PRESIDENT’S NEWSLETTER August 2014 Welcome Fuessen 2014 Junior Camp Photo Christian Leibbrandt Inside this issue: Summer 2 Camps Other WCF 3 News Over the past three months, some of us have taken the opportunity to catch our breath fol- Development 4 lowing an extremely exciting and busy season. Others, however, have been hard at work, both at curling camps and courses as well as ‘down under’, with Australia and New Zealand holding MA News 5-6 national championships during their winter season. Before the new season begins in Taarnby, Denmark, with the European Mixed Curling Cham- Deadlines 7 pionship 2014, we look forward to holding the third World Curling Congress in Reno, USA from 4 to 8 September. This will provide you, our Member Associations (MAs), with an opportunity to meet and dis- cuss important issues coming up over the next 12 months, find out about recent World Curl- ing Federation (WCF) activities, as well as meet in your Zonal Commissions to discuss region- al matters. At the WCF Annual General Assembly a number of exciting proposals, which could have a significant impact on our game, will be presented to MA representatives. These proposals fol- low extensive research and deliberation by both our Competition and Rules Commission and Athlete Commission. Special points of Some of the key proposals include: interest: Change the game timing system from Running time to Thinking time Changes to the final stage rounds at WCF events Fuessen and Sweetlake Changes to World Junior Championships and related qualification processes Summer Camps ( p2) Change the European Mixed into a World Mixed Curling Championship Before these decisions are made, I hope you enjoy reading this latest newsletter and remem- Development Assis- tance Programme (p4) ber, you can read more about each story by clicking on the headline. Americas and Pacific- Board Election Nominations Asia news in brief (p5) The WCF has announced all nated for the next four year nominated for Vice-President European news in brief of the candidates nominated term as President. of the Pacific-Asia zone. (p6) for the forthcoming Board Also unopposed is Graham To find out about all of the New websites and elections at the WCF Annual Prouse, nominated as Vice- other Board nominations, media programmes (p6) General Assembly during our President from the Americas read the news story on our Congress in Reno. Zone, and Australia’s Hugh website: http://wcf.co/1qj4n35 I am the only candidate nomi- Millikin, the sole candidate Page 2 SUMMER CAMPS August 2014 Newsletter WCF DCV Fuessen Camps 2014 The WCF, with the support of the German Curling Association (DCV), worked together to host specialised curling courses and the 16th annual Jun- ior Curling Camp in Fuessen, Germany between 28 June and 12 July. A total of 181 participants from 26 MAs attended the courses and the Junior Camp, highlighting just how internationally diverse the Fuessen programme continues to be. This year the three courses included the four and a half day Ice-Technician Course; a one and a half day Umpire Basic Course as well as the one and a half day Introduction to Instruction Course. The feedback from all course participants, as well as from the Junior Camp, was once again very positive, a testament to the hard work undertaken by all of those involved in these camps and courses. A big thank you to all involved who helped make Fuessen 2014 another huge success. Top right: Ice Technician Course. Above: Some of the youngsters at the Junior Camp Below: Zoetermeer Team Camp. All Photos: Christian Leibbrandt Sweetlake Junior Team Camp 2014 From 1 to 6 August the WCF, supported by the Netherlands We believe that the Junior Team Camp is a good addition to Curling Association, hosted the Sweetlake Junior Team the Junior Camp in Fuessen which is designed for individuals. Camp in Zoetermeer in the Netherlands. At the camp, participants can work a lot more on team skills Seven teams from Estonia, Finland, Netherlands, Poland (three) such as planning, tasks and competition preparation for exam- and Romania took part. Along with the athletes, we also active- ple. ly encourage their coaches to attend as well. Teams leave with a lot of useful tools that they can use to con- Three instructors from Canada, Netherlands and Sweden tinue their team’s development when they get back home. shared their knowledge during an intense week. August 2014 Newsletter OTHER NEWS Page 3 WCF receives substantial funding boost We are truly grateful to have re- country, email: ceived two substantial donations [email protected] over the past three months. for more information. The Foundation for Global Sports This funding will also expand the Development donated $73,000 USD Sports Media Trainee Pro- to support both the Olympic Cele- gramme (formerly Trainee Journal- bration Tour and the Sports Media ist and Photographer Programme). Trainee