Sandra Schmirler
World & Olympic champion curler
Died when: 36 years 266 days (440 months)Star Sign: Gemini
Sandra Marie Schmirler, SOM (June 11, 1963 – March 2, 2000) was a Canadian curler who captured three Canadian Curling Championships (Scott Tournament of Hearts) and three World Curling Championships.
Schmirler also skipped (captained) her Canadian team to a gold medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics, the first year women's curling was a medal sport.
At tournaments where she was not competing, Schmirler sometimes worked as a commentator for CBC Sports, which popularized her nickname "Schmirler the Curler" and claimed she was the only person who had a name that rhymed with the sport she played.
She died in 2000 at 36 of cancer, leaving a legacy that extended outside of curling.Schmirler was honoured posthumously with an induction into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame and was awarded the World Curling Freytag Award, which later led to her induction into the World Curling Federation Hall of Fame.
In 2019, Schmirler was named the second greatest Canadian female curler in history (after Jennifer Jones) in a TSN poll of broadcasters, reporters and top curlers.
Schmirler's Olympic team which also included Jan Betker, Joan McCusker and Marcia Gudereit was named the greatest female Canadian curling team of all time as part of the same poll.