Thums, US team capture the gold medal at World Curling Championships

For Matt Thums, his first season as skip of the US Wheelchair Curling team is off to a golden start.

On April 15, Team USA defeated the team from Switzerland in the championship finals to bring home the gold medal from the 2021 World Wheelchair-B Curling Championship held at Kisakallio Sports Institute in Lohja, Finland.

Along with winning gold, Team USA, consisting of Matt Thums (Weston, Wis.), Steve Emt (Hebron, Conn.), David Samsa (Green Bay, Wis.), Pam Wilson (Denver, Colo.), and Bat-Oyun “Oyuna” Uranchimeg (Burnsville, Minn.), has qualified for the 2021 World Wheelchair Curling Championship in Beijing, China from October 23-30 keeping alive the dream to compete in the 2022 Paralympic Games.

For the Ogema native (son of Ken and Mary Thums) and 1995 graduate of Prentice High School, the journey to the gold medal round has been a long one, made especially challenging this year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

“When COVID hit it shut everything down,” Thums said of the challenge of finding practice ice. He said one of the team members had heard of a new club opening in Pittsburgh and at the end of June and beginning of July his team members traveled there to get practice ice. For the rest of the summer and into fall he made the three-hour trip to Chaska in Minnesota and was finally able to get some ice time closer to home with the opening of the Stevens Point Club this January.

“We are spread all over,” Thums said, noting that it is vital to be able to get training in with the entire team. Making this season especially challenging for Thums is that it was his first time in the skip position.

In curling, the skip is the team captain and handles a lot of the strategy. Most importantly, the skip also throws the final two rocks of each end. This puts a lot more pressure on the skip to make their shots. Thums noted that when he has played other positions there is always the idea that at least there are a couple more rocks to make something happen. The skip is the person who has to make those shots, something which can be the difference between winning and losing a match. Thums has been third on the team for the past few years and has been involved with the strategy part of things.

The championships started with a round robin competition before the top teams advanced to playoff rounds. Thums said the round robin games against Italy and Switzerland, two of the other teams to qualify for the playoffs, were the hardest. Team USA lost to both of those teams in the round robin but came back for wins in the playoffs.

Thums described the feeling of a weight being lifted off his chest when they defeated Italy in the playoff round to advance to the gold medal game. The game had been touch and go with each team giving and taking points and going into extra ends.

Thums noted that the goal coming into the competition was to get one of the three spots to qualify for the World Championships. He said that by getting into the gold medal game regardless if they won or lost they were guaranteed a berth in Beijing next fall.

He explained that had they ended up in the bronze medal game, they would have been fighting for their lives with a lot more pressure on needing to win.

This is not to say the gold medal round was easy. Team USA still had their work cut out for them as they fell behind 3-0 against the Swiss going into the sixth end before they were able to get points on the board.

One of the biggest challenges for the people following from home was that there was no way for them to watch the games since they were not being televised. The only thing people could do is follow the line score for each end.

Thums said his parents would get up at 3 a.m. to check how he did on their early morning games. He said that during the gold medal game, the team’s coach was getting flooded with messages from people seeking updates on how the team was doing including from John Schuster, skip of the US Men’s Olympic Gold Medal team. He said their coach complained that he hardly had a chance to watch the game from keeping everyone updated.

Not surprisingly, the game against Switzerland came to the last few rocks with 11 of the 16 stones in the house at the last end. Team USA was in the unenviable position of not having hammer and needing to steal the end in order to win the game. He said his third threw the count rock with his first rock, with the Swiss third’s rock being short. His third’s second rock provided a guard. Thums provided more guards with his last rock on the 12-foot line.

“All you can do is wait after that,” Thums said.

Fortunately, Team USA pulled off the win.

Thums said he is taking a break before heading back on the ice in Stevens Point for more practice. He expects to be making several trips to Chaska and elsewhere for practice ice this summer.

While the team members have to go through the formality of going through a qualifier event this June he said it would take them shooting very poorly at that to see a shake up in the team members going to compete in Beijing next fall. “I don’t see that happening,” he said.

At the World Wheelchair Curling Championship, Team USA will be competing to earn qualifying points to secure the United States a spot at the Paralympics. To qualify for the 2022 Games, 11 places will be offered to the Member Associations of the World Curling Federation who have gained the most qualifying points from the World Wheelchair Curling Championships held in 2019, 2020, and 2021. The field at the 2022 Games will be 12 teams in total, as China will earn a berth as the host nation.

Based on the current standings, combined with the two other countries who have qualified for the 2021 World Wheelchair Curling Championship by finishing in the top three at the World-Bs (Switzerland and Italy), the United States can secure a berth to the 2022 Games by achieving either of the following scenarios: Finishing ahead of Italy or by finishing in seventh place or higher.

Thums said the support he has received from his family, friends and the community has been outstanding and he was thankful for their support. “It has been overwhelming,” he said.

Thums said that while overseas he would use WIFI to make calls on his cellphone because his provider did not work there. He said as soon as he landed in Minneapolis, his phone sounded like it was playing a song as it was ringing and dinging with calls and messages from people who had heard about the win. He thanks everyone for their support.