Jillian Young of Liverpool celebrates after winning the gold in her 200-metre snowshoe race at the Special Olympics World Winter Games in Italy. (Special Olympics Canada)

Queens County athletes are once again at the top of the world podium.

Jillian Young and Rebecca Delaney of Liverpool captured gold this week at the Special Olympics World Winter Games in Sestriere.

Young was the first to win gold on Thursday in the snowshoe 200-metre F15 final. And Delaney won gold on Friday as part of the 4 x 100-metre relay snowshoe team.

Susan Inglis, who is also Delaney’s mother, is one of the Team Canada snowshoe coaches in Italy for the games.

“It’s really amazing like the talent that is here and to see them compete on the world stage and do that well is just amazing.”

Young and Delaney are part of the 90-athlete-strong Team Canada at the games in Turin and Sestriere. And they contributed to Canada’s 76-medal haul.

Bridgewater’s Nick Skoreyko and Chloe Stoddart are the other athletes from Special Olympics Lunenburg/Queens competing in Italy. Skoreyko finished fifth in both of his snowshoe races. And Stoddart claimed bronze in 500-metre cross-country skiing.

Delaney also placed fourth and fifth in two other races, while Young finished sixth in her other race.

Delaney’s gold-medal-winning relay team has the fastest time in the world and Skoreyko was also in the fastest heat among male athletes.

“Pretty big deal to go and represent your country,” Inglis said.

“The medals are the icing on the cake, but the cake is still pretty good, pretty impressive. And they are here in Italy in these beautiful mountains with people from all over the world and they’re showcasing their talents here and they have done all so well that it’s almost hard to believe that they can be in the Top 10 in the world.

“This little town of Liverpool can put out some pretty cool, amazing athletes.”

Inglis said Delaney’s relay was run in the middle of a blizzard on the mountain.

“I had no idea what was happening on those relays until they got around to the 100-metre mark becuase you couldn’t see.”

Inglis said every athlete achieved a personal best in their sport.

“If you’re beating your personal best times, which they’ve all done, that’s amazing in itself too.

“For Rebecca and Nick, they’ve been training for a good nine months. And the minimum that they’ve had to train was three times a week, so they’re improved their performance by all that training.”

Another important aspect of the games is meeting other competitors from Canada and around the world. Inglis said the experience will only help set up the Lunenburg and Queens athletes for even more success.

“I think that they now see waht opprotunities are out there for them. And if they work really hard, train really hard that they can continue to go to national games and maybe get to go to another world games.”

As for herself, Inglis says she’s learned a lot from other coaches, lessons she’ll put into practice when she returns to Nova Scotia.

“It gives me that knowledge to bing back and share in nova scotia, not just within luen queens but with some of the other coaches in nova scotia that do snowshoeing as well.

“It’s fantastic. I’ve never met a Special Olympic athlete I haven’t fallen in love with. And this has just opened up a  new world to me because in Lunenburg Queens we have a limited group of athletes and I’ve been working with them for quite a few years but now I know athletes from all over the country. It’s been wonderful.”

Saturday is the last day of competition at the Special Olympics World Winter Games in Turin. And then it’s the closing ceremonies Saturday night.

After that, Inglis says she hopes to take a few weeks off before resuming training for the Nova Scotia Special Olympics provincial summer games in July.

“It just was an overall amazing experience. I’m exhausted and looking forward to getting back home to my own bed and animals and things, but it’s been overall an amazing experience.”

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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Susan Inglis, snowshoeing coach with Special Olympics Lunenburg/Queens, will be heading to Italy this week with these athletes for the 2025 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Turin: Rebecca Delaney, Jillian Young, Chloe Stoddart and Nick Skoreyko. (Rick Conrad photo)

Queens County athletes are once again getting ready to represent Canada on the world stage.

Snowshoers Rebecca Delaney and Jillian Young of Liverpool will be among 91 athletes from across the country going to the Special Olympics World Winter Games in Turin, Italy, from March 8 to 15.

Bridgewater’s Nick Skoreyko will also be competing for a snowshoeing medal. And Chloe Stoddart from Bridgewater will represent Canada in cross-country skiing.

Delaney’s mother Susan Inglis, the snowshoeing coach for Special Olympics Lunenburg/Queens, will be one of the 24 Team Canada coaches going to Italy.

It will be the first world games for all of them.

More than 50 people showed up at an event at Memories Cafe and Eatery in Liverpool on Saturday to wish them well.

Inglis says going to Italy is a significant accomplishment for the athletes and for the coaches.

“It’s an amazing opportunity to get to represent their country,” she said. “And to get to go to Italy, for some of them, like Jillian, … this is her first time going out of the country. And they’re going to get to meet people from all other countries and perform on the world stage and see how they stack up.”

Inglis says she is honoured to have been chosen as one of the coaches for Team Canada.

“It is humbling for sure. As it gets closer, it really hits home that I’m representing my whole county in going to Special Olympics World Games.”

Rebecca Delaney is a multiple medal winner at Special Olympics Canada Games. She’ll be running in the 100 and 200-metre snowshoe event as well as the 4 x 100 relay.

She says she’s looking forward to doing her best in Italy.

“I’m nervous and excited and I’m ready to go. I’ve been training and going to the gym a lot and it’s been non-stop. I think I’ll do good, but if I don’t win, I will do my best.”

Jillian Young has also won medals at national games. When she went to last year’s winter games in Calgary, it was her first time on a plane.

She says she’s pumped to be airborne again and to compete in Italy.

“I’m really proud of getting this far. And we’re going to make Canada rock. Go Canada go!”

Young says she hopes to win a gold medal and to “kick some butt!”

