A Manitoba curling team is representing Canada at an international competition for deaf and hard of hearing players.
Lead Cam Hurst, second Frank Chung, third Bill Kluchnik, and skip Joe Comte are heading to Minneapolis in April for the World Deaf Curling Championships. The team won the chance to represent Canada after they were crowned 2023 Canadian Deaf Curling champions in Morris that year.
The Canadian Deaf Sports Association (CDSA) withdrew its teams’ participation in the 2024 Winter Deaflympics in Erzurum, Turkiye due to safety concerns. The team is eager to compete internationally.
“There were a number of countries that didn’t attend, so we didn’t go,” said Hurst. “We’ve continued training for another year… to go to the world championships in Minneapolis, so we’re preparing for that now.”
Much of that training takes place at the Cargill Curling Training Centre in Morris. The team is also competing in the Manitoba Open Bonspiel this weekend.
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The team met playing recreationally. All the members except Chung live in Winnipeg; Chung is from Vancouver, and initially joined the team as a fifth. He moved into the second position after team member Brian Weselowski died in 2023. The team’s matching jackets feature a tribute to him on the left shoulder.
All four are in their mid-50s to mid-60s, making them some of the older players at the rink. But both Hurst and Comte have been curling since their teens and early twenties, respectively.
“At the School for the Deaf is where I learned, actually, in phys-ed class,” said Comte. “Once I graduated, we had the deaf league, actually. Back then we had so many deaf curlers, so I joined the deaf curling league, and then I found out we that we had a Canadian championship, and I basically worked my way into that, so it’s been an enjoyable process.”
Compte says he’s curled primarily with other deaf players since then.
“I’ve played all the positions, and eventually learned from some really good skips that have trained me,” he said. “I’ve developed my own strategies, my own philosophy … so the last few years, I have been skipping our rink.”
Hurst only began curling in deaf leagues in more recent years, as he began to lose his hearing. In day-to-day life, he uses hearing aids. But hearing aids and cochlear implants aren’t permitted in high-level championships like the upcoming Worlds.
“I’m just learning ASL, because I wasn’t born deaf,” he said. “What happens now, is when I’m curling with hearing players, I can do voice commands, but I’m also doing ASL at the same time, so I’m teaching them.”
The team is hoping to sweep away the competition come April.
“Last I heard, in Minneapolis, we’ve got 10 countries in the men’s category, and 10 in the women’s category, and mixed doubles,” he said.
“Yes, we will definitely bring a medal home.”