Tuesday, November 18, 2003

Wheelchair curlers take their game to the house:

Ontario team takes it all at first Canadian championship

Adam Daifallah

National Post

Anyone who has curled knows it is a difficult sport. To play it well, hundreds of hours must be invested in learning proper techniques, understanding the strategy of the game and getting a feel for how hard to throw the rock down the ice.

And that's just for an able-bodied person. So it would be reasonable to think that curling in a wheelchair would bring many more challenges. Think again. Judging from the level of play at the first-ever Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championship, which took place at the Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling Club last weekend, these people can play just as well as anyone.

There are few differences between able-bodied and wheelchair curling. One is the method used to throw the rocks. While some wheelchair curlers lean down and throw using the conventional hand method, most use a device called an "extender stick" (used in the same way as a shuffleboard cue) to launch the rock down the ice.

Also, for obvious reasons, there are no sweepers that travel down the ice with the moving rock. These are the only differences, aside from the fact that an impartial aide helps clean the bottom of the rock before a player throws.

Last weekend's competition -- an official event of the Canadian Curling Association -- saw four teams compete: two from British Columbia and a pair from Ontario. They played a double round-robin, followed by playoffs on Friday and Saturday.

Like several of the curlers, Jim Shannon, the skip of the B.C. entries, played the game as an able-bodied athlete while in junior high school, and he has played a few years in his wheelchair. He practices three times a week.

"My first thought [when I heard about this] was, 'We're curling?' said Shannon. "And my second thought was, 'What took us so long!' "

One need only speak with the victorious crew -- the London, Ont.-based team of Chris Daw, Bruce McAninch, Jim Primavera and Karen Blachford -- to realize how serious these athletes are. Team Daw, which represented Canada at the world championship two years ago, before there was a national championship, won the final game 8-0.

"We've worked hard for this," Blachford said. "Our team's chemistry is something that hasn't been matched yet."

As a team, they have three two-hour practice sessions a week -- in addition to the practicing they do on their own -- and they play once a week together in a club league. Team members used to play other sports but they now focus solely on curling. Primavera commutes to London from Toronto three times weekly. For them, this is a 365-day a year commitment, with each player following a specific diet and physical training regimen.

"The level of commitment Canada requires is a full-time commitment," says Daw, who skips the team, which will compete against 12 countries at the World Wheelchair Curling Championship in January in Sursee, Switzerland.

The team has invested $25,000 in four specially designed titanium wheelchairs, which they are gradually paying off through fundraising

efforts, including a celebrity bonspiel in London, on Dec. 20. The team has also made an instructional video on the techniques of wheelchair curling.

And don't think this team restricts itself to playing against other wheelchair curlers. They play in able-bodied competitions and in an able-bodied league at Ilderton Curling Club, near London, Ont.

"At first we were looked at as a 'wheelchair curling team,' but after we took several games down to the last rock, we're referred to as a 'curling team'," said McAninch, who doubles as vice and team coach.

According to Daw, curling is the fastest growing wheelchair sport, overtaking rugby. Curling, he said, is going to be the first sport to earn full Olympic status without first being a demonstration sport at the 2006 Paralympic Winter Games in Torino, Italy.

"I think it [wheelchair curling] has got good prospects," said Neil Houston, the manager of championship services at the Canadian Curling Association. "I think it can do nothing but good for curling and these athletes."