World champion curler strives for accessibility, participation
June 11, 2009
Winnipeg tournament helps pave way
Sherry Clark doesn’t let her deafness stand in the way of her dreams.
In 2007 the now-27-year-old Winnipegger competed as a curler in the Deaflympics in Salt Lake City, where she and the rest of Team Canada took home a gold medal.
Earlier this spring, Clark and her teammates – four women from Alberta – took gold again, this time in front of Clark’s hometown crowd at the World Deaf Ice Hockey and Curling Championships in Winnipeg.
“It’s hard to put into words the honour of being in my hometown and having people from all over the world come to our city, and then to win,” says Clark, who speaks through an interpreter. “Our goal was definitely to win gold and that was a momentous event for us.”
Clark was one of more than 800 athletes, fans and volunteers from eight countries who participated in the championships. She finds that number extraordinary and inspiring – but says deaf and other disabled athletes are still fighting to declare their status as competitors.
In her 13 years curling – first locally, then nationally and now internationally – Clark has become increasingly frustrated by the lack of interest shown by young people with disabilities.
And now she’s working to change that.
“We’re here and we’re playing,” says Clark, who attempted recently to implement kids curling programs but got little interest. “What we need is more PR. Some people just don’t know about deaf sport in particular, and don’t care about disabled sport as a whole.”
Clark says she doesn’t feel disabled athletes should be pushing sport on young people, but rather standing by as role models to guide youth towards ability and involvement. Being on a team, she says, is an experience unlike any other – and one she hopes young people will realize the value of sooner rather than later.
For now, she is concentrating on her own endeavors with an eye on Vancouver’s Deaflympics.
“The interest may not be there in the young people yet, but one day that spark will ignite and I’ll be there, ready when they’re ready,” she says.
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