Braden Calvert
Braden Calvert (born July 16, 1995) is a Canadian curler from Carberry, Manitoba. He is a former World Junior curling champion and two-time Canadian junior champion. Junior career. Calvert, originally from Winnipeg, won his first provincial junior title in 2014, and skipped Manitoba at the 2014 Canadian Junior Curling Championships. There, his team of Kyle Kurz, Lucas Van Den Bosch and Brendan Wilson lost one game, en route to their first national junior title. In the final, they defeated New Brunswick's René Comeau to earn the right to represent Canada at the 2014 World Junior Curling  Championships. At the Worlds, they had less success, finishing the round robin with a 6–3 record. This put the team into the playoffs, but they lost to Switzerland in the 3 vs. 4 game, and then lost to Norway in the bronze medal game, settling for fourth place. The team won their second-straight provincial junior crown in 2015, and represented Manitoba again at that year's Canadian Juniors. Again the team just lost one game in the round robin, and again won the national title. This time they had to beat Saskatchewan's Jacob Hersikorn rink to earn the  right to represent Canada at the 2015 World Junior Curling Championships. They would fare much better at the 2015 World Juniors, losing just one game in the round robin. In the playoffs, they beat Switzerland's Yannick Schwaller twice to claim the gold medal. Despite being the reigning World Junior champions, the Calvert rink failed to win the 2016 Manitoba Junior championship, which was Calvert's last year of junior eligibility. The team lost to Derek Oryniak in their first page playoff game. Men's career. Calvert's junior rink played in their first men's provincial championship in 2015 . Despite just being a junior team, the rink posted a 5-1 record in the knockout tournament, making it to the championship round, where they lost to former World Champion Jeff Stoughton in the 3 vs. 4 game. Calvert played as an alternate for the Trevor Loreth team at the 2016 Manitoba men's championship, but the team won just two games. Calvert skipped his own team at the 2017 Manitoba men's championship, but won just one game. On the World Curling Tour, Calvert won his first event at the inaugural 2016 Man Curl Tour Classic. He won his  second tour event at the 2017 Icebreaker at The Granite. Calvert skipped a team at the 2018 provincial championship, losing both games they played in. Team Calvert revamped their front end for the 2018–19 season, bringing on Ian McMillan to play second and Rob Gordon to play lead. The team had a fairly successful first season together, beginning with the 2018 Icebreaker at The Granite where they won the event title. They also won The Sunova Spiel at East St. Paul and the Thistle Integrity Stakes the following two months and had semifinal appearances at both the DeKalb Superspiel and  the KKP Classic. The team also played in three Grand Slam events, failing to qualify for the playoffs in any of them. At the 2019 Viterra Championship, they were eliminated in the championship round. The following season, the team would only win one tour event, the Atkins Curling Supplies Classic, where they went undefeated to claim the title. Elsewhere on tour, the team had semifinal appearances at the 2019 Cargill Curling Training Centre Icebreaker, the 2019 AMJ Campbell Shorty Jenkins Classic, the Mother Club Fall Curling Classic and the China Open where they represented Canada. Team Calvert only qualified for  one slam that season, the 2019 Tour Challenge Tier 2, where they missed the playoffs with a 1–3 record. At the 2020 Viterra Championship, the team failed to qualify for the championship round as they were knocked out in the B Qualifier by 2020 World Junior champion Jacques Gauthier. During the abbreviated 2020–21 season, Team Calvert played in two events, reaching the semifinals in the Atkins Curling Supplies Classic and missing the playoffs in the MCT Cargill Curling Training Centre Fall Classic. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Manitoba, the 2021 provincial championship was cancelled. As the reigning provincials champions , Team Jason Gunnlaugson was chosen to represent Manitoba at the 2021 Tim Hortons Brier. However, due to many provinces cancelling their provincial championships due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, Curling Canada added three Wild Card teams to the national championship, which were based on the CTRS standings from the 2019–20 season. Team Calvert ranked three places to low in the rankings to qualify for the event, ranking just below Glenn Howard, Tanner Horgan and Scott McDonald. The team began the following season with two finals appearances at the Mother Club Fall Curling Classic and the Atkins Curling Supplies Classic , winning the latter. The team also had enough points to qualify for the 2021 Canadian Olympic Curling Pre-Trials for a chance to qualify for the 2021 Canadian Olympic Curling Trials. At the Pre-Trials, they finished with a 2–4 record, missing the playoffs. Due to their early success, Team Calvert qualified for the 2021 National Grand Slam event, where they finished with a 1–3 record. Personal life. Calvert is the owner of Calvert Cattle Co. He is in a relationship will fellow curler Kelsey Rocque.