"Stony Story"

2010-04-18

World Mixed Doubles and Senior World Curling Championships 2010 are staged in Chelyabinsk region from 17 April until 24 April.

• First time a World Curling Championships has been staged in Russia
• First an international or world competition has been held in the South Urals
• Ice Palace «Ural Lightning» hosts World Curling Championships

The official host agreement for holding two World Championships (the Mixed Doubles and the Seniors) in Russia’s Chelyabinsk region was signed at the meeting of the World Curling Federation in Aberdeen, Scotland on December 12, 2009.

These are the first major international championships to be staged in Russia and are the highlight, so far, of the 19 year history of the Russian Curling Federation and curling development in the country. It is also the first time that a major international sports championship has been held in the Chelyabinsk region.

In Russia, curling is a young game. Through organizing this event, organizers are gaining experience of holding curling competitions at the international level ahead of the next Winter Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014.

Curling developed in Chelyabinsk since 2004 after the 1st Winter Student Games of Russia. The first training sessions for curlers took place in the Sports Palace "Yunost". Since December, 2004 the new Ice Palace ”Ural Lightning” has become the platform for training and competitions.

Chelyabinsk region has hosted the Student Games of Russia (2004), the Youth Games of Russia (2008) Russian Paralympic championships (in 2007 and 2009).

Chelyabinsk is the platform for training of the Russian national Paralympic curling team. Since this year the Ice Palace has also begun curling for deaf and hearing impaired athletes.

“It’s of great importance for us to hold World Championships in Russia. It’s the first step towards the next Winter Olympic Games in Sochi,” said Joanna Kelly, Media Relations Officer for the World Curling Federation.

The South Urals were granted the rights to hold the World Championships thanks to excellent sports facilities. The Ice Palace ”Ural Lightning“ has all the necessary facilities and equipment for organizing and holding competitions in compliance with the international standards: referees areas, commentator booths, dressing rooms for each team, medical post, utility rooms.

The Ice Palace has been entirely modified for the competition. The ice hockey rink, located right in the center of the ice bowl, was dismounted. The competitions will take place on the 11 sheets and 3 more sheets are prepared for the general public who want to try curling and receive instruction from top curlers.

“It’s a great honour to hold two world championships at the same time in Chelyabinsk. We are fascinated with the size of the Ice Palace “Ural Lightning”. To be honest, I have never seen so many sheets at one championship,” said Keith Wendorf, Director of Competitions for the World Curling Federation.

A team of 8 international umpires will oversee play at the championships. Many of the senior championship participants (who have to be over 50 to compete) are recognized experts of the sport. It is only the third Mixed Doubles Championship in the history of World curling.

The leading ice-maker for the World Curling Federation, Hans Wutrich from Canada, and his team have come to make ice for the championships.

900 additional seats have been installed for spectators close to the 11 sheets of curling competition ice.

250 Volunteers have been actively involved into preparations and are assisting the Organizing Committee during competitions. They were selected from a pool of 2000 applicants.

The volunteers have been divided into 7 groups: one with foreign languages skills, a service group, logistics group, ‘event-volunteers’, spectator support, technical and sports service group.

Volunteers followed training on safety communications and specifics of work with representatives of other countries as well as learning the history of curling and its rules. The group of volunteers assisting the umpires were instructed by Olga Zharkova, member of the Russian curling team and participant of the Olympic Games in Turin, Salt Lake City and Nagano.

In order to raise public awareness about the event, a Route 1 trolley-bus with the 2010 WMDCC&WSCC logo was launched in Chelyabinsk on 9 April. The first passenger onto the trolley-bus received an invitation to the World Curling Championships and Stony, the mascot of the event. For two weeks in the run up to the event, each passenger of the trolley bus received free tickets for the championships.

The Opening Ceremony of the World Curling Championships 2010 was held on April, 17 in the Ice Palace. The show called “Romancing the Stone” described the relationship between man and nature and highlighted the importance of holding the World Championships in Russia.

The show included special effects, lasers, big screen projections as well as music by a modern jazz lyric band and leading folk song and dance clubs from the South Urals.

The first stone, marking the opening of the World Curling Championships, was delivered by Evgeniy Redin, Vice-Governor of Chelyabinsk Region. The opening ceremony closed with a demonstration end of curling between Team Europe and Team Asia-Pacific. Those unable to attend the Opening Ceremony were able to watch it live on OTV (Chelyabinsk Regional TV).