CHAMPIONSHIPS
Brazil to challenge USA for 2017 world championship berths
USA for both the men’s and women’s berths for the Americas Zone for the 2017 World Curling Championships. Per the World Curling Fed- eration (WCF) qualification system, the second- ranked Americas Zone association from the pre- vious World Curling Championship – provided they are not hosting the next championship – is subject to any challenges that might come from other associations in the zone. Te USCA is the second-ranked Americas Zone association for 2016-17, and had registered intent in April to ac- cept any challenges. Te best-of-five competition must be played
O
during the month of January 2017, as per WCF rules, unless another suitable date is agreed upon by both the WCF and Brazil. Aſter much discussion and review of various
options among the USCA staff and Athletes Ad- visory Council leaders, a recommendation was put forth and discussed further with the USCA Executive Committee and Board of Directors, because of the impact it has on another USCA event. It has been decided that the Americas Challenge will be held Jan. 27-29 (or thereabouts), and that the USCA High Performance Program staff will select the two most experienced men’s and women’s teams to compete against Brazil. Because these dates overlap with the 2017
USCA Mixed Doubles Qualifying Round, and the athletes playing for USA in the Americas Challenge would be unable to play in that event, four additional discretionary team selections will be added to the qualifying for the 2017 USCA Mixed Doubles National Championship. Te rationale used to make this decision in-
cludes: Te best teams in the USA need to be entered
into the Americas Challenge, as Olympic quali- fication is ultimately at stake. Te 2017 World Championships are the second qualifying event for the 2018 Olympic Games. USA is currently ranked third for men and sixth for women in qualifying, with the top seven ranked nations af- ter the 2017 Worlds qualifying for the Olympics, along with host nation Korea. Failing to qualify for the 2017 Worlds would put USA’s Olympic qualification in jeopardy, with only two spots
10 ))
usacurl.org n the eve of the annual July 31st dead-
line, the Brazilian Curling Federa- tion registered its intent to challenge
leſt to chase in the last-ditch Olympic Qualifying Event in December 2017. All other weeks/weekends in January feature
major WCT events in which top USA men’s and women’s teams will be competing in for points and Order of Merit rankings (which factor into world team qualification and Olympic Trials qualification). Te same thing is true throughout Novem-
ber and December, so petitioning the WCF and Brazil to host the Americas Challenge sometime other than January does not resolve the issue. Te first week of February is also unsuitable as it is the last open weekend before the USCA men’s and women’s National Championships, and the weekend aſter the Mixed Doubles Qualifying Round. Because the Mixed Doubles Qualifying Round
is the sole event for teams to qualify for the Mixed Doubles National Championship, which is also qualifying teams for the 2018 U.S. Olympic Team Mixed Doubles Trials, preventing athletes from playing in the Qualifying Round presents a legal right-to-compete issue. Te potential right-to-compete issue is being
reduced by adding four discretionary selections to the Mixed Doubles National Championship. Should the athletes competing in the Americas Challenge not be interested in being selected to compete in the Mixed Doubles Nationals, se- lections would be made from other teams that competed in the Qualifying Round that did not already advance. While the WCF rules allow for having sepa-
rate events for the men’s and women’s challenge, and the first week of January could be an accept- able time to have the women’s challenge, having just the men’s team play in the last week of Janu- ary doesn’t change the fact that there will still be up to eight athletes unable to compete in the Mixed Doubles Qualifier (since the men’s half of the teams would be playing in the Challenge). Adding four more teams will increase the
Mixed Doubles National Championship field to 12, which the host site (Blaine, Minn.) can eas- ily handle. Te competition schedule can be ar- ranged for the event to still take place over a sim- ilar number of days. As previously determined, there would still be six teams advancing from the Qualifying Round to the Nationals, plus the
returning USA world championship team, and one other discretionary selection. Te Mixed Doubles National Championship
will still determine the top five teams, since five teams advance from this event to the 2018 U.S. Olympic Team Mixed Doubles Trials, tentative- ly set for mid-December 2017.
Get ready for the USSMCA Senior
Bonspiel in Wisconsin Senior curlers, it’s still early but “Save the
Dates,” Feb. 16-19 for the 41st Annual Unit- ed States Senior Men’s Curling Association (USSMCA) National Bonspiel. Te 2017 event will be jointly hosted by the five curling clubs of Columbia County in Wisconsin: Arlington, Lodi, Pardeeville, Portage, and Poynette. When September comes, look for more information and entry forms at your club, in your e-mail, and at
www.poynettecurlingclub.com. Te contact for the event is Mark Kretzmann, kretzmann@
gmail.com; 608-234-2105. Q
// PLAYDOWN CALENDAR
JAN. 14-15 Alaska Club Playdowns, Fairbanks CC, Fairbanks, Alaska
JAN. 28-29 Alaska U18 Playdowns, Fairbanks CC, Fairbanks,
Alaska Alaska Mixed Playdown, Fairbanks CC, Fairbanks, Alaska
FEB. 10-12 MOPAC Mixed Playdown, Evergreen CC,
Beaverton, Ore. MACA Mixed Playdown, Denver CC, Golden, Colo.
If your region has its playdown dates set, please send them to Jenny Biadasz at
jenny.biadasz@
usacurl.org.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32