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Jamie Sinclair can’t wait to hit the ice for the Tier 2 draw at the all-new Tour Challenge event in Paradise, N.L.

The 23-year-old skip is a member of USA Curling’s High Performance Program and dreams of one day playing in the Winter Olympics.

Her team from Blaine, Minn., is ranked 22nd on the World Curling Tour’s order of merit, a spot teams wouldn’t normally earn an invite to a Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling event. However, the expanded field at the Tour Challenge — with a total of 30 men’s and 30 women’s teams split into two tiers — has given Sinclair an opportunity to play on arena ice against the top teams from around the world in the Tier 2 division.

Sinclair said Friday during the Stu Sells Oakville Tankard that she’s pumped for the season-opening Pinty’s GSOC event.

“I’m really excited to be in that atmosphere, to be on the ice with those teams, and just be in the same environment,” Sinclair said. “It’s really motivating and it’s pretty cool. It’s unique.”

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The winners of the Tier 2 groups are guaranteed spots for the next Pinty’s GSOC event, the Masters, running Oct. 27 to Nov. 1 in Truro, N.S.

Sinclair said the bonus to play against the elite at the Masters will be an extra incentive to do well at the Tour Challenge, but the overall experience will be worth it too.

“Just getting points in any event is incentive to get invited back to other Slams because they’re just such good events,” she said. “Everybody wants to play in them so we want to perform well and we’re putting a little bit of pressure on ourselves to perform so that we can get that opportunity to come back.”

Whereas Sinclair is aiming to rise up the ranks, Jim Cotter is looking to get back into the mix. The Vernon, B.C., skip has been a regular on the Pinty’s GSOC circuit and finished runner-up at the 2012 Masters, but an off-year on the World Curling Tour last season has seen his rink slip in the order of merit men’s rankings to 24th and now they’re on the outside looking in as they attempt to return to the elite level.

“We didn’t play very much last year so we kind of played ourselves out of the Slams and we’re realizing now that was probably a bad mistake there last year not to be playing,” Cotter said. “Now our goal is to fight our way back into them because they’re great events, the best teams in the world, and any time you can play against the best teams in the world you’re only going to get better.”

Team Cotter hit the road early to compete in the Stu Sells Oakville Tankard and get ready for the Tour Challenge because they didn’t have the opportunity to play back home yet.

“We decided to come out here for this event first because we had no ice back home and haven’t practised yet,” Cotter said. “There’s obviously some great teams there and we want to be prepared. Any time we can go to Newfoundland it’s usually a pretty good time.”

Sinclair faces Stacey Curtis of St. John’s during the opening draw of the Tour Challenge Tuesday night while Cotter’s quest begins Wednesday afternoon versus Scotland’s Tom Brewster in Draw 3.