Special Olympics Prince George curlers hosted an invitational with curlers from Quesnel and Fort St. John on Saturday, January 24.

By Tommy Osborne

Special Olympics

Prince George hosts curlers across the region for invitational tournament

Jan 26, 2026 | 4:54 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – Special Olympics Prince George held a curling invitational tournament over the weekend, hosting teams from Quesnel and Fort St. John.

“The atmosphere coming to Prince George to curl is good, everybody is happy to see us come down and compete,” said Levi Fowler, a Fort St. John curler.

“I’m so happy, it’s more practice and a fun time together with all the athletes around,” added Prince George curler Sam Russell.

Prince George curling coach Fern Russell says many of the curling athletes do many sports, and they often know some of the athletes from other communities, so it’s always great to connect with friends from other communities. However, it’s not just about a fun time, it’s also an incredibly valuable opportunity to get valuable tournament experience.

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“We end up playing ourselves a lot, so it is nice to have these events where you can play a team that you haven’t played every second week. It’s good for competition for all of them, every curler, to curl against a totally new team,” Fern said.

“It’s great because the teams get to see teams from other communities, and with it being a qualifying year (for regionals), it’s good that they get that experience before they actually have to go to qualifying where it really counts, right?” added Quesnel curling coach John Hagley.

Both coaches add competing against different teams does offer tournaments like this an additional competitive edge, helping prepare athletes for the bigger stages like regionals and giving them the mental and physical training needed to thrive in other tournaments.

“To actually be on the ice, making the decisions, not having a coach right there all the time, so you are actually using all the things you’ve learned at your practices. And it’s, just good practice for when we go into the more serious competition,” Fern said.

“There’s that tension, that fear of meeting the other teams, but they were all really excited to be here,” Hagley added.

As for the athletes themselves, they certainly appreciate the opportunity to step out from their usual local competition and test their skills against other communities.

“It’s good, it’s a challenge. in Fort St. John, you can’t really make the trips all the time because of the roads and stuff, so when they invited us to come we couldn’t pass up the opportunity,” Fowler said.

“It’s more practicing around people, and I’m more comfortable around people now,” Sam added.

Special Olympics BC regional qualifiers for our regions, being 7 and 8, will take place on March 14 in Quesnel.