwen would form his own team of Justin Richter, Matt Wozniak and Andrew Melnuk.

For the 2006–07 season, Richter and Melnuk left the team and were replaced with Geordie Hargreaves and Adam Guenther.

The team disbanded after just one season together.

However, his lone Grand Slam appearance before forming his current rink in 2007 was the February 2006 Masters of Curling event, where he joined up with Ryan Fry.

McEwen formed a new rink once again of brothers Denni and B. J. Neufeld and Matt Wozniak in 2007.

In their first season together, they were a semi-finalist at the 2008 Safeway Championship, Manitoba's provincial championship.

Their first Grand Slam event as a team was at the end season, at the 2008 Players' Championships.

The team won two games, before being eliminated.

At the conclusion of the 2008–09 season the McEwen team was ranked 7th on the CCA rankings.

They had made it to three Grand Slam playoffs, and finished 4th at the 2009 Safeway Championship.

During the 'Road to the Roar' 2009 Olympic Qualifier, the McEwen team just lost out to fellow Manitobans the Jason Gunnlaugson team in the semi-finals.

McEwen thus missed out on the 2009 Canadian Olympic Curling Trials final despite being the favourite in that particular matchup vs Gunnlaugson.

On the tour that season, they won the 2009 Sun Life Classic.

McEwen's rink made it to his first provincial final in 2010, when he lost to Jeff Stoughton in the 2010 Manitoba provincial final.

The game was being played in Steinbach, Manitoba and as the Neufeld brothers and their father have roots in Steinbach, were treated very much as the home team and crowd favourites.

McEwen started the 2010–11 season off well by defeating provincial rival Jeff Stoughton to win the World Cup of Curling and his first ever Grand Slam title in November, 2010.

In part of the teams runner-up result in the provincial finals of 2010 and in part because of his 4 victories (2010 Canad Inns Prairie Classic, 2010 Sun Life Classic, 2010 Challenge Casino de Charlevoix and 2011 Ramada Perth Masters), and leading the overall money winnings in the World Curling Tour season as of November 2010, the McEwen team was named as a nominee for the provincial team of the year by the Manitoba Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association.

The team continued their strong season that year by defeating provincial rival Stoughton in the semi-final of the 2011 Canadian Open.

McEwen would then go on to beat the Glenn Howard team in the extra end of the final, thus winning their second career Grand Slam and their second of that season.

McEwen's rink once again made it to the Manitoba provincial this time, being the top seed (also ranked 1st in Canada).

However, once again lost to Stoughton in the final of the 2011 Safeway Championship, losing by one point in the final end.

The next season, Team McEwen won their third Grand Slam at the Canadian Open in December 2011.

McEwen won six Grand Slams in his career before his team qualified for their first Brier, Canada's national championship in 2016.

He is noted as one of the top curlers using the Manitoba tuck delivery today.