China mining Canada’s vast curling wealth

China is serious about winning Olympic curling medals on home ice in 2022 and the country has enlisted a bunch of Canadians to help.

China has recruited Canadian expertise before, but the size of the current intake is eyebrow raising. Mike Harris, Dan Rafael, Carolyn Darbyshire-mcrorie and Perry Marshall are all coaching the Chinese this season.

Calgary’s Darbyshire-mcrorie, who won an Olympic silver medal in 2010 playing second for Cheryl Bernard, is working with four of China’s top women’s teams.

Montreal’s Rafael is coaching in the men’s national program. Toronto’s Marshall is involved in the junior ranks.

“I’m working with the entire program,” Harris said. “They’ve obviously got a big focus for 2022 as they’re hosting the Games. They’re trying to make sure they’re covering all the bases.”

Harris, who skipped Canada to Olympic men’s silver in 1998, is a TV commentator in addition to his Chinese job, which he said is a fouryear commitment.

Beijing will host the Winter Games in less than four years and the host country wants to win a lot of medals on home ice and snow.

While that ups the demand there for international expertise across all sports, Harris also forecasts a curling explosion in China.

“I heard they’ve mandated, which only they can do, that 130 million in the next 10 years are to start winter sport,” Harris said. “Even if only one per cent of that is curling, that’s over a million curlers.

“There’s not enough granite to make that many curling rocks.”

Rafael coached China’s Wang Bingyu to Olympic bronze in 2010, but this is Darbyshire-mcrorie’s first international job after working with Canada’s Casey Scheidegger.

“I stepped back just because the team was needing something else other than me,” Darbyshire-mcrory said.