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Point Pleasant athlete brings home bronze By Melissa Peace
But Point Pleasant resident Jacqui Kapinowski found her own way to commemorate taking up a new sport — she and her teammates won a bronze medal at the 2008 World Games, here. “It was exactly four months to the day that I first started curling that we won the bronze,” recalled a beaming Ms. Kapinowski, 45, who competed in the games in Switzerland from Feb. 1 to 9.
Diagnosed with Stiff
Person Syndrome, a
progressive neurological disorder, in 2001, Ms. Kapinowski depends largely on a
wheelchair to move around. An As part of the 2008 U.S. Wheelchair Curling Team, Ms. Kapinowski recently travelled to Sursee, Switzerland, where she and her teammates competed in the 2008 World Wheelchair Curling Championship. The sport, which originated in Great Britain, differs from traditional curling in that there are no sweepers in the game. In wheelchair curling, one player will anchor the other player’s chair on the ice, front-to-back, to prevent the player pushing the 42-pound stone with the curling pole from sliding Ms. Kapinowski said her time at the World Games “was the greatest experience of my life.” Ms. Kapinowski, along with her three teammates Augusto Perez, James Pierce and James Joseph, all of New York state, faced fierce competitors in the event, testing their skills against teams from nine other countries, all vying for the top prize. Team U.S.A.’s opponents hailed from Italy, Canada, Scotland, Russia, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway and South Korea. “Everyone was so nice. We met a lot of great people,” said Ms. Kapinowski of her foreign counterparts. “We would all be high-fiving each other on the ice and cheering when someone made a good shot.”
“It was hard and at the end of the night we were all really tired,” Ms. Kapinowski said. “But, we wanted it so bad and kept pushing ourselves to go out on the ice and do our best.” Though they ultimately won the bronze, there was a moment when the teammates thought the scores had placed their dream taking home a medal out of reach. “We were told that we could only finish fifth or sixth. I was pretty sad over that,” said Ms. Kapinowski. However, Team U.S.A.’s scores proved to be high enough to qualify Ms. Kapinowski and the other American curlers for the bronze medal game against Canada. Armed with an even stronger sense of determination, the team out, based out of Utica, N.Y., succeeded. “I still don’t believe it. All of our hard work paid off. Winning a medal was just so incredible,” said Ms. Kapinowski. “It was a dream come true for all of us.” Ms. Kapinowski attributes much of the team’s success to the coach, Steve Brown, who has been working with the group to guide them to success. A Wisconsin native, Mr. Brown works with both able-bodied and wheelchair curlers though a variety of competitions. “He is the best of the best. He is why I believe we came home with the bronze,” smiled Ms. Kapinowski. “We are so lucky to have him.” As she prepared for the World Games, Ms. Kapinowski trained almost daily at the Plainfield Curling Club, accompanied by her husband of 18 year, Harry, engaging the the sport that she took up only a few shorts months ago. Along with the practices, accompanied the team competed in several games and curling tournaments, called bonspiels, took the athletes to Utica and Canada. Ms. Kapinowski said she recently has been receiving attention from local residents and businesses, and was shocked when she learned of a congratulatory display created in her honor in the lobby of a ShopRite in Wall. “I couldn’t believe it. They had a big poster made with pictures and balloons. It was so nice,” she said. Now that curling season is over, Ms. Kapinowski will be heading full-throttle into the her other passion: wheelchair racing. In fact, in the upcoming months, Ms. Kapinowski will be heading to marathons in Nashville, Boston and Poland. “I’m going to be doing three races in three weeks. Isn’t it insane,” laughed Ms. Kapinowski. Team U.S.A will be reuniting back in Utica in March for a tournament against other American curlers.
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