Last November, I travelled to South Korea after being selected in the Australian Wheelchair Curling team. Curling is just like lawn bowls but on ice. The only difference between wheelchair curling and able bodies curling is that wheelchair teams don’t use brooms to sweep the ice.

Along with three other team members, I travelled to South Korea for the inaugural Asian Wheelchair Curling Championships, held in Gangneung. The six teams that took part were from South Korea; a Gangwon state team considered the future Korean national team; Japan; Philippines; Thailand and Australia.

Australia won the first game against Thailand 11-5. Australia also beat Philippines, but was beaten by Japan and the two Korean teams. A 2-3 win-loss record was enough for Australia finish 4th place and take part in the semi final. In the semis, Australia faced the 1st place team from Sth Korea, going down 20-4. Japan lost the other semi final, resulting in the two Korean teams playing for gold and silver while Australia played Japan for bronze.

Japan eventually overpowered the Australian team, winning 9-3. Everyone in the first ever Australian Wheelchair Curling team should be proud of their efforts considering we were only formed last May while other teams like Japan and  Sth Korea have been competing together for years.

Next up is travel to NZ in August for the Australian National Championships and back to Korea in November for the Asian Championships, where we hope to achieve a podium finish.