DuPage Sports Commission Releases Details of 2025, 2026 Events

2025 Wheelchair Curling Mixed Doubles National Championship

Back in 2022, our local partner, Windy City Curling located in Villa Park, shared with us the opportunity to host the 2025 Wheelchair Mixed Doubles National Championship. Together, in the spring of 2023 our organizations welcomed USA Curling to DuPage, showcasing the facility and DuPage’s many amenities. What a win this was for DSC, Windy City Curling, and Illinois athletes who participate in this adaptive sport. This is USA Curling’s fourth season with this discipline, with success coming quickly — the team won the Silver Medal at the 2023 World Championship and made the playoffs the two previous years.

Wheelchair curling is fairly new to North America, starting in 2002. One of the challenges for this growing sport is finding ice across the country to meet the demand. We are lucky in DuPage to have Windy City Curling. The discipline made its debut in the Paralympic Winter Games at Torino in 2006 and according to the Paralympics, wheelchair curling was the biggest team sport at the 2022 Winter Games, featuring 12 countries. Modifications include the elimination of sweeping (making precision key to success) and the rocks being thrown from a stationary wheelchair.

We look forward to meeting these curlers when they come to town, competing January 9 – 12, 2025 at Windy City Curling. The winners will represent the United States at the World Championship which will be held March 11 – 16, 2025 in Stevenston, Scotland. With only two years until the 2026 Paralympic Games, these athletes and the great team at USA Curling are also working hard to ensure they get on the podium in Italy. To quote USA Curling’s Director of Wheelchair Curling Pete Annis, “Wheelchair athletes are some of the most dedicated athletes I have had the honor to work with in my career.” 
 

2026 National Beep Baseball Association World Series

The National Beep Baseball Association (NBBA) serves people who are blind or sight impaired, making baseball accessible with the help of specialized equipment (a beeping softball) and audio cues. The NBBA was established in January 1976 when advocates from Minnesota, Kansas, Texas, and Arizona convened in Chicago, including Jim Quinn — who became known as the Ted Williams of Beep baseball. Their vision: ensuring competition and camaraderie for people with the desire and potential skills to engage in baseball. 

The beepball was originally invented by an engineer named Charlie Fairbanks. In 1964 he hollowed out a softball and inserted an electronic beeping circuit for play for blind children. This beeping ball has been redesigned several times to be able to survive the pounding of a bat. The game of beep baseball has slowly grown as a sport, and now uses 4-foot-tall foam rubber bases that buzz for and guide the batter/runner. 

The NBBA World Series has been held annually since 1976, played in numerous locations throughout the country and even Taipei, Taiwan in 2000. The Beepball World Series was held in Chicago in 1990 and in Glenview in 2002. We are thrilled that 50 years after its establishment, the NBBA will be returning to Illinois to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of its World Series. Chicago is the only city that has had a team attending all the World Series since 1976.

The NBBA currently has teams in more than 14 states, including the Chicago Comets right here in Illinois. We anticipate welcoming 260 visually impaired players from 20 teams in 2026 and look forward to working with NBBA to deliver upon their mission in serving these athletes.