Fort Wayne Ready to Host USA Curling National Championships

The Fort Wayne Curling Club is proud to be hosting the first USA Curling National Championships of 2024. The 2024 USA Curling Wheelchair Mixed Doubles National Championships began at the Fort Wayne Curling Club on Thursday, January 4th and will run through Sunday, January 7th.

“Hosting this event in Fort Wayne would not be possible without the support of Visit Fort Wayne, Team Indiana, the Fort Wayne Sports Foundation and Turnstone. We have partnered with USA Curling to host two national championships previously, the inaugural Arena National Championships (2013) and the U18 National Championships (2022) but this is the first time we have been entrusted with hosting a Wheelchair Curling National Championship.” said Club President and Co-Founder Craig Fischer. “This is really special to us because our club was founded with the idea of inclusivity to people of all abilities. We currently run what we believe to be the largest special needs curling program in the United States and we hope that hosting this event raises awareness about the inclusivity of the sport of Curling. It really is a sport for people of all ages and abilities. Literally anybody can participate in the sport of Curling if they want to, there are a lot of accommodations that can be made.”

Wheelchair Curling is the adaptive version of the Olympic Sport of Curling and started in Europe in the late 1990s, making its way to North America in 2022. Wheelchair Curling was added to the Paralympics for the 2006 Paralympic Games in Torino, Italy. In July 2023, the Mixed Doubles variant of Wheelchair Curling was added to the Paralympic Games and will make its debut in 2026 at the Paralympic Games in Cortina, Italy.

The 2024 USA Curling Wheelchair Mixed Doubles National Championships will feature 6 teams competing for the opportunity to represent the United States at the World Wheelchair Mixed Doubles Curling Championships to be held in Gangneung, South Korea on March 10-16, 2024.

Matches will be held on the following dates and times:

·   Thursday, January 4th - 7:00 PM

·   Friday, January 5th - 9:00 AM

·   Friday, January 5th – 2:00 PM

·   Saturday, January 6th – 9:00 AM

·   Saturday, January 6th – 2:00 PM

·   Saturday, January 6th - 7:00 PM –SEMI-FINALS

·   Sunday, January 7th – 10:00 AM –FINALS

Additionally, a free Wheelchair Curling Clinic will be held on Wednesday, January 3rd at 7:00 PM by the head of USA Curling’s Wheelchair Curling program and some of the athletes.

Matches last roughly 90 minutes. Spectators are welcome. There is no charge for spectators.

The Fort Wayne Curling Club is located at 3837 N. Wells Street, directly across Wells Street from the Parkview Ice House.

THE SPORT OF CURLING

The sport of curling originated in the 1500s on the frozen lochs of Scotland but was formalized and made into the sport it is today by the Canadians. The sport entails teams alternately sliding 42 pound stones down a sheet of ice roughly 150 feet long to a set of rings (“the house”) while teammates sweep the stone to make the stone go straighter and further. Once all the stones are thrown (an “end”), the team whose stone is closest to the center of the rings scores and the number of points they score is the number of stones closer to the center than the opponents’ closest stone. A game continues for 8 ends at the club level and 10 ends at the Olympic level.

Curling has grown significantly in the United States since its re-introduction into the Olympics (it was included in the inaugural 1924 Winter Olympic Games in Chamonix). There are currently nearly 23,500 curlers and 185 curling clubs in the United States and significant additional growth is expected. 

THE FORT WAYNE CURLING CLUB

Curling has a long and storied history in Fort Wayne which can be found here, but the modern Fort Wayne Curling Club was founded in 2010 by Craig Fischer, Greg Eigner, Jerri Mead and Dan McCoy.   Brief history of the club is here. The club started curling at the Parkview Ice House (then known as the Lutheran Health Sports Center) and, in2014, opened a 3-sheet dedicated facility in a rented warehouse on Wells Street (now partially occupied by 2Toms Brewing Company). In 2019, the club opened a dedicated 4-sheet curling facility at 3837 N. Wells Street, directly across Wells Street from the Parkview Ice House. The Fort Wayne Curling Club is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that offers leagues for curlers of all ages and abilities, Learn to Curl sessions, private events, corporate events and activities for those with special needs.

For additional information, please contact:

Craig Fischer

President & Co-Founder, Fort Wayne Curling Club

(260) 443-6673 or craig@fortwaynecurling.com

-or-

Jazmin Zavala

Sports Sales Manager, Visit Fort Wayne

260-424-3700 or jazmin@visitfortwayne.com