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Alberta third Amy Nixon savouring another visit to the Scotties Tournament of Hearts

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GRANDE PRAIRIE, Alta. — Amy Nixon is cognizant of a time clock that is not displayed behind a sheet of curling ice, but is nonetheless impossible to ignore.

The 38-year-old Nixon, who is playing third on Chelsea Carey’s Alberta team at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, realizes that her time as a competitive curler is finite.

“I will not last past this Olympic cycle,” said Nixon, who therefore does not expect to curl at the elite level beyond 2018. “There’s no way. There’s no chance.

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“It’s so difficult to manage all the aspects of my life in the way that I would like to give as much as I do to my daughter and to my work and to my husband. Curling is now, honestly, fourth down the list. It never was before.

“It’s exhausting. It’s probably not healthy, actually, what I try to do. That’s the truth of it.”

Is Nixon starting to feel the rigours of the sport?

“For sure,’’ she responded. “No matter how much everybody’s awesome and supports me, there are days when I don’t eat until two o’clock in the afternoon.

“That’s not right. That’s not good. So I can’t maintain that forever.”

Especially in light of the many facets of Nixon’s life.

The owner of three university degrees — in kinesiology, women’s studies and law — Nixon is a senior legal counsel at Mount Royal University in Calgary.

She is also a wife (to Mike Westlund) and a mother (to two-year-old Kali) in addition to curling at a high level on behalf of Alberta alongside Carey, second Jocelyn Peterman and lead Laine Peters.

Given everything Nixon does, and everyone to whom she is close, she is savouring her fifth Scotties.

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“I’m well aware, because of all the things that I’ve been fortunate enough to do in the game, that this is an extreme gift,’’ Nixon said.

“To play in our home province in the Scotties, you just don’t get that chance very many times. Actually, you don’t get (to qualify for) many Scotties coming from Alberta, either. In that regard, I sit back and think, ‘Wow, what a great thing that I got at least one more chance to come back and try.’ ’’

Nixon is hoping to win her second gold medal at the Scotties, having been previously decorated in 2012 as the alternate on Heather Nedohin’s team. Nixon also won a bronze medal that year at the world women’s championship.

Additionally, she won silver medals as the third with Shannon Kleibrink at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games and the 2008 Scotties.

The latter event was held in Regina, where the Saskatoon-born Nixon grew up and first took up curling under the tutelage of her father, Daryl.

“I was 10 (years old) on Saturday mornings at 8:30 at the Wheat City Curling Club,’’ Nixon recalled. “My dad ran the kids’ curling program there.

“I can remember being at the Callie club when I was 14, skipping a team in league (play). If we could make it eight ends, we’d look up at Dad, who coached us, and ask if we could shake (hands) all the time. It was like a miracle if we could make it a full game. Our parents were cheering when we just made a shot.

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“It’s a totally different thing, obviously, to be 38 rather than 14 in the game, but there’s no question that I still bleed half (Saskatchewan) kelly green.”

And there’s no question that, even when Nixon does step aside from high-level curling, she will remain involved in her favourite sport.

“I am fortunate, I think,’’ Nixon said. “Shannon Kleibrink is a mentor in some ways and always has been a friend. I kind of fashion myself after Shannon Kleibrink.

“I probably won’t play as much as she is now, but I just love the game. When the time is done to hang up my competitive, running-around-12-events-a-year-plus shoes, I will be showing up at the Invermere ladies’ spiel or playing on Wednesday nights and trying to make it four ends so we can go out fast for a beer.

“I’ll play. I love the game. It’s a part of my blood.’’

Alberta played Team Canada’s Jennifer Jones in Friday night’s 1-2 Page playoff game, with the winner to advance to Sunday’s final and the losing side to proceed to Saturday’s semifinal. The semifinal will also include the winner of Saturday afternoon’s 3-4 Page game between Northern Ontario (skipped by Krista McCarville) and Manitoba (Kerri Einarson).

rvanstone@postmedia.com

twitter.com/robvanstone

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