10
DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011
Curling News UNITED STATES
USA Curling ... Dare to curl
St. Paul ready to host World Senior, Mixed Doubles Championship
T
he eight-sheet St. Paul Curling Club is set to host the 2011 World Senior Championships as well as the 2011 World Mixed Doubles Championship April 16-23 in St. Paul, Minn. The club will mark its 100th year next season and club members look forward to showing off their worldclass facility to world competitors and fans. Please mark your calendars to the dates above to attend the competition, which will be nonstop for seven days. If you’ve never seen mixed doubles in action, the world event will be a great opportunity to see some of the best competitors slide, throw and quickly stand up to sweep down the ice – an art in itself! Two great events like these, however, require a lot of volunteer help in many different areas. Past club president Mike O’Neil chairs the host committee. Mike and the host committee, made up of many other dedicated club members, have been meeting regularly since last May to plan and ensure a successful week of curling and hospitality. Contact Mike directly (mocurl59@gmail.com) or use the links on the homepage of the event website (www.2011worldcurling.co
m) if you are interested in sponsorship opportunities, volunteering or general information. The World Senior Championships began in 2002 in Bismarck, N.D., and have grown significantly over the years. The U.S. teams for this year’s event will be determined in February at senior national competitions – the men’s will take place Feb. 2-6 at Broomstones in Wayland, Mass., with the women’s event being hosted at the Grand Forks Curling Club Feb. 3-6. Last year, Paul Pustovar’s team from Hibbing, Minn., captured just the second U.S. gold medal at the World Seniors when they defeated Canada, 4-3, in Chelyabinsk, Russia. The women’s gold medal was won by Canada, with the U.S. team, skipped by Seattle’s Sharon Vukich, finishing fourth after losing a close match in the bronzemedal game to Sweden. The Canadian men and women lead the way with six world senior championships apiece overall. The
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U.S. men have won two gold medals, five silver medals and one bronze, while the U.S. ladies have captured the bronze medal three times. The World Mixed Doubles is the newest of the World Curling Federation’s events, with its inaugural championship being hosted in 2008 in Finland. The best U.S. finish so far has been 10th, which Seattle’s Sharon Vukich and Mike Calcagno posted this spring in Russia. Switzerland won the first two years, with Russia earning the gold in 2010. The U.S. entrants for the 2011 world championship will be determined Dec. 912 at the Duluth (Minn.) Curling Club. Twenty teams are set to compete to earn the berth, including former champions from Seattle – Cristin and Brady Clark, as well as the defending champions Vukich and Calcagno. Mixed doubles varies a bit from traditional curling, featuring two players (one male, one female) per team as opposed to the traditional four-person curling teams. Each game consists of eight ends instead of 10, which is traditional to national, world and Olympic championships. Each team delivers five stones per end, with one
player delivering the first and fifth stones and the other team member throwing the stones in between. Prior to the start of each end, one team shall instruct the game umpire to place their team’s stationary stone and the opposing team’s stationary stone either as a guard outside the house bisecting the center line or on the back half of the button. Sweeping is allowed but with just two players that means either the thrower will sweep their own stone or the other team member will leave the house to sweep. Mixed doubles guarantees that each end is full of rocks and exciting shot-making attempts. In addition to the competition on the ice, this is a great social event. The club will be a center of activity, along with the hospitality suite at the host hotel. Other exciting events are planned throughout the week. You won’t want to miss it! Tickets for the competition will be available on the website soon. The host committee and members of the St. Paul Curling Club hope you’ll join them in April for this world-class curling event! Visit our website at www.2011worldcurling.com for all of the latest information.
USA teams set to compete at 2011 Deaflympics by Sheila Longie, Adaptive Curling Committee Team USA’s deaf curling teams are busy preparing to compete in the 17th Winter Deaflympics in Vysoke Tatry, Slovakia, Feb. 18-26. Men’s team members include Herman Fuechtmann, Calvin Rausch, Steve Townshend, Steve Hubmer and David Nathanson. Joey Bata is the coach. All five players and the coach are members of the St. Paul Curling Club. Members of the women’s team are Liz Matthews, Karen Officer, JoDee DikeJohnson, Rebecca Farovitch and Allison Gibbons. Matthews is a member of the St. Paul Curling Club. Officer, Dike-Johnson and Gibbons are members of the San Francisco Bay Area Curling Club, while Farovitch lives in Tucson, Ariz. Sheila Longie, a member of the St. Paul Curling Club, is the coach. Officer and Dike-Johnson also competed at the 2010 USA Curling National Championships in Kalamazoo. Fuechtmann and Rausch were members of the 2007 Deaflympics team that took silver in Salt Lake City. Matthews, Officer and Dike-Johnson also competed in the 2007 Deaflympics and also stepped onto the podium to accept silver medals. The women added to their medal collection in Winnipeg last year when they won silver in the World Deaf Curling Championship.
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