world curling media
March 1, 2024
Athletes are immortal beings, held up on pedestals to represent what they will do on the taking part in discipline.
This identical hero worship is never seen amongst important staff who save lives and educate the following era. There is a component of superstar standing within the sports activities world that makes these athletes really feel untouchable. But while you simplify the lives of those athletes, they’re usually simply as peculiar as the remainder of us. They hearken to the identical music, watch the identical TV exhibits, and are moved by the individuals who imply rather a lot to them.
And the cruel actuality of sports activities is that many individuals nonetheless need to juggle work, particularly in a sport like curling. It’s much more prevalent in wheelchair curling. Paralympic and world champions hear the nationwide anthem performed on a serious stage and are instantly despatched again to the workplace.
Most of us do not have significantly fascinating careers, however two Norwegian rinks competing on the SD Biosensor World Wheelchair Curling Championship 2024 in Gangneung, South Korea, are open to dialogue about their careers. are exchanging.
Gail Arne Skogstad [left]two-time world champion and rising star Mia Larsen Sveberg [right] Their lives have been affected by their disabilities.
Mr. Skogstad’s background is in spinal twine and mind damage rehabilitation, and his position focuses on bodily well being. Sveberg, alternatively, focuses on a extra holistic route: music, schooling and signal language.
“My life is far and wide, doing various things,” Sveberg admits. She has a level in music instructing, is a frontrunner within the Norwegian Youth Association for Disabled People, and is learning Norwegian Sign Language in order that she will formally educate others.
As a music instructor, she performs in bands akin to: People with disabilities in her hometown of Trondheim. She performs the piano, sings at concert events and festivals, and works for an company specializing in recruitment for folks with disabilities.
For the 25-year-old, slowing down merely is not an possibility. Although she will not be as political as she as soon as was, she is a incapacity rights advocate. She grew to become an activist when she was 11 years previous, when her father, who is tough of listening to, led a marketing campaign to extend the variety of interpreters in Norway and to display using textual content on public transport for deaf folks. He flew her to the capital, Oslo, to do the identical factor. .
Ms. Sveberg’s profession alternative is extremely noteworthy. Not solely does she require her wheelchair, she additionally has listening to loss and should use listening to aids. Due to her father’s and her personal sickness, her important technique of communication is Norwegian Sign Language, adopted by Norwegian after which English.
Mia Larsen Sveberg SD Biosensor 2024 World Wheelchair Curling Championship © World Curling / Ansis Ventins
However, she has to review for a 12 months to have the ability to observe the identical profession path as her mom and educate the language to others. However, one fixed in her life is music.
“Throughout my life, music has all the time been with me it doesn’t matter what occurs,” she added.
“So, I began taking part in the piano after I was six years previous, and on the identical time I used to be all the time concerned in sports activities, however on the time I used to be strolling and had no disabilities.
“That was after I was 15 or 16 years previous.
“So each time my physique shuts right down to me, I all the time go hearken to music. There I let loose all my frustrations, joys, disappointment, the whole lot in my physique. I used to be capable of specific all of the feelings I used to be feeling by music.”
Sveberg has a really contagious character and clearly enjoys expressing herself freely. She’s solely been doing curls for a couple of years, however as a part of the workforce that completed seventh on the 2022 Beijing Winter Paralympics, she felt like she was thrown into final place. Her presence on that stage helps her adapt effectively to the ice when the stress is on.
“I used to be taking part in music in entrance of lots of people,” she mentioned.
“When I competed within the Paralympics, I used to be nonetheless calm. I knew how one can focus.
“I’ve been on stage since I used to be little, so I discovered how one can preserve my nerves in examine. And I perceive the significance of being 100% on stage, and I proceed to hold that with me after I curl. ” ”
SD Biosensor World Wheelchair Curling Championship 2024 Gangneung Curling Center, South Korea © World Curling / Ansis Ventins
By distinction, whereas it might take some convincing to get Skogstad to sing in entrance of a crowd, his every day life is full of supporting folks on their highway to restoration.
His earlier profession was additionally within the music business, the place he labored as a lightweight technician till a scarcity of accessibility for wheelchair customers pressured him to vary jobs. After failing to discover a job after the 2002 Salt Lake City Paralympic Winter Games, the place he received a silver medal in para ice hockey, he serendipitously landed the position, working on the Center for Disability Learning and Coping.
“Actually, it was a little bit of a coincidence,” Skogstad mentioned.
“I hadn’t labored for a 12 months and a half; [local spinal cord organisation] The mission chief requested me to come back to the middle as an worker. ”
Geir Arne Skogstad on the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympic Games © World Curling / Jeffrey Au
Also in Trondheim, Skogstad at present works in a hospital’s rehabilitation clinic, the place she serves as a peer mentor to assist new wheelchair customers transition into a brand new chapter in life, the place she shares her life experiences. and helping folks with the technical features of wheelchair use. .
“What I really like about this job is that I’m able to efficiently assist individuals who really feel like their lives are over in some unspecified time in the future after an damage change, after which go on to vary their mindset and achieve expertise. “Watch their faces and feelings as they get by this and settle for new conditions and discover new methods to take care of them.” added.
Skogstad’s position makes him a connector for incapacity sports activities. He is maybe one of the vital influential wheelchair curlers on the earth, as his work serves as the proper hyperlink between participation in curling and supporting the restoration strategy of newly disabled folks. He launched others to wheelchair curling, together with Mia.
He added: “I used to be alone as the one athlete on the membership for about 9 years.
“We managed to have an open evening within the spring, so the three of us got here. Then we had one other open evening within the fall, and that was throughout apply when Mia confirmed up. did.
“I went from being the one athlete on the membership to 5 athletes in a single 12 months.”
Skogstad is now rebelling in opposition to his musical roots, however discovered a brand new path by his incapacity. Mia picks up the microphone and performs a rhythm on the piano. Gail’s actions on and off the ice are offering a special type of inspiration to these whose lives have all of the sudden modified.
“There’s all the time a optimistic a part of being an athlete and a mentor to your friends: you’re ready to indicate that nice issues are attainable regardless of your damage.”
Written by function author Michael Huston