Wheelchair Curling – About The Sport.

Wheelchair Curling made its Paralympic debut in Torino in 2006. The sport is open to male and female athletes who have a physical impairment in the lower half of their body, including spinal-cord injuries, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis and double-leg amputation. Teams are mixed, both men and women, and the sport is now practiced in 24 different countries.

Wheelchair curling is played with the same stones and on the same ice as regular curling, though the stones are thrown from a stationary wheelchair and there is no sweeping. Stones may be thrown by hand while leaning over the side of the wheelchair, or pushed by a delivery stick. This is a pole with a bracket that fits over the rock handle, allowing the rock to be pushed while applying correct rotation.

Wheelchair curling can be played by people with a wide range of disabilities. All that is needed is the co-ordination to exert a measured pushing force, and a tolerance for cold. It is not an aerobic activity. Without the need for sweepers, wheelchair curling is well suited to two-person formats such as stick-curling.

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