How is a curler in a wheelchair ineligible for both
able-bodied AND wheelchair curling?
Steven Roberts, 17, of the Evergreen Curling Club in
Beaverton, Ore., was set to play down for a spot in the U.S. Junior Championship
until the ruling from the American governing body.
The United States Curling Association ruled Dec. 28 that Roberts, who uses a
wheelchair, violated curling rules with his method of “delivery” — how he
projects the curling stone onto the ice.But Roberts also has been deemed
too mobile to compete in wheelchair curling competitions. He can walk but has
fragile bones and tendons due to a genetic disorder called osteogenesis
imperfecta.
Roberts’ delivery
can be seen in a video in the article but essentially he
wheels down the sheet with the rock in his feet and then releases it. He’s quite
accurate with his method and has had some success.
Why he falls through the cracks is that the rule for
standard curling states that curlers must release the rock with their hands
while the wheelchair rule says curlers can use a stick or hands.
Obviously this situation is quite unusual, but the
situation was made even weirder when play started and Roberts’ Evergreen CC team
faced off against a squad from the Denver CC.
In last weekend’s junior
competition, Roberts was allowed to participate, but any stones he delivered
were taken out of play. Denver won every game and will advance to the national
championships in Massachusetts.“It’s very frustrating,” said
Roberts, a senior at Hudson’s Bay High
School.
So he threw the rocks but they took
them out of play? I can’t think of anything more humiliating than that. What
would be the point of allowing him to play but not counting his
rocks?
Folks at Roberts’ curling club have
taken up his cause but with the ruling from the USCA, have essentially been shut
down. So there is the possibility of pursuing other ways to plead the case.
“If they were to make a rule change
to allow me to curl, it would open the way for possibly hundreds of more junior
curlers to be allowed to compete,” he said.Evergreen is considering other
avenues to pursue Roberts’ case, Iwanick said.One option is pursuing the case in
court as a violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act.“The United States Curling
Association is not giving us appropriate solutions to our problem,” Roberts
said. Referring to his delivery style, he added, “They are just rejecting it —
pointing out everything that’s not legal about it — and basically saying I
should not be allowed to compete.”The club may also pursue
arbitration through the Court of
Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland.