Saudi Arabian curlers? In Eveleth? World curling tournament comes to Minnesota's Iron Range
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There will be a decidedly international flair on northern Minnesota’s Iron Range for the next week as curling teams from around the globe compete in Eveleth and Virginia in the fourth annual Pan Continental Curling Championships.
There will be 40 teams from 20 different countries taking part, with top finishers earning the right to compete in the World Curling Championships next spring in Ogden City, Utah.
They come from curling powers including Canada (the reigning women’s champions) and more recent upstarts such as China (the reigning men’s champions) and Japan. The competition also includes fledgling curling teams from countries trying to establish a toehold in the sport, including Kenya, Kazakhstan, India, Mexico and Saudi Arabia.
“I don’t think Eveleth is a destination for a lot of Saudi Arabians, typically, but they’ll be there. So it’s kind of exciting,” said Dean Gemmell, CEO of USA Curling, which is based in the Twin Cities.
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The week-long tournament includes an A group, which includes “the more developed countries when it comes to curling,” said Gemmell, including the U.S., Canada, Korea and others.
The top five men’s and women’s teams from that group qualify for the World Championships, where they will square off against teams from Europe that qualify by competing in a European championship.
Teams in the B group — where the sport is just emerging — will be trying to move up to the A group next year.
“These are kind of the wannabes,” explained Ardy Nurmi-Wilberg, director of the tournament and a lifelong curler and member of Curl Mesabi, the club hosting the B group games at their arena in Eveleth.
“You know how I describe this? Picture the Jamaican bobsled team from 1988,” she said. Those were the first Jamaican athletes ever to compete in the Winter Olympics.
“Everybody's chasing the Olympics. So a lot of these teams are living and curling elsewhere in Canada, in the U.S., in Europe,” said Nurmi-Wilberg.
Many of them, she said, are very inexperienced.
“I got an email from the Nigerian curling association the other day asking if someone in our club could be their coach,” she said. Last year, some teams showed up without equipment.
But some of the best curlers in the world will be competing just down the highway in Virginia, including John Shuster, captain of the only American curling team to win an Olympic gold medal in 2018.
Shuster, who lives in Superior, Wis., and trains in Duluth, will try to qualify for his sixth consecutive Olympic Games at the U.S. trials next month after this Pan continental championship. Duluth resident Chris Plys, who competed in the 2022 Olympics, is also a member of Shuster’s team.
On the women’s side, all four members of the U.S. team are from Minnesota. Skip Tabitha Peterson, her sister Tara Peterson and Taylor Anderson-Heide are from the Twin Cities. Cory Thiesse hails from Duluth.
Over the past decade, several new curling clubs have opened in the Twin Cities. “So a lot of our best players either come from the Twin Cities, or if they’re not from the Twin Cities, they move there to take advantage of the facilities,” said Gemmell.
He said the sport has grown so popular that teams sometimes struggle to find practice ice. That popularity has grown in recent years with the success of Team USA at the Olympics, and with increased TV coverage.
Gemmell said his organization is working to accelerate the construction of new curling facilities, in Minnesota and beyond. He believes that’s the only obstacle to the sport’s continued growth.
“We think curling clubs are an amazing community asset, not just for elite players. They're a great third space. They're a great place to bring communities together,” he said.
On the Iron Range, where curling clubs have roots dating back more than a century, competition in the B division begins Sunday, Oct. 19, with opening ceremonies that evening at the Iron Trail Motors Event Center in Virginia. Games in the A division start Monday. Championship matches will be held Sunday, Oct. 26.
“This is on a scale that most local curlers can't even imagine,” said Nurmi-Wilberg. “Forty teams, 20 different countries, curling for eight days in two different venues, over 700 volunteer spots. I'm meeting people from all over the world. And it's just pretty darn exciting.”
