Zacharias named CPA rep

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This article was published 21/12/2022 (637 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The new Curling Players’ Association (CPA) features one of Manitoba’s most promising young curlers.

It was announced on Thursday that Mackenzie Zacharias, a former world junior champion skip who now plays third for Jennifer Jones, is one of two next generation athletes, Ontario’s Tanner Horgan being the other, to be named CPA reps. It was also revealed Olympic champion Niklas Edin of Sweden has been named interim president. The representatives cover the globe as Europe (Edin and Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni), Canada (Tyler Tardi and Emma Miskew), the U.S., (Korey Dropkin and Tabitha Peterson), and Pacific-Asia (Japan’s Anna Ohmiya and J.D. Lind) all hold two spots on the board, in addition to next-gen athletes.

“The general idea is that the athletes in curling don’t have a lot of say about a lot of things but we want to because we’re the ones on tour playing,” said Zacharias. “We wanted to have more say and we think that there should be some sort of athlete voice in the overall greater aspect of curling so this is the idea that came about.”

The association will work with the World Curling Federation and its athlete commision to improve communication between curlers, associations and event organizers in order to help improve the game.

Curling Live streaming service co-founder Rylan Hartley organized the group. They plan on holding seminars next year and aim to get more active competitive curlers from around the world to give their support.

“Some of the things we want to tackle is working with the sports organizations and trying to come to agreements on things that work for them and what works to make the athletes happy. And then prize money has been a really big issue in the past couple years in trying to make our tour sustainable and actually make a bit of income to play. So that’s something we’ve been working towards,” said Zacharias.

“And then working with event organizers and just helping everyone be on the same page. And for myself from a next gen perspective, it’s important to help young curlers be in on some of this information. We don’t want it just to be circulated through the top tiers of athletes, but also the junior levels, that way everyone gets the benefits.”

-Staff