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Youth Olympic Adventure Begins
Six Canadian teens head to Korea for Youth Olympic Curling
This week, nearly 80 Canadian teens are making their way to South Korea for the Gangwon 2024 Youth Olympic Games. Six of them will be curlers.
The Canadian contingent will consist of four players on a traditional mixed team, and two others going to participate in mixed doubles.
The four-player mixed team (back row, left to right) is:
Skip – Nathan Gray (Dartmouth, N.S.)
Third – Chloe Fediuk (Edmonton)
Second – Owain Fisher (North River, N.S.)
Lead – Allie Iskiw (Edmonton)
The mixed doubles players will be (front row):
Cailey Locke (Conception Bay South, N.L.)
Simon Perry (Portugal Cove, N.L.)
“It’s one thing to represent your province, but to represent your country…it’s so much bigger,” said Fediuk, who recently represented Canada at the World Jr. B Championship in Finland. “It’s an amazing honour and we’re really excited for the opportunity.”
As their discipline starts earlier in the Games, the four-player team left Canada on Sunday, January 14, headed for Seoul, South Korea. After arriving on Monday, They will acclimatize and practice for two days at the Korean National Training Centre.
The team will move to the Gangwon Curling Centre, site of the 2018 Olympic Games, for pre-competition practice on January 19. The official event will start the next day, on the 20th.
One day later, Locke and Perry will make the trip to Seoul. They’ll settle into the athletes’ village before the four-player event awards the medals on January 25. The doubles event will run from January 26 to February 1st.
Although the teams were selected from applicants across the country, Curling Canada’s Team Leader Helen Radford has been sure to create training and competitive opportunities for both teams. The mixed team held training sessions in Edmonton in August and December and spent another week of training and competition in Halifax in October.
The doubles team, both local to the St. John’s area, has been training with Jeff Thomas (former coach and fifth player for Brad Gushue), and has competed in several mixed doubles bonspiels over the course of the season. They also made a trip to Halifax to train with Radford, and another to Edmonton to train with another national coach, Scott Pfeiffer.
Radford and Curling Canada’s Jeff Hoffart (Edmonton) will make the trip to Korea as the national coaches.
The Youth Olympic Games will feature 1,900 athletes from around the world, all aged between 15 and 18 years old. There will be 81 events spread across 15 disciplines of seven main sports.
The selection process involved looking at an individual’s curling prowess and statistics, but also their volunteer efforts and personal characteristics. Players applied in February and were notified in May. Radford, along with other national and provincial coaches, observed and analyzed players at Canada Games, U18 and U21 national championships.
“I got the email on Mother’s Day,” said Fediuk. “I started crying just reading it! It is such an amazing opportunity.”
“I have no idea how to describe how cool it’s going to be,” said Gray. “it’s what you dream about as a kid.”
While the four-player team was selected directly, the mixed doubles pair had to endure a best-of-seven series to claim their spots on the team.
“It is hard to describe the feelings and excitement that we are both feeling as the day gets closer ,” said Locke, who – along with Perry – won the playoff in seven games. “We know that we have done everything that we can to ensure that we are prepared to wear the maple leaf on our back and make Canada proud.”
Competition will begin on January 20. Some streaming will be available on http://www.cbcsports.ca and on http://www.youtube.com/olympics.
Scores, standings, and schedules can be found here: https://livescores.worldcurling.org/