FISU MIXED DOUBLES QUALIFIER UNDERWAY

Twenty Mixed Doubles teams looking to represent Canada at upcoming World University Games 

By the end of the weekend, two young Canadian curlers will have booked their tickets – along with a set of Team Canada jackets – for the 2025 FISU World University Games in Torino, Italy. 

Starting Friday at the Saville Community Sports Centre in Edmonton, 20 pairs of U-25 athletes will compete to represent Canada in Mixed Doubles, a discipline newly introduced to the university games schedule. 

“We are thrilled to see the introduction and growth of the Mixed Doubles discipline at the University and Collegiate level.” said Helen Radford, Manager, NextGen & Podium Pathway.  

Canada has competed in the traditional four-player event since it became an official event in 2003. This edition of the Olympic-style, multi-sport event, however, will include Mixed Doubles for the first time. 

“We have teams competing from all across the country and we know that they are looking forward to this opportunity to represent Canada on the world-stage.” 

Players who are currently registered at an accredited university or college (or 2024 graduates), and who are under the age of 25, were invited to apply, and were accepted based on the Canadian Mixed Doubles Ranking System. Teammates are not required to attend the same institution. 

Due to the similarity in the age criteria, many of the teams in the playdown were also in Edmonton for recent U-25 NextGen Mixed Doubles Classic.  

That event was won by Jessica Zheng and Victor Pieterangelo (Niagara Falls, Ont.), for the second time in three years. They are ranked first in the four-pool, 20-team event. Mackenzie Arbuckle and Aaron MacDonell (Winnipeg) lost the NextGen final to Zheng and Pieterangleo in early September. They’re ranked fourth overall. 

Each team will play a round robin in their pool, before the top eight teams move on to the quarterfinals. 

The winning team will join Team Serena Gray-Withers of the University of Alberta and Team Joshua Bryden of the University of Regina, representing Canada in the women’s and men’s events, respectively, at the FISU World University Games in Italy. Both teams earned the right to represent the nation by winning the 2024 U SPORTS University Curling Championships in Fredericton, N.B. 

The event will begin at 8:30 pm MT and will be streamed live on Curling Stadium’s YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@CurlingStadiumEdmonton). Scores can be found at https://www.curling.ca/scoreboard/