Sask. athlete makes playoff run at World Wheelchair Curling Championships

Growing up in a small Prairie town, Team Canada wheelchair curling skip Gilbert Dash was no stranger to the ice.

"When I grew up in Kipling, Saskatchewan, the hockey rink and the curling rink were attached, the waiting room was in the middle, and I spent like a lot of time at the rink. I guess you'd call me a rink rat."

Dash continued curling on and off once he reached adulthood, but started taking the sport more seriously after a stint at the Wascana Rehabilitation Centre connected him with a staff member intent on starting a wheelchair curling program.

Now, having won silver at the last two World Wheelchair Curling Championships, Dash and his rink won a bronze medal at this year's tournament.

The bonspiel, being hosted in Stevenston, Scotland, is the last qualifying event for the 2026 Paralympic Games in Italy. Canada has already punched its ticket, having all but clinched a berth before the championships even began.

Still, when Dash — who is skipping the team for the first time — spoke to CBC Saskatchewan in the midst of the round robin, he wasn't looking too far ahead.

"We're here to make each shot so that we can get a W and win in the playoffs."

Wheelchair curling is a mixed-gender sport. Dash credits Marie Wright, a Saskatchewanian and longtime fixture within the national team program, as a strong influence on his career. The two still curl together on the team that won the provincial title this year and the national title at last year's tournament in Moose Jaw.

"I'm not the first one from Saskatchewan to be on the Paralympic team. Marie Wright was on the Paralympic team a few years back. So, I also think that Marie's making it there helped the sport a lot in Saskatchewan, helped others get interested. And so I'm hoping to make the team to go to the Paralympics and I hope that encourages more people in chairs to come out and curl." 

The local perspective

Saskatchewan continues to perform well at the national level. Winning nationals in 2024 means two rinks from the province will once again make their way to the 2025 edition, this time in Boucherville, Que.

One of the athletes who on that second team is Ashley Baerg of Dalmeny. Baerg is no stranger to para-sport, having started her athletics journey in 2004. She competed for Canada internationally in wheelchair basketball before finding waterskiing in 2013.

While she is not currently focused on making the national team in curling, she has committed to compete at the upcoming waterskiing world championships this winter in Australia and finds value in competing in multiple sports throughout the year.

Baerg said she was initially brought into wheelchair curling when Jon Thurston, one of her national waterskiing teammates who also curls on Dash's team, came to the province for a training camp and they threw a few rocks together. 

Baerg then attended nationals, where a typical para-sport recruiting process ensued. In para-sports — whether it's in a gym, a rink or on the water — athletes are always on the lookout for new teammates.

"It would have been the spring of 2023 he came out to Moose Jaw for the national championships, so I took a few days off work and went and watched him, and of course, when you show up at any adaptive event and aren't involved with that sport, they jump on you like a bunch of lions to a block of dead meat."

She passed along her contact information and now competes in two different leagues in Saskatoon each week, one at the CN Curling Club and another at the Sutherland Curling Club. She said the clubs are unwaveringly supportive.

"We are the only team that are in wheelchairs and they have been nothing but accepting and willing to do whatever they need to to accommodate us."

Set to throw lead at the national championships this April, Baerg said seeing strong Saskatchewan representation on the world stage every year is a point of pride for a small but growing wheelchair curling community in the province. 

"For multiple people from our province, past and present, to represent with the Canadian flag on their back, there's huge pride in seeing that," she said. "I know that Gil and Marie have both put in a lot of work and have a lot of pride in doing well, for representing not only Canada, but for Saskatchewan."

Dash said the team Baerg is a part of is much improved and that he expects both squads to compete well on the national stage.

The road ahead

Having come in second place during the last two world championships, to Norway last year and China in 2023, Dash is hopeful his team can have success and carry that momentum into the last year of the cycle going into the Paralympics, but said the competition is only getting better.

"There's a lot of good wheelchair curlers out there in the world, and all these countries have been working really, really hard, and they're good. Canada's not going to just walk out there and walk over everybody just because we're from Canada."

Canada fell to China 5-4 in the semi-final, setting up Saturday's bronze-medal clash against Slovakia.

Dash believes that the sweat equity the team has put in will come to fruition.

"We believe our training is going to take us a long way, and we're going to do good. Our team is good, and I believe in them and our coaching staff."