Losing the final of a major championship can sometimes define an athlete. Some come so close and wonder what might have been, while others use “what almost was” as motivation.
It’s safe to say that Edmonton’s Zoe Cinnamon and Johnson Tao are in the latter camp.
After a heartbreaking defeat to Serena Gray-Withers and Victor Pietrangelo in the final of the Canadian Mixed Doubles Championship last season in Surrey, B.C., the duo decided to not to wallow in self-pity about missing out on a victory but instead focus on the potential they showed by making it that far.
The potential paid off this week at Curling Canada’s U-25 Next Gen Classic, where Cinnamon and Tao ran the table, finishing the round robin and playoff bracket undefeated.
“Coming off a national final last season, we felt pretty confident about what we could do,” said Tao. “We really thought we could come in and win this.”
“We just played great,” said Cinnamon. “We really prepared for this event because we knew we wanted to do well. We had a lot of training sessions, and we just came out firing… which is what we wanted to do.”
The icing on the cake… the final was against Gray-Withers and Pietrangelo again. Cinnamon and Tao took the final 7-5, which comes with the title, a championship belt, and a $3,500 payday.
“It’s my first time winning the belt,” said Tao. “So I’m super stoked about that.”
His teammate, Cinnamon, had won the U-25 title three times with Gray-Withers in the four-player event.
Last season, Gray-Withers and Pietrangelo started their national championship season with a win at the U-25 NextGen Classic.
“Serena and Victor showed us how to do it last year,” said Tao of Gray-Withers and Pietrangelo’s undefeated run at the 2025 event. “We were really happy to be able to do the same.”
“The competition was outstanding this year,” said Helen Radford, Curling Canada’s Manager of NextGen & Podium Pathway. “It’s nice to see the U-25 Mixed Doubles pathway getting stronger!”
“There were a lot of really good teams here,” said Cinnamon. “We had a lot of good games; they made a lot of shots. It was nice to have some pressure on us early in the season.”
The win would usually also include an invite to the NetGen National Training Program, but both pairs are already included based on past results. As a result, the semifinalist Grace Cave/Jayden King (Tillsonburg, Ont.) and Gracelyn Richards/Zach Davies (Edmonton) played a sudden death game for a spot in the program.
Cave and King won, and earned the final spot in the Next Gen Mixed Doubles program.
