Manitoba curlers to get a high-tech, high-performance hub

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Pristine ice, championship-caliber rocks, the latest technology and all-day access – those are the key ingredients in a new Winnipeg training centre for elite curlers.

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Actually, it’s not so much a “new” centre, but a commitment to have an old one cater to the best rock-throwers Manitoba has to offer.

Touted as the first Regional Performance Hub & Development Centre in the country, organizers and politicians delivered the announcement at the Heather Curling Club on Wednesday.

“This facility is transforming how Manitoba curlers train and prepare for competition,” Craig Baker, head of Curl Manitoba, said in a statement. “With dedicated championship-quality ice and all-day access to the facility, our athletes are better equipped to compete and win on the national and world stages.”

The centre dedicates two sheets of ice at the Heather, maintained by well-known ice technician Greg Ewasko, to high-performance curlers, leaving the other six for recreational leagues.

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“It’s a great program to have,” four-time Canadian champ Kerri Einarson told the Winnipeg Sun. “It’s nice to have consistent ice to practise on and to get you ready for big events.”

Also available to Winnipeg-based competitors such as Einarson, Kaitlyn Lawes, Mike McEwen, Matt Dunstone and all their teammates: Video analysis, “smart” brooms that provide data from computer chips, and “speed traps” that measure a rock’s velocity.

McEwen calls it a “re-imagination” of high-performance curling and a “crucial step” to help propel the next generation of athletes.

“Most can agree it’s long overdue,” he told the Sun. “And in Manitoba in particular, we have so much historical depth.”

Lawes’ vice-skip, Selena Njegovan, agreed.

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“We’ve needed a facility like this in Manitoba for a long time,” Njegovan said. “And I am so excited that we finally have it.”

Much of the heavy lifting for the facility came from David Murdoch, Curling Canada’s director of high performance.

More and more international players are becoming full-time athletes, and Canada needs to keep up.

The geography makes it difficult, though, for curlers in this country to access high-quality conditions and equipment.

“Canadian curlers are disadvantaged simply because of geography and access to training because they often require significant travel,” Murdoch said. “As these demands increase, we must find new and innovative ways to provide them with consistent access to the best training environments possible.”

Murdoch envisions a nationwide network of similar facilities to the one in Winnipeg.

The goal: To make elite players even better and to train the next generation of them.

It’s no surprise Manitoba is first out of the hack.

As Nellie Kennedy, Manitoba’s Minister of Sport, Culture, Heritage and Tourism put it: “Curling isn’t just a sport in Manitoba, but a point of provincial pride.”

paul.friesen@kleinmedia.ca
X: @friesensunmedia

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