Curling Canada cancels four championships due to COVID concerns

Four Canadian curling championships — including one to be staged in Moose Jaw — have been cancelled due to COVID-19.

In a media release Friday, Curling Canada announced the national wheelchair championship, the U Sports university championships, the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association tournament and the Canadian mixed doubles championship were being cancelled due to health concerns.

Other events, including the Scotties Tournament of Hearts and Tim Hortons Brier, currently are expected to continue as planned. Curling Canada will liaise with health officials to make sure events like those can proceed.

The wheelchair event was set for Feb. 21-26 in Moose Jaw. The university and college tournaments were to be held March 15-19 in Sudbury, Ont., and the mixed doubles championship was slated for March 22-27 in Sudbury.

However, Curling Canada will keep those events in those same host cities in 2023. Moose Jaw also is to stage the 2024 wheelchair event.

“We all know the state of the world right now and the lack of clarity about what may or may not happen for the rest of the curling season, and ultimately it was decided that for the safety of participants and volunteers that these events had to be cancelled, which is a massive disappointment,” Curling Canada CEO Katherine Henderson said in the release.

“These events are run by local host committees, who also assume much of the financial risk, so with the lack of clarity about how much revenue they could generate through attendance, and the obvious concerns related to the pandemic, it was determined in consultation with the host committees that we needed to cancel this year’s events.”

“Obviously, it’s a disappointment, but we agreed that the risk factors related to safety and finances made this the right decision,” added Moose Gibson, the chair of the Moose Jaw host committee. “We’ll continue to work toward making the 2023 and 2024 Canadian wheelchair curling championships exciting and successful, on and off the ice.”

According to the release, Curling Canada will select a team to compete in the 2022 world mixed doubles championship at a later date. That event is set for April 23-30 in Geneva, Switzerland.

Curling Canada also will consult with U Sports to decide how to select Canadian representatives for the 2023 FISU World University Winter Games in Lake Placid, N.Y.