British Curling has selected its wheelchair curling squad for the 2025-26 season, with its immediate focus on next year’s Milan Cortina Winter Paralympics, while also building upon a strong player pathway which is developing strength and depth for the longer term future.
The 16 player squad is the strongest ever assembled for a Paralympic season, with competition for places having intensified significantly.
That is largely down to a highly successful recruitment campaign led by Paralympic Pathway Manager Cheryl Lappin, which has also fed into the growth of the sport south of the border.
All five members of the Scotland team which finished seventh at the World Wheelchair Championships – Hugh Nibloe, Jo Butterfield, Keith Gray, Austin McKenzie and Gary Smith – and four members of the England team which finished eighth – Karen Aspey, Jason Kean, Julian Mattison and Stewart Pimblett. England’s World Wheelchair mixed doubles pairing of Aspey and Pimblett also narrowly missed out on qualification for the knockout stages at that event.
The scale of the challenge facing athletes to be among a maximum of seven players selected for the Winter Paralympics was summed up by the reaction of long-standing squad member Charlotte McKenna, fresh from claiming a silver medal at last season’s World Wheelchair Curling Championships.
“Obviously I am delighted to be selected for the programme again and for all of us our focus is immediately on the biggest event of our cycle, the Paralympics,” said the 50-year-old from Bridge of Allan.
“We have a really strong squad now and everyone is vying for places and we have an excellent support team and coaches who are helping to get the best out of ourselves.”
With UK Sport and National Lottery support underpinning the British Curling programme and additional Sport England funding proving instrumental in the development of English talent, in welcoming the coming contest, McKenna credited her run to the Mixed Doubles final at the World Championships, in partnership with Scotland team skip Hugh Nibloe, to the unprecedented internal competition now being generated.
“The standard is constantly improving in wheelchair curling and other countries want that success too, so having the Scotland and England curlers in the National Curling Academy training each week has helped us all to raise our game with that increased competition,” she said.
“Hugh and I have known each other for years, but the strong team culture that has been built up within the British Curling Paralympic programme undoubtedly helped us to get to my first World Champs final.
“We get so much value from the programme, it helps us in everything we do from gym work, nutrition and the overall preparation for long championships like the Worlds or the Paralympics and when you are in a wheelchair that is vital for success.”
She noted that the recruitment from other sports of the likes of Paralympic athletics gold medallist Jo Butterfield, now a well established member of the Scotland squad and newcomer Mhairi Love, who has competed as a swimmer at two Paralympics, has also added a different dimension.
“I feel that when we have had athlete talent transfer into curling, they bring a lot of fresh ideas, but I also think they have an advantage having that multi sport experience,” said McKenna.
“It is probably the best of both worlds. We get increased competition from the fresh blood and fresh energy, but we are all helping each other too, so there is a nice healthy balance.
“I think this is probably the best it has been since I joined the programme and I am excited to be in the race for places for Paralympic selection.”
After earning her place on the ParalympicsGB team for Beijing 2022, McKenna was forced to withdraw just ahead of those Games due to injury, so her goal of getting to her first Paralympics in Italy, which will feature mixed doubles in the Paralympic programme for the first time, has an added incentive.
“Winning my first World medal was wonderful and I can take a lot of self belief from that silver medal and I would love to be in that same position again, in a final with the chance to go for gold at my first Paralympics,” she said.
Having entered the sport through British Curling’s ‘Come And Try’ events, Mhairi Love and Lynsey Speirs are the two new faces in the squad.
The full squad is: Karen Aspey, Jo Butterfield, Gregor Ewan, Keith Gray, Jason Kean, Mhairi Love*, Julian Mattison, Charlotte McKenna, Austin McKenzie, Hugh Nibloe, Rich Osborn, Stewart Pimblett, Gary Smith, Lynsey Speirs*, Graeme Stewart, Martin Sutherland,
*Athletes new to the British Curling Paralympic Performance Programme.
ParalympicsGB will announce the curlers selected for the team and mixed doubles disciplines at Milan Cortina in December.