Christine Jurgenson is being inducted into the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame. (Photo supplied)

Being part of a world championship rink will always be her most cherished memory, especially since she had the opportunity to become a world champion with her sister, but being inducted into the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame ranks a close second for Christine Jurgenson.

Jurgenson, who has called Osoyoos home for more than five years, will be inducted into the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame during a special ceremony set for Feb. 4 during the semi-finals of the 2018 Scottie’s Tournament of Hearts in Penticton.

“I’ve been told the ceremony will take place during the fifth-end break … it will only be three minutes, but I can’t wait,” said Jurgenson, who along with her sister Marilyn Bodogh were part of the Canadian national championship team that captured the World Curling Championship title in 1986 in Kelowna.

It was announced last week that Jurgenson and Cathy Overton-Clapham of Winnipeg will be formally inducted into the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame in 2018.

Overton-Clapham will be inducted during the 2018 Tim Hortons Brier in early March in Regina“Cathy and Christine have represented our country and our sport with grace, class and professionalism over the years, and it was, suffice it to say, a no-brainer for the Hall of Fame Committee to welcome them to the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame,” said Scott Comfort of the Curling Canada Board of Governors, who also chairs the Awards and Hall of Fame Committee. “As champion curlers, they exemplified what our sport is about, combining on-ice skill with exemplary sportsmanship and respect for the game.”

Jurgenson is a four-time world championship gold-medallist representing Canada.

Her first came in 1986, not long after she won the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in London, Ont., playing second with her sister and fellow member of the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame Marilyn Bodogh.

‘At the 1986 World Championship in Kelowna, B.C., Jurgenson won gold after Team Canada beat Germany’s Andrea Schöpp in the final.

Jurgenson would play in six editions of the Canadian Women’s Championships, representing three provinces – Ontario in 1980 and 1986; Alberta in 1983; B.C. in 1995 and 1997 in addition to one Scotties as Team Canada in 1987.

Her success carried over to seniors curling as she won a pair of Canadian Senior Women’s Championships in three years and followed both with gold medals at the World Senior Championships and another as an alternate with Team Canada

In 2008 at Prince Albert, Sask., she threw lead rocks with Pat Sanders’ gold-medal B.C. team that won gold at the world seniors a year later in Dunedin, New Zealand.

In 2010, it was Jurgenson skipping the B.C. team that won the Canadian championship in Ottawa and followed up with a gold medal at the 2011 World Seniors in Saint Paul, Minn.

In 2013, Jurgenson joined Team Canada as the alternate with the Cathy King-skipped team that posted a perfect 8-0 record en route to winning the gold medal at Fredericton, N.B.

“My sister Marilyn surprised me. We were on the phone together and she handed the phone to (former Curling Canada Board of Governors Chair) Peter Inch so that he could tell me of my induction into the Hall of Fame,” said Jurgenson. “I was shocked and overwhelmed by the news. I’ve made so many lasting friendships, both with teammates and players from other teams, and I feel truly blessed for having had these opportunities in a sport that I love.”

Jurgenson and her sister started curling at a very young age as their father F.L. Bodogh owned a successful lumber business in St. Catharines and joined the local golf club and curling rink soon after moving his family there from Toronto, she said.

By age 16, she and her sister and Heather and Holly Graves had formed a team that was competing in big bonspiels against men’s teams from Toronto and southern Ontario, she said.

Her sister asked talented Hamilton curlers Cathy Chittley-Young and Jan Augustine to join them in the early 1980s and winning the Canadian championship and world title within weeks of each other is easily the highlight of her curling career, said Jurgenson.

“To win the Canadians in London … and then be able to win a world championship here in Canada in Kelowna was something I will never forget,” she said. “It was such a thrill.”

Jurgenson and her husband Enn moved to Vancouver just over 20 years ago and they started visiting many different towns in the interior and eventually a good friend invited them to visit them in Osoyoos and they decided this is where they wanted to retire, she said.

“We had good friends up at Spirit Ridge resort and we visited them and my husband and I quickly realized this is where we wanted to be,” she said. “My husband loves the lake and being in a small town and we made a lot of really good friendships right away, so we moved here five years ago and just love it.’

Jurgenson, who still works for her father’s company on a part-time basis, still curls on occasion out of the Osoyoos International Curling Club.

“I’m not on any team, but I do get out on occasion,” she said. “I also curl in a few bonspiels and actually got back together with my former skip Pat Sanders recently and that was a really good time.”

Many of the best friendships she’s made in life came through curling and she also got to travel the world and compete against some of the top female curlers in history, so it’s been a fantastic ride, she said.

She’s looking forward to viewing some world-class curling at the Scottie’s tournament in Penticton and said being inducted into the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame is a wonderful way to wrap up a memorable career in the sport she loves.

KEITH LACEY

Osoyoos Times