The Fredericton curling legacy continues — 12 years later

With almost 200 volunteers and members of the local curling community putting their shoulders to the wheel, it is clear that, for Fredericton, presenting the 2025 World Mixed Doubles and Senior Curling Championships to the world is a pretty big deal.

With 67 teams and their followers in tow, the hotels are full, the restaurants are booked out, and everywhere seems much busier than it would have been if the curling circuit hadn’t come to town.

However, this isn’t the first time Fredericton has played host to a World Curling event. Fredericton has held many major national curling competitions and, in fact, was home to these two world championships in 2013. And when you look around, a surprising number of people who were involved in 2013 have stepped up again this time round.

The World Mixed Doubles and World Seniors Championships 2013 closing ceremony © World Curling / Richard Gray

For the love of the sport

Perhaps chief among them is Local Organising Committee (LOC) Chair Wayne Tallon, who carried out the same role back in 2013.

This time round he said, “The reason why we do this is the love for the sport. I’ve been fortunate to have played the game at a high level and won a world championship myself, so I decided that once my competitive career was over, I would give back to the sport of curling. This is my way of doing that.”

When asked to highlight any differences between then and now, Wayne was clear, “The difference is that it’s an Olympic qualifier as well as a world championship, and that elevates the profile of the event itself. We have basically the same number of teams — 60 back in 2013 and 67 here.”

Wayne Tallon, LOC Chair, giving his speech at the World Mixed Doubles opening ceremony © World Curling / Stephen Fisher

And for Wayne, one of the attractions that is bringing local fans through the doors is obvious, “The calibre of the curling itself is just tremendous. Not only do we have our members here, but the City of Fredericton has a strong nucleus of curling fans. Even though they don’t play the game, they really love to come out and watch it.”

He added, “Another difference now is the working relationship we have with World Curling.”

“It’s still a lot of fun — maybe not all the time, there are some occasional curved balls! But that’s why we do it, to be able to respond to those challenges.”

Wayne’s right-hand women is LOC Co-Chair Jaime Watson. She was involved in 2013 too — as a volunteer working with the media then — but she now has a larger role.

Jaime Watson, LOC Co-Chair © World Curling / Stephen Fisher

For the sport and the community

Like Wayne, Jaime is clear about the benefits an event like this can bring to the community.

“I know our club is full and most of the clubs in this area are full, and that’s partly because of us having these events here. The exposure for curling, seeing all these people walking through those doors and saying ‘I want to try that’ — speaking as a manager of a curling club, it clearly benefits us.”

One of the features of the championship has been the attendance at morning sessions by young local school children, and that programme has been Jaime’s responsibility, as Wayne pointed out, “We had 750 students this morning because of Jaime’s student programme.”

And Jaime explained how it comes together. “We align it with the curriculum. Each class picks a country to follow, and they then learn all about that country — where it is, what size it is, what the flag looks like etc.; so, it’s an education programme.”

School children cheer on their chosen country from the stands © World Curling / Anastasia Karekla

High stakes, High professionalism

If you look at the team rosters then and now, there is only one team that has been in Fredericton twice for the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship — Norway’s Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten. They are now married, but Magnus recalled, “Kristin and I had just become a couple, and we figured that this mixed doubles discipline was interesting — that’s one of the things that brought us together.”

When asked to compare the difference he said, “This was our first international competition. It was just the two of us, now it’s different — now you have professional teams. It felt a bit more relaxed then.”

Kristin added, “There’s more pressure this time, with Olympic points. It’s still fun… most of the time anyway!”

World Curling’s Scott Arnold is another who was in Fredericton in 2013 — as Technical Delegate and now, this time is Technical Advisor.

He said, “The big difference now is broadcast. It’s a full-blown production now, back then it was more shoestring.”

“Also, the athletes are much more professional now as well. The stakes are higher, it wasn’t an Olympic discipline then. And we were just trying to establish the sport at that time.”

Perhaps he put his finger on the changes when he said, “This is a grown-up version of the sport now.”

Scott Arnold, World Curling Technical Advisor © World Curling / Stephen Fisher

Huge benefits for the city

Stacey Russell, Manager of Tourism for the City of Fredericton represented the local authority at the Opening Ceremony. Afterwards, she said, “This is huge for Fredericton. It really shines a spotlight on our city. It also shows that our city can hold this calibre of events.”

“Seeing a facility like this transformed is eye-opening. There’s a lot of excitement — we’re a community that wants to see these events in the city. We are a small community of 70,000, however, there’s a lot of passion. We’re a small city that punches well above its weight. Whenever we host something like a sports event or a major conference, we have a welcoming approach.”

The City has supported the event financially, but Stacey is confident that investment will be returned many times in terms of the economic benefits. “We haven’t crunched the figures yet, but the impact will be definitely over $1 million CAD.”

Stacey Russell at the World Mixed Doubles opening ceremony © World Curling / Stephen Fisher

All in all, it looks like Fredericton has honed a successful hosting model, so when asked to give advice to any other community that is thinking of doing something similar, Wayne said “Attract the most talented people who could possibly help you. That’s one of the ingredients of the recipe. People with skills and obviously the passion.”

Jaime added, “You need a volunteer network. Then, the experience the volunteers have, the experience the organising committee have, the experience the fans have is like nothing else. It’s worth whatever you put into it. The legacy that’s left behind from an event like this is tremendous. The economic impact is one thing, but what’s left behind after an event like this is priceless.”

And asked if they would do it all again, Wayne and Jaime are as one — “in a heartbeat”.

Perhaps this time it won’t be a 12-year wait before the World Curling circus comes back to Fredericton.

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