Yorkton, Saskatchewan—
Performance enhancing drug use has surfaced again in the sports world, only this time an investigation is being focused on a sport that is leaving many people scratching their heads.. Canadian women’s curling.
An unidentified source from Sport Canada says the 2011 National Women’s Champion team from Saskatchewan has been the main focus of the investigation.
Team Skip Amber Holland claims the accusation of steroid use is unfounded.
“To suggest myself or my teammates had used any form of performance enhancing substance is not only false, it’s bull.”
Holland, who was born in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, lead her team to the 2011 Scotties Tournament of Hearts and beat defending champion Jennifer Jones. Holland, who was 37 at the time, also won a silver medal at the Capital One World Women’s Curling Championships later that same year.
Her performance at the junior curling level is what tipped off the investigation following complaints related to Holland’s flawless execution of rock throwing in 1992 when her team took a national championship that season and followed it the next year with a silver medal performance in the World Junior Curling Championships at the age of 19.
“The investigation has not singled out a single curler,” the Sports Canada spokesman claims, “It has to start somewhere and based on the performance of members of this team, and information passed on to us we are looking further into it.”
Holland, who admits to being “a bit of a tomboy,” gained a reputation as a teen working on the family farm in rural Saskatchewan.
“I used to love spending hours in the hayfields tossing bales of hay on the pickup truck and then loading them into the barn.”
The Sports Canada spokesman says interviews with childhood friends claim Holland did exhibit interesting behavior early in her life.
“There’s no way a 14-year old girl could fling 65-pound bales of hay the way she did,” one unidentified source was quoted as saying.
“She outperformed all of us on the field, including the older guys, but at the time we thought she was just showing off and being competitive.”