Programme. It will now be offered to three stu- This funding will support the WCF’s dent journalists and three student Olympic Celebration Tour for photographers during the 2014/15 another 12 months, offering more season. In addition, two TV Produc- people around the world the oppor- tion Trainees will be given the op- tunity to take part in instructional portunity to work alongside the sessions with curling Olympians and World Curling Television crew at WCF instructors. two WCF championships this season. With the Tour resuming in autumn, a The International Olympic Commit- total of seven stops are already tee (IOC) also recently approved a planned for the 2014/15 season. Development Grant for $75,600 There’s still time to get involved USD to support a variety of curling though! If you want to host an Olym- development projects, including the pic Celebration Tour stop in your annual camps and courses in Fuessen. ON THE ROAD IOC Olympic Agenda 2020 Ethics Working Group After being appointed as a Member of the IOC Olympic Agenda 2020 Ethics Working Group in May, I attended a meeting of the group on 24 June in Lausanne, Switzerland. Along with the 14 other Working Groups, a broad outline of their findings was presented to the IOC Executive Board at its meeting in July. These were then discussed at the Olympic Summit later in July, which was attended by all the key stakeholders of the Olympic Move- ment. The contributions will then be presented to the IOC commissions in September, before being discussed again at their Executive Board meeting in October. The refined proposals for Olympic Agenda 2020 will lastly be presented for discussion by the entire IOC membership and final approval at an IOC Extraordinary Session in Monaco on 8 and 9 December 2014. Site visits In June, Secretary General Colin Grahamslaw visited Belgrade in Serbia to meet several organisations, including members of the National Curling As- sociation of Serbia; the Serbian National Olympic Committee and Paralym- pic Committee and the Serbian Minister of Sport. Colin also visited a possible location for the first dedicated curling rink in Serbia. Elsewhere, Development Officer Richard Harding, Competitions and Devel- opment Officer Darrell Ell and Media Relations Officer Joanna Kelly, have been in Japan undertaking TV and technical surveys for forthcoming events in Karuizawa, host of the Pacific-Asia Curling Championships 2014, and Sappo- ro, venue for the World Women’s Curling Championship 2015. Karuizawa Ice Park in Japan, will host the Pacific-Asia Curling Championships 2014 Photo: WCF Page 4 DEVELOPMENT August 2014 Newsletter Anti-doping Since May we have continued to in- We have also recently uploaded the form MAs about the various anti- list of WCF competitions which re- doping educational tools and infor- quire Therapeutic Use Exemption mation available to them. forms (TUE). This can be found here: Some of these tools include WADA’s www.worldcurling.org/TUEs interactive quizzes for coaches and Prevention through education is our athletes which can be accessed here: key strategy and it is you, our MAs, Coach True coachtrue.wada-ama.org who can help ensure our sport re- Play True quiz.wada-ama.org mains doping free by educating and Amendments have been made to the informing your coaches and athletes Prohibited List which come into effect about the dangers of doping. on 1 September 2014 so please take For more information about anti- your time to read over them here: doping contact the WCF: www.worldcurling.org/prohibited-lists [email protected] WADAs Athlete Guide is a useful educational resource Technical and Officiating Clinics, Korea The Korean Curling Federation welcomed WCF Competition and Development Officers Darrell Ell and Eeva Roethlisberger as instruc- tors for their Technical and Officiating Clinics at Uiseong, Korea from 26 to 30 July. Darrell arrived first and instructed at the three day Advanced Instruc- tor and Introduction to Coaching Course, with a total of 42 partici- pants. Eeva spent the last two days of the clinic providing instruction for the Basic Officiating Course, which welcomed 60 participants. Both instructors were pleased with the enthusiasm of the high number of participants throughout the duration of the clinic and course, in what was another successful development opportunity in the Pacific- Darrell Ell (WCF, centre, blue) with some of the participants in Korea Asia region. Photo: KCF Development Assistance Programme (DAP) Since the start of the 2014-2015 DAP Programme on 1 June, we have already approved DAP applications for $89,000 USD. So far 15 MAs have used the opportunity to get support for some of their development projects. The projects supported were mainly funds towards participation at WCF organised camps and courses as well as to organise their own camps and for the purchase of stones and scrapers.