One of the unique sports of the winter Olympics proves to be an ideal fit for some athletes in wheelchairs.
By Chris Pierson
Growing up in Madrid, Augusto “Goose” Perez spent his childhood, like many Spaniards, perfecting his futból (soccer) skills with dreams of becoming a star on the world stage. Naturally competitive, he also enjoyed hand-eye-coordination challenges like billiards, boccia, and trap-shooting. Little did he know, it would be his target-shooting prowess rather than his way with a soccer ball that would first win him a spot competing for gold among the very best athletes in the world-and as a representative of the US, no less!
Perez, whose left leg was amputated in 2002 as a result of cancer in his groin and who now lives in East Syracuse, New York, is one of five members of the US wheelchair curling team that will be competing at the sport’s debut as a Paralympic medal event at the Torino games in Italy next month.
“I’ve played soccer since I was three years old,” Perez says. “I never even knew about curling except from watching the Olympics on TV. To me, it looked like an old fart’s game.”
Actually, curling is more difficult than it looks. It involves sending a 44-pound tea-kettle-shaped “stone” 93 feet across ice, trying to get it to come to rest inside a bull’s eye-like target called “the house.” As if that weren’t enough to worry about, you have to hope your opponents don’t knock your stone out of the
competition. The object is to get your team’s stones closest to the “tee,” or center of the house. As anyone who has watched even a little of the idiosyncratic sport during the Olympics knows, in traditional curling, teams are permitted to sweep in front of and behind a stone to influence its momentum.
“That’s cheating,” Perez says of the sweeping strategies. “Wheelchair curlers are not allowed to cheat!”
Indeed, the sweeping prohibition is the only major difference between the way standard curling and its wheelchair adaptation are played. One other notable difference is that wheelchair curling teams, unlike their able-bodied counterparts, are required to be co-ed. But otherwise, the sports are so comparable that the US, Canada, Switzerland, and Scotland will pit their Olympic and Paralympic teams against each other to rehearse for the Torino Games.
Perez is Team USA’s novice, having come to the sport just seven weeks before being chosen for the team. “When I got picked over more experienced people, I thought-holy smokes!” Perez says. “I would have been very happy to be a sub. But I’m a competitive guy and I perform best when I’m under pressure.”
The team veterans are Wes Smith of Belfast, Maine, and Danell Libby of Chatham, New York, who were on the very first U.S. wheelchair curling team to face international competition during the 2002 World Cup. Jim Joseph of New Hartford,
New York, and Jim Pierce of North Syracuse round out the roster. Curling legend Steve Brown, a former national champion and coach of several national and Olympic teams, is coaching the Paralympian curlers with the assistance of his wife Diane.
For more information on curling and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams, you can visit www.usacurl.org.
