Nolan Thiessen, the CEO of Curling Canada, views podium finishes and youth development as top priorities.
The article’s author is Ted Wyman.
Having earned an international gold medal in his playing days, Nolan Thiessen’s greatest desire is to regularly return Canada to that level of curling greatness.
Shortly after being named Curling Canada’s new CEO on Wednesday, Thiessen stated, “Our athletes want to win, and we want to win.”
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“There are a lot of things we want to do with the World Curling Federation to develop the game of curling, but I said in my interview with the Board of Governors that you’re not going to find anybody who wants to beat everyone at the world championships more than I do.” That is a sizable portion of it.
Born in Pilot Mound, Manitoba, and raised in Brandon, Thiessen, 43, now lives in Edmonton. She was appointed to Curling Canada’s top position six months after Katherine Henderson left to become the CEO of Hockey Canada.
Thiessen, a 2010 world champion (as lead for Kevin Koe) and three-time Canadian men’s champion, has been an executive director of marketing and fan experience for the past four years at Curling Canada.
As curling in Canada struggles to gain traction at both the grassroots and elite levels, he takes up the role at this time.
Although Canada has many of the best teams in the world, the nation hasn’t taken home an international gold medal in curling since 2018 for either the men’s, women’s, or mixed doubles divisions.
David Murdoch, a Scot, was appointed as Curling Canada’s High Performance Director in the spring and is tasked with attempting to return Canada to the summit.
In an attempt to highlight the training component of team preparation for Canadian teams, the two-time world champion and 2014 Olympic silver medallist has been putting some of the tactics he used in a similar role in Scotland into practice.
We took a step back and asked ourselves, “Well, what do we need to do to win more medals?” Said Thiessen.
“Residency, the Scotties and Brier formats, timing, and all those other things are major components of the high-performance program, and we can argue about them endlessly, but you can win medals in July, August, September, and October with work that no one ever sees.” Our high-performance coaches and athletes have truly gotten into that. A great deal of work is done that is never seen.
Having experienced firsthand how tough it has become for Canada to succeed internationally, Thiessen—who won the Brier with Koe in 2010 and 2014 and with Pat Simmons in 2015—sees this as a problem that can be overcome.
Thiessen stated, “Winning will mean more because it’s harder to win now.” “We won another world championship, it’s not just ho-hum.” We will have a lot to celebrate if we take home a gold medal or a world title.
Simultaneously, the number of curling clubs in the nation has decreased significantly compared to earlier times, and the difference between the best teams and aspiring competitive curlers has grown. Younger players find it challenging to advance in the game, and the majority of the best teams are made up of curlers with more expertise.
There is some pressure on someone like Thiessen to discover methods to expand the game because the fan base is aging for both live events and televised shows.
Brad Gushue, the current Canadian men’s champion, stated this week that curling needs a “Good kick in the butt” outside of Canada.
According to Thiessen, Gushue’s discussion involves modernizing the marketing strategies and the underlying motivations behind the creations made by fans.
Why did you offer folks a reason to be concerned? Why was someone interested in tuning in to see you play curling? Why would someone want to watch on a Monday afternoon at the Brier, let alone the Brier final because it’s a little of Canadiana? All of that has been discussed, and it is true that some things need to change.
One of Thiessen’s main goals is to keep young development as a top priority, both in terms of involvement and fandom.
According to Thiessen, “that is obviously a priority for every sport out there.” We’ve changed the way we do things a little bit. We’re introducing curling into schools more and more, and we’re sort of using our events to give kids a whole experience: first, they get to try curling in the schools through Rocks and Rings, and then they go down and participate in those big events to see what it’s like if you reach the highest level.
Curling aficionados can vouch that Thiessen’s biggest accomplishment to date in the sport was putting together the COVID-19 curling “bubble” in Calgary in 2021. The men’s and women’s world championships, the Scotties, the Brier, and two Grand Slam competitions were all held in the WinSport complex in Calgary. Strict testing ensured that the athletes competed without the presence of viruses.
When asked about her proudest experience in curling, Thiessen replied, “Most people would think it was winning a Brier or world championship, but it was actually running that bubble.” The sport wouldn’t be played that year if we didn’t take that action. It was significant only to offer the athletes the chance to compete that year.The appointment of Thiessen is a furthervictory for those who have argued that curling requires more athletes to be involved in the planning stages.
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