EIGHT ATHLETES SELECTED TO THE 2021 U.S. WHEELCHAIR CURLING TEAM
Eight athletes have been selected to the 2021 U.S. Wheelchair Curling Team after its Selection Trials event held last week at the Denver Curling Club in Golden, Colo.
The group of eight will eventually be paired down to five athletes, who will then represent and compete as Team USA at the upcoming 2021 World Wheelchair Curling Championships (Oct. 20-23, 2021) in Beijing, China. Pending qualification at the World Championship this fall, the same group of five would then go on to represent the United States at the 2022 Paralympic Winter Games (March 4-13, 2022).
U.S. Wheelchair National Team Coach Rusty Schieber said the program identified areas that needed improvement after the 2018 Paralympic Winter Games. The selection of the eight athletes showcases the two areas of improvement they worked to address.
"We spent the intervening years since 2018 working to strengthen the overall depth of our talent pool, while increasing the number of elite-level female athletes," Schieber said. "These trials really showed that the plan is working."
Headlining the team of eight is Matt Thums, skip of the gold-medal winning squad at the 2020 World Wheelchair-B Curling Championship this past April in Finland. A top-three finish there qualified Team USA for the upcoming World Championship this fall.
Pamela Wilson and Batoyun “Oyuna” Uranchimeg were both members of the gold medal squad in Finland. Uranchimeg was the least experienced member of the team, but became a mainstay in the lineup with her consistent and solid play en route to the win.
Vice skip Steve Emt is the only past U.S. Paralympian on the eight-person squad, having competed at the 2018 Paralympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea. David Samsa was also on the gold medal team that competed in Finland.
The other three members of the team are Laura Dwyer, Dan Rose and Shawn Sadowski. All three advanced from the developmental program, which was implemented after the 2018 Paralympic Games. This program was created and designed to strengthen the wheelchair curling pipeline in the U.S. by providing athletes specialized camps and training opportunities alongside the selected National Team.
Schieber along with U.S. Wheelchair National Program Director Pete Annis are both ecstatic with the results from months of hard work and can't wait to see the changes pay off even more as the team rides a huge wave of momentum into the World Championship this fall.
"The depth of our field continues to get stronger and stronger," Schieber added. "And this bodes incredibly well for our squad this season as well as in our work leading up to 2026."
Note: The player selection committee was comprised of four members with a deep and vast knowledge of the sport and wheelchair curling, including Marc DePerno (National Team Leader), Justin Marshall (National Team Member - 2018), Schieber and Annis.
Eight athletes selected to the 2021 U.S. Wheelchair Curling Team
Laura Dwyer (Oconomowoc, Wisc.)
Steve Emt (Hebron, Conn.)
Dan Rose (Denver, Colo.)
Shawn Sadowski (Portage, Wisc.)
David Samsa (Suamico, Wisc.)
Matthew Thums (Weston, Wisc.)
Batoyun “Oyuna” Uranchimeg (Burnsville, Minn.)
Pamela Wilson (Westminster, Colo.)
USA Curling is sponsored by Toyota, Goldline, Twin Cities Orthopedics, Training HAUS, Brakebush, ISS (Ice, Sports & Solar), and Sitrin, and is partnered with IHG, Rock Solid Productions Inc., 12th End Sports Network, Laurie Artiss Ltd. – The Pin People, and United Airlines.
