Curling begins tomorrow at the 2015 Canada Winter Games

Young curlers from every province and territory will take to the ice to compete for the Canada Games Flag and Centennial Cup, when the 2015 Canada Winter Games get underway in Prince George, B.C., with the men’s event in Week 1, Feb. 14-20, and the women’s in Week 2, Feb. 23-28. “Prince George and Northern British Columbia will host over 2,400 athletes, 1,000 coaches and officials, up to 4,500 volunteers, hundreds of media and thousands of visitors,” says the 2015 Games Host Committee. “These athletes are our country’s next generation of national, international and Olympic champions. Some of the best sports stars to ever come out of Canada gave us their first glimpses of success at the Canada Games.” Past Canada Games curlers include Canadian and world champions Kerry Burtnyk and Colleen Jones, as well as reigning Canadian women’s champion and world silver-medallist Rachel Homan; Marc Kennedy (gold), and Amy Nixon (silver), medallists at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics; and Mark Nichols, who won gold with Brad Gushue at the 2006 Olympic Games in Torino, Italy. More recently, B.C.’s Corryn Brown skipped her team to the gold medal at the 2011 Canada Games in Halifax, N.S., and won a bronze medal playing third on Team Canada at the 2012 Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria. Brown skipped Team British Columbia to a bronze medal at the 2015 M&M Meat Shops Canadian Junior Curling Championships in Corner Brook, N.L, an event she won in 2013. The competition will be stiff among these young curlers, all of whom are 17 years of age or younger. Atlantic Canada is well-represented by Nova Scotia’s Mary Fay and Matthew Manuel, New Brunswick’s Justine Comeau, and Prince Edward Island’s Tyler Smith – making his second appearance at the Canada Games – who all represented their province at the 2015 M&M Meat Shops Canadian Junior Curling Championships in Corner Brook, NL. Fans in the home province will have lots to cheer about, with two strong teams – Tyler Tardi, gold medallist at the 2012 BC Winter Games and Sarah Daniels, silver medallist at the 2014 M&M Meat Shops Canadian Junior Curling Championships. The 2015 Canada Games men’s and women’s curling events will be used by national coaches from the Canadian Curling Association as part of the process to select the mixed team that will represent Canada at the 2016 Youth Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway. The first Youth Olympic Games curling team was selected from athletes at the 2011 Canada Winter Games in Halifax: Thomas Scoffin (Yukon), Brown (BC), Derek Oryniak (Manitoba) and Emily Gray (PEI) won the bronze medal in Innsbruck. Results, athlete bios and news can be found on the official site of the 2015 Canada Winter Games: https://www.canadagames2015.ca A daily blog will provide coverage of the day’s events: https://www.canadagames2015.ca/news-results/news Follow the 2015 Canada Winter Games on social media as well: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/2015CanadaGames Twitter: https://twitter.com/2015CanadaGames Instagram: https://instagram.com/2015canadagames YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/2015CanadaGames TSN/RDS’s coverage of the Canada Winter Games includes four games from the curling competition: men’s pool play between Alberta and British Columbia, and the men’s semifinal; women’s pool play between Ontario and Saskatchewan, and the women’s final. The TSN/RDS broadcast schedule can be found here: https://www.tsn.ca/canada-games-tsn-broadcast-schedule-1.180670 Fans will also be able to stream much of the action from Prince George, thanks to the most comprehensive webcasting coverage in Canada Games history, all available on one online Canada Games portal, which can be found here: https://sportscanada.tv/canadagames/ About the 2015 Canada Winter Games: The 2015 Canada Winter Games will be the largest multi-sport and cultural event to ever be held in Prince George and northern British Columbia and is forecasted to generate an economic impact of over $90 million while building champions and inspiring dreams amongst Canadian youth. Athletes from 10 provinces and three territories will compete in 19 sports with the dream of becoming Canada’s next champions. About the Official Host First Nation: The traditional territory of the Lheidli T’enneh stretches 4.3 million hectares from the Rocky Mountains to the Interior Plains, and includes the City of Prince George. The word, Lheidli, means, “Where the two rivers flow together,” referring to the Nechako and Fraser Rivers, and T’enneh means, “the people”. Downtown Prince George and the surrounding neighborhoods now sit on the site that was originally the Fort George Indian reserve, established in 1892. The history of the Lheidli T’enneh is a big part of the history of the City of Prince George and the entire region.