Betty Ann Daury of Liverpool has coached snowshoe and track with Special Olympics Lunenburg/Queens for 43 years.

She was a coach with Team Canada in Nagano, Japan, in 2005. She’ll be cheering on the team from home this time. She says they’re in good hands with Inglis as coach.

Daury said going to a world games is a fitting reward for the athletes, who have committed to regular practices, workouts and hard work to get there. 

“They’ve accepted the fact that if you want to go, if you don’t work hard, then you don’t go. … If you can’t do it here, then you can’t do it there. And you know, we’re so proud of these guys.

“Jillian is an example of how great you can become. She’s come a long way.”

Ben Hatt was among the people at the event at Memories on Saturday to show their support. He grew up with Rebecca and her sister Kate.

“I am really excited to see how she does in Italy. I know she’s gonna win and if she doesn’t win, she’s going to be brave in the attempt. I just think it’s really important to show support for people you love.”

Inglis says the team will be leaving Monday for Toronto for two days to meet with some dignitaries in an official sendoff, including a celebratory Italian dinner. Then they fly to Italy to get ready for the week of competition in Sestriere.

“It is a pretty big deal. From little old Liverpool, we’ve got Sarah Mitton who’s a pretty amazing Olympic athlete and then we’ve got our Special Olympians who are going to representing Queens County on the world stage. And I hope that everybody tunes in.”

Snowshoeing gets underway at the games on March 11. For more information, you can follow the Special Olympics Lunenburg/Queens Facebook page. 

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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Scott Pfeifer, a former world and Canadian curling champion, gives a rundown of what makes mixed doubles curling unique. (Rick Conrad)

As 32 curlers compete this week in Liverpool for a chance to represent Canada at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy, how much do you know about mixed doubles curling?

The 2025 Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Trials began on Monday and finish up on Saturday at Queens Place Emera Centre.

While you may be familiar with the rules of traditional four-person-to-a-team curling, there are some differences in the mixed doubles game.

FULL COVERAGE: 2025 Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Trials

So we asked one of the people uniquely qualified to give us a primer on the basics of the mixed doubles game versus traditional curling.

Scott Pfeifer is in Liverpool this week for the trials. He is the national team coach and program manager for mixed doubles with Curling Canada. Pfeifer is also a four-time world champion and a five-time Brier champion.

First of all, some of the fundamentals are the same in both disciplines. Teams play on the same size ice surface, with the same rings and the same basic rules. 

“The real basic ones would be if you’re throwing a draw, that means you’re basically throwing the rock so that it’ll stop in the rings,” Pfeifer says.

“If you’re throwing a takeout, you’re actually taking out another stone. 
So you’re throwing it hard enough to remove the other stone from the rings. … The button is basically the centre, almost like the bull’s-eye, whoever is closest to the button at the end of the end scores points.

“Where someone’s aiming at the beginning, the shot is not where the rock ends up. So the rock, depending on whether you turn the handle left or right will travel in that direction.”

Unlike in the traditional game, in mixed doubles, there are two placement stones, one for each team, marked with an X.

“The biggest thing that you would notice is at the start of every end, there’s two placement stones. One is a guard right on the centre line and the other one is placed back four-foot. 
So the team that has a hammer, typically places their rock in the back four foot (ring), and basically those rocks are part of the the entire end and can be counted as scoring rocks as well.

“It adds a little bit more excitement. 
There’s already rocks in play. They can’t be removed. and there’s only five rocks per team every end, not including the placement stones. So the ends go really quick, but they’re also very action-packed because there’s a lot of rocks in play. “

Those placement stones can be knocked out only after there are five rocks in play.

“Until that point, no rocks can be removed, whether they’re in front, in the free-guard zone or in the rings.”

There’s also a rule unique to mixed doubles curling called a “power play”.

“A team each game has one time where they can exercise their power play option,” Pfeifer says, “which means moving those stones from the centre line over to the edge of the eight-foot (ring). 
And essentially what that does is it creates a little more offensive ability for the team to maybe score a few more points.

“So at the beginning of every end, those stones are placed and whether they’re placed on the centre line or on the edge of the eight-foot is the decision of the team with the hammer. But you can only use the power play once a game.” 

In mixed doubles, teams can consist of only two players — one male, one female. No alternates are allowed. The games are shorter too, eight ends versus the 10 ends of traditional curling.

“There’s five rocks in an end, so one person throws either the first and the fifth rock of the end, the other teammate throws two, three and four of the end. 
And that can actually be switched every end if they want to.”

Scoring in mixed doubles is basically the same too, with the team with the most rocks closest to the button counting points in each end. In a regular curling match, teams can hold on to their last-shot advantage, otherwise known as the hammer, by blanking an end. Not so in mixed doubles.

“The only thing with mixed doubles curling as well that’s a little different is if you blank an end, you actually lose the hammer,” Pfeifer says. “So not very often in mixed doubles curling, do you see a blank end because then it’s to the advantage of the other team.

“In mixed doubles curling it’s one of those ones where if you miss your first shot of the end, it can get you in loads of trouble and you don’t have a whole lot of time to basically recoup that missed shot. 
So it can lead to a lot of crazy linescores and very entertaining games.”

Pfeifer says it’s one the reasons mixed doubles curling can be a faster, exciting game.

“I think it’s very unique dynamics when you only have two athletes on the ice. It’s very fast-paced and there’s lots of rocks in play. 
So I would just encourage people to go and give it a chance and try to understand the rules and I think you’ll fall in love with it just like most people have with the four-person game.”

The round robin at the 2025 Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Trials are on at Queens Place Emera Centre continues until Thursday, with playoffs beginning Thursday evening.

Full results and standings can be found on the Curling Canada website.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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