Photo Courtesy EverythingGP Staff

By Tanner Smith

Sports

Pinty’s Hearing Life Tour Challenge is coming to Grande Prairie after two years

Sep 22, 2022 | 7:56 AM

The Grande Prairie Curling Club hosted the Pinty’s Hearing Life Tour Challenge news conference on Wednesday, September 21.

Olympic Gold Medal Curler Kevin Martin says this event will feature some local teams for the people in Grande Prairie to rally behind, while also including teams from countries like Japan, Denmark, and Scotland.

“Ya isn’t it something, 64 teams from around the world are all coming to join, it’s the biggest event the Grande Slam of Curling has ever put on, so it’s a major undertaking, a huge amount of volunteers and for a non-curling fan I would just say ‘come out’ and just experience what happens at a curling event of that magnitude.”

Among those 64 teams, they have sprinkled in some local teams and players for the residents of Grande Prairie to rally behind such as Kristie Moore, Kayla Skrlik, Kevin Koe, and Scott Webb.

Because of the size of the event, unlike most curling events, it will feature two rinks for teams to play on, for non-stop action throughout the weekend.

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Martin says there are challenges with hosting such a large event, but if anyone could do it, it would be Grande Prairie, (which hosted two events in the same year, Scotties Tournament of Hearts and the Home Hardware Canada Cup) but, with these challenges do come some great upsides.

“It’s just going to get more young people involved in our sport, and just getting excited about it, that’s really all we as people should be excited about with kids, is kids getting excited about sport in general, not necessarily curling, it doesn’t really matter to me what sport people play, but when you have big events like this coming in, and there’s going to be a whole whack of kids that just want to get out on that ice and play.”

Martin adds it’s not just beneficial for the sport of curling but the area as well. ” Well a lot of these top teams coming in, their families are going to come watch too, I didn’t count them, that’s not part of the entourage I was talking about that’s just family and friends, so it’s going to be a very busy time for hotels and all of the restaurants and businesses, but not just that I think a lot of people are going to drive up to, not just fly, I drove up this morning and it was no big deal.”

Martin says he believes this will be a real economic boom for the Grande Prairie area, and he thinks it will really help grow the game in the Peace region, seeing high-level athletes from all over the world walking around the City, creating a buzz over a sporting event.

He adds, Grande Prairie has a great reputation with curlers, from well-taken care of facilities to friendly people, and everyone is very excited to get back up here.

If you would like to volunteer and help run the event, contact the Grande Prairie Curling Club.

Tickets for the Pinty’s Hearing Life Tour Challenge are now on sale, you can get yours by clicking here.

Photo Courtesy EverythingGP Staff