As part of Curling Canada’s Grow the Game campaign, hundreds of Canadians made a pledge to capitalize on the momentum from the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Games and give back to the sport they love.
Pamela Nugent, a former competitive curler and coach who just wrapped up a six-year term as a board member for Curling Québec, is one of these curling champions. She pledged to be a fierce advocate for the sport and set an ambitious goal to introduce new people to the game.
“From our local hockey rink to the soccer pitch, from our boxing gym to the karate dojos, and all our friends, family, and colleagues in between, I will encourage and inspire them to try our sport. Game on! Will I get 20 new players on the ice? 30? 40? Challenge accepted,” Nugent said in her pledge.
Nugent curls out of the Glenmore Curling Club in Dollard-des-Ormeaux, a suburb of Montreal, where her husband Kevin LeCouffe is the club’s president. She said that they met their goal of getting 40 new people out to try curling and are now looking to convert some of them into new members.
“It’s just an awesome time to try the sport and get people involved in curling since they’re already talking about it. It was just really good timing,” said Nugent.
As part of the pledge, Nugent and LeCouffe organized an ugly holiday sweater-themed curling event at the Glenmore Curling Club in January to much success.
“It was an absolute hit, and we’ve already been asked to make it a holiday tradition,” said Nugent. “Honestly, we had curlers aged seven to 67! So much laughter and so much fun.”
From the event, two curlers have already joined the club’s Friday fun league, T.G.I.F., with others expressing interest in a women’s learn-to-curl program, junior programs, and other leagues.
“Curling’s been all people can talk about, and the curling clubs are definitely tapping into that with having more learn-to-curl events in the area,” said Nugent. “At our own club, we had people join mid-season, which isn’t always the norm for juniors, so we definitely had an extra push because of the Olympics.”
Nugent says the club hopes to continue the momentum in the fall with more introduction to curling sessions.
A post-Olympic surge in Chestermere
Marla Forth is always looking for ways to grow the game of curling at the Chestermere Curling Club just outside of Calgary. Forth, who has been a board member at the club for the past 29 years and is also the Junior Curling Coordinator, says the club is already seeing a meaningful post-Olympic surge in interest and potential membership.
It didn’t hurt that three Olympic curlers currently reside in Chestermere—Jocelyn Peterman, Brett Gallant, and Ben Hebert, with the latter two winning a gold medal in men’s curling at the 2026 Olympic Games.
Forth proudly promoted their accomplishments on social media, local newspapers, and magazines.
“I wanted to let people know we had Olympians living right here in Chestermere and hoping that it brought more people to the rink,” she said.
There has been more interest in the junior curling program, which Forth started in 2000 to get her three daughters into the sport. The program consistently operates near capacity each season with minimal advertising, relying largely on word-of-mouth from current participants and their curling membership. Thanks to the visibility of the Olympic Games, Forth is considering adding another junior draw time in the fall.
The adult learn-to-curl league, which combines instructional drills with game play each week, also saw a boost.
“Following this most recent season, we are already seeing increased interest, with 60 percent of participants indicating they plan to join a regular league for the 2026–27 season. This suggests a possible post-Olympic boost in engagement,” said Forth.
At the end of February, the club partnered with Curling Alberta to host a try-it event for all ages that was nearly at capacity. To date, 40 per cent of participants have expressed interest in joining a league full-time next season.
Curling since 1982, Forth was inducted into the Governor General’s Curling Club of Canada in 2023 for her significant contributions to curling at all levels.
“It was such an honour. I could hardly believe that I could be amongst this group,” said Forth. “They recognized I am quite a builder of the sport of curling for the town of Chestermere. And the grassroots curling is where it all starts. You won’t get people to the Olympics if you don’t have the grassroots.”
Growing the GRIT program in southern Ontario
Melody Bridgen-Martin has already played a pivotal role in growing youth curling across southern Ontario and made a pledge to generate even more interest from the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
In 2023, Bridgen-Martin, the Junior Curling Administrator at the Elmira and District Curling Club, in Elmira, Ont., teamed up with other junior curling coaches in the region to form a region-wide youth program known as GRIT (Grand River Intercity Teen Curling). It was developed for youth aged 10-18 to improve their curling skills, have fun, and make new friends at a minimal cost.
The program includes an instructional clinic and game play each month at a different curling club in the region (Acton, Ayr, Elmira, Elora, Fergus, Guelph, KW Granite, Listowel, Paris, and Westmount). The first annual GRIT league was also held this season with six teams participating.
“We find that the juniors really enjoy coming to these one-day clinics,” said Bridgen-Martin. “We’ve also had a really positive response to the league play. Meeting new people and getting to play against new people gives them an introduction to more competitive curling.”
The 2026 GRIT league wrapped up with a mini five-week round robin and an Olympic-themed banquet with games, dinner, and awards.
Bridgen-Martin hopes to continue growing the GRIT league within the region next season.
“We’re just trying to keep that interest there and keep the kids motivated,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what style of curling they want to play, whether it’s socially or competitively; it’s just to give them all something they can participate in.”
