FORT WAYNE, Ind. – The Fort Wayne Curling Club is hosting the first USA Curling National Championships of the year.
The 2024 USA Curling Wheelchair Mixed Doubles National Championships will be held at the Fort Wayne Curling Club from Jan. 4 through Jan. 7
“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,” says 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,” Fischer says. “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 [as] there are a lot of accommodations that can be made.”
Wheelchair curling is the adaptive version of the sport, which started in Europe in the late 1990s before making its way to North America in 2022. Wheelchair curling was added to the Paralympics for the 2006 Games in Torino, Italy. In July 2023, the mixed doubles version 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 features six 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 from March 10 to 16, 2024.
