Jon Thurston, Wheelchair Curling

Next Generation funding through the ImagiNation initiative has helped propel a rookie Canadian wheelchair curler into the international spotlight.

At age 34, Jon Thurston is one of Team Canada’s newest – and youngest – wheelchair curlers. He earned his spot on the team of veterans following a two-day skills-based shootout in Moose Jaw in January 2019.

But the Dunsford, Ontario resident, who curls out of the nearby Peterborough Curling Club, never intended to make the wheelchair curling team. In fact, he’d never tried curling before his accident and didn’t really know much about the sport.

In 2008, Thurston was left paralyzed from the chest down when a building he was working on collapsed during a storm. When his hometown newspaper ran a story about him and his recovery from injury, Carl Rennick, a local wheelchair curling coach, took notice and invited Thurston to try the sport.

“I said I’d give him a year and go from there,” Thurston says.

It was a good move.

“I just fell in love with the sport and have been playing it since.”

NextGen funding has been key in Thurston’s journey from local rink to Team Canada.

“I’ve been trying to get better and better at curling - trying to learn how to practice better,” he says. “The national program has been huge with the NextGen camps to teach me more about the game.”

By the end of his first year of competition, “it seemed like being on Team Canada was an achievable goal if I worked hard enough,” says Thurston.

Making the team was a “once-in-a-lifetime” experience, he says.

“I don’t know if I can put it in words. It was such an honour to represent Canada,” he said, adding that “there’s so much work that goes into being able to represent your country.”

“It’s all of the things behind the scenes that happen before you get to that level and people see you on TV or on a broadcast stream.”

From scheduling to support staff to the logistics of transporting specialized equipment from one continent to another, there are challenges and considerations to representing your country that can be burdensome to Para athletes like Thurston.

“NextGen funding is important,” he said.  “It was unbelievable to have an extra practice time, to have equipment and to be able to travel to more competitions.”

“I don’t know if I’d be at this level without it,” he added.

For the relative newcomer to wheelchair curling, it’s clear the sport will play a large role in his future.

“I want to improve and keep improving as a player and teammate,” he said. “But the ultimate goal is to be at the Paralympics in 2022.”

Jon playing wheelchair curling