TEAM USA READY TO GO AT 2023 WORLD JUNIORS IN GERMANY
Photo by Bob Weder
[EAGAN, MN, February 21, 2023]—The 2023 World Junior Curling Championships are set to begin this week in Füssen, Germany, with American teams competing in both the Men’s and Women’s competitions.
In the Men’s division, Ethan Sampson returns to the World Juniors for the second straight year, moving up from the third position to skip his Fargo, ND-based team of Kevin Tuma, Coleman Thurston, Marius Kleinas, and Jake Zeman. On the Women’s side, Miranda Scheel will lead a young team based out of Fargo, ND, that includes Jordan Hein, Tessa Thurlow, Amelia Hintz, and Anne O’Hara.
Both Team Sampson and Team Scheel will play a nine-game round robin before the top four teams in their respective Men’s and Women’s Championships advance to the playoffs. The event will run from February 25th to March 4th at the National Training Centre for Ice Hockey and Curling in Füssen.
Team Scheel is a newcomer to the World Juniors, having burst onto the curling scene last year after winning Gold at both the U18 and U21 Nationals. This year’s team will seek to replicate the results of the 2022 Women’s squad who won bronze in Jönköping, Sweden. Anne O’Hara, a member of that Bronze medal winning team and recent silver medalist at the USA Curling Women’s National Championship, joins them as an alternate and brings world championship experience to Team Scheel.
Unlike the women, the Men’s team representing the United States has experience on the world stage, with Sampson, Thurston, and Kleinas returning from last year’s Team USA. Team Sampson is carrying momentum heading into the World Juniors after their recent performance at the USA Curling Men’s Nationals, where they finished just outside the playoffs in fifth place.
“We’re really excited to get to Germany,” commented Coleman Thurston, second on Team Sampson. “Coming off of the recent Men’s Nationals, we’ve had time to prepare and lock in our routines. We’re ready to compete and improve our result from last year.”
Streaming of each game of every draw will be available through Recast. World Curling TV will produce high-quality streaming coverage with commentary of a select game each draw, while the remaining games will be available with fixed position cameras. The American men will be featured against Germany on Sunday, Feb 26th at 9AM, and against Canada on Thursday, Mar 2nd at 7PM. The American women will be the feature game when they play Sweden on Monday, Feb 27th at 9AM.
Participating Countries:
Men: Canada, China, Germany, Italy, Norway, Scotland, South Korea, Switzerland, Turkey, United States
Women: Canada, Germany, Japan, Latvia, Norway, Scotland, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, United States
