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Eighteen pairs of students will take to the ice in Toronto on Thursday, hoping to earn a spot on Team Canada as the mixed doubles reps at the World University Games in China next year.
While the four-player teams were crowned at the U SPORTS Nationals in Regina last February (Memorial University won the women’s title, while Calgary won the men’s), the mixed doubles qualifier is open to all eligible college or university students, and not necessarily a pair attending the same institution.
Beginning Thursday afternoon, the pairs will play a five-game round robin within three pools, leading to an eight-team playoff, beginning Saturday night. The event is taking place at the Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling Club.
“We’ve got a lot of great players from all over the country,” said Helen Radford, Curling Canada’s Manager of NextGen & Podium Pathway programming. “There are a number of athletes with national and world-level experience.”
One such team is the duo of Allyson MacNutt and Nick Mosher. The Nova Scotia players have both competed at multiple national championships, with MacNutt winning the 2024 New Holland U-20 Canadian Championship and a bronze medal at the Worlds in Italy. Mosher, meanwhile, was part of Team Calan MacIsaac, who represented Canada at the 2026 World Junior Championship in Denmark earlier this year.
Another experienced pair is Emma Artichuk and Wyatt Small. Both members of the Waterloo, Ont.-based team have won national U SPORTS titles with Wilfrid Laurier University, but both won in seasons that didn’t lead to FISU World Games (the World University Games only happen every-other year).
“Even with all these players with all this experience, it’s hard to guess how this will go,” said Radford. “A lot of these pairs haven’t played a lot of doubles together, if any. And on top of that, the doubles game tends to be less predictable in the first place.”
The winners will join the Memorial women’s squad skipped by Cailey Locke and the Calgary men’s team skipped by Kenan Wipf as part of the greater Team Canada that will include dozens of athletes from other sports.
Previous participants in the World University Games include Mike McEwen, Brendan Bottcher, Matt Dunstone, Krista Scharf, Hollie Nicol, Kelsey Rocque, and Serena Gray-Withers. It’s not a stretch to say that this can be a stepping-stone to a competitive adult career.
This is, however, only the second time the mixed doubles discipline has been included. Victor Pieterangelo and Jessica Zheng (playing out of Niagara Falls, Ont.) won this qualifier and represented Canada at the 2025 World University Games in Torino, Italy and came home with a bronze medal.
The competition start on Thursday with draws at 4:00 pm and 7:30 pm ET.
Scores and schedules can be found at www.curling.ca/scoreboard
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