'Everything is on the table' to improve national curling efforts, says Canada Curling CEO
CBC
In the wake of an independent third-party high-performance review focused on finding success on the pebbled ice once again, Curling Canada CEO Katherine Henderson says it's time for change.
"Everything is on the table. No one has anything to fear. It's all going to be for the good and the change will be well-managed. But I heard clearly from our athletes and staff that they believe change is necessary," Henderson said.
"There are a lot of ideas of how to get better. And some opposing views. But we all believe we need change and people want to be part of it."
That led to this review that's now been completed and is being circulated to those who participated.
The review began in August and was completed in late-October — elite curlers, the high-performance staff at Curling Canada and other stakeholders were asked a series of questions about the state of curling in Canada and what people thought might be limiting the country's success of late at international events.
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The third-party review allowed for curlers and other participants to have anonymity when answering — Henderson says the answers were candid and blunt at times. She says there was a wide range of participants including elite curlers and teams, wheelchair curlers, mixed doubles curlers all at varying ages.
Generally, questions in the review focused on bigger systemic and cultural themes around curling in the country and what changes could be made to improve performances.
"There are pieces of it we can talk about and there are pieces that are competitive that we don't want published," Henderson said.
Some specific things Henderson was willing to talk about were residency rules and the date of Olympic trials.
She says both of those hot topic issues are certainly being talked about and changes could be coming.
"Residency is something we're going to have a conversation about over the next little while to see if we're doing this the right way," Henderson said.
Henderson said many of the athletes wish it wasn't an issue and that they would be willing to play wherever they wanted — there are successful examples of this in many other countries, including the British model that has centralized all athletes in a training centre.
"We have interprovincial competitions here. It's really important to our member associations," Henderson said.
