Opening ceremony of 2021 Chongqing Handicapped Dryland Curling League

CHONGQING (CQNEWS) -- On the morning of March 30, whistles, applause and cheers were ringing out in the Handicapped Stadium of Shizishan Sports Park. Different from the previous stadium, this stadium is equipped with four special tracks for dryland curling. From time to time, several players could be seen doing gestures to each other and pointing out the direction of throwing the curling.

On the morning of that day, 2021 Chongqing Handicapped Dryland Curling League was officially started, and 55 handicapped participants from 9 districts and counties including Yuzhong District, Liangjiang New Area and Shapingba District attended the event.

An athlete throwing curling

“I am Wang Chengcheng, and hereby take an oath on behalf of all athletes…” a guy said quickly with his right hand making a fist at the opening ceremony. “You can’t tell, but Wang Chengcheng is mentally disabled,” He Xiaoyan who is the leader of Shapingba delegation told the reporter.

After the opening ceremony, the reporter saw Wang Chengcheng at Waiting Area. Wang said that “I am 26 years old, and a teaching assistant in a special school.” Listening to his introduction, He Xiaoyan found no difference between him and ordinary people. He Xiaoyan said that Wang came to the school in 2015, he was inpatient and had no sense of rules at that time, but now he could help other mentally disabled children solving their trivial matters and showed his strength in dryland curling.

Judges measuring the distance from the center to the curling

In addition to athletes with mental disabilities like Wang Chengcheng, there were also those with hearing impairments on the field of the dryland league. As the event evolved from curling, dryland curling’s rules are basically the same with those of curling, namely the team which throws a curling closer to the center is the winner. However, among the rules of dryland curling, the curling brush is not used to reduce friction on the ground, but to direct the throwing direction.

Curling brush directing the throwing direction in dryland curling

 (Translated by Liu Hongyan, Fathom Language Limited)