20 March 2024
Around the world: New Zealand settling into World Championship
Having travelled from the other side of the world, in terms of geography, New Zealand may have had the longest journey to Sydney for the BKT Tires Women’s Worlds.
On the ice, the New Zealand team believe their journey has just begun.
They had a troubled debut last year in Sandviken, Sweden, hampered by illness and failing to win a single game. But now, the New Zealanders have made the historic step of winning their first game – by 8-6 over Scotland.
As skip Jessica Smith says, “beating Scotland, getting a first win – that’s pretty big for us. We came out last year and obviously we didn’t win any games, so getting that first win on the board was a big step forward for us. Hopefully we can get another one out there in some part of the week.”
“We’ve got last year’s experience behind us now,” added third player Bridget Becker. “It’s not so overwhelming. We didn’t know what to expect last year. This year coming into it, we just felt a little bit more confident and a little bit more comfortable.”
Bridget admitted they had a bit of a rough worlds last year.
“We had illness and things weren’t going our way. This time round, we’re all fit and healthy and everything’s gone a little bit more the way that we hoped it would. With that behind us, it’s only onwards and upwards, hopefully.”
Continuing to improve
The situation many of the other teams at this level enjoy – with many of the top nations now fully-funded. By contrast, the New Zealanders had to take unpaid leave from their full-time jobs and are involved in a variety of fund-raising back home. This includes a new business venture by Jess, who is now manufacturing lip-balm, which she is selling to help support their campaign.
However, behind all this effort, Bridget gives voice to a familiar sentiment among curlers at all levels, from all countries – “it’s always fun – why else would I be curling if I didn’t enjoy it?”
Despite the real competitive challenges this team faces, like all the others in Sydney, they have one eye on the 2026 Olympic Winter Games. Jess confirms, “the Olympic Games is on our agenda, but for us to get funding, we need to be in the top eight in the world, so we’ve got a little bit to go.”
Having said that, they are aware of the challenges they face in their Olympic quest. Bridget says, “we live all over New Zealand and we get to practise probably a quarter of what the rest of these teams do together.”
Given the New Zealanders’ popularity throughout the curling world, it is not just the team themselves who would enjoy seeing them continue to make improvements.
