Curling Canada announced in a press release earlier today that Jaedon Neuert will be part of the team who will represent Canada at the 2020 Youth Winter Olympic Games in Lausanne, Switzerland Jan. 9-22. Neuert along with Emily Deschenes of Greely, Ont., Lauren Rajala of Sudbury, Ont., and Nathan Young of Torbay, N.L., will wear the Maple Leaf in the third Youth Winter Olympics.
Applications were accepted from all age-eligible players in Canada (players must be born between Jan. 1, 2002, and Dec. 31, 2005), with the focus on participants in the 2019 Canada Winter Games in Red Deer, Alta., and the 2019 Canadian Under-18 Boys and Girls Championships in Sherwood Park, Alta. Neuert, representing the St. Vital Curling Club in Winnipeg, won bronze at the Canadian Under-18 Championships as the vice-skip for Jordon McDonald’s Manitoba team. He is a 90 per cent student (in French Immersion) at Collège Jeanne-Sauvé in Winnipeg.
Athletes were assessed based on their curling skill, community leadership and academic achievement, and were also asked to submit a 500-word essay outlining why they wanted to play in the Youth Winter Olympics, and how it could impact both their own curling ambitions as well as curling development in Canada.
All four players are 16 and are completing Grade 11 studies in their respective schools. Positions for the players haven’t been assigned, and will be determined following upcoming training camps leading to the Games.
Twenty-four countries will send mixed teams to the 2020 Youth Winter Olympics; the competition format will be announced at a later date.
Once the mixed team event is done, the players will then be formed into mixed doubles teams, matching players from different nations, for another competition that will conclude the Games.
To read the full press release from Curling Canada, please click here.
