Rising to the Challenge Through Pain - Abbie's Story

Shelley Pearson • May 04, 2021

Go back for a moment to the 2018 winter Olympics in South Korea.

For many from the United States, a little-known sport suddenly gained momentum as the US Men’s Curling Team took the gold. Conversations filled social media as people tried to figure out this “new” sport.

As it turns out, curling has been a “thing” since the 16th Century. It was first played in Scotland and the Netherlands. It grew in popularity in the United States in the 1960s and became an official medaling event in the 1998 Olympics. (worldcurling.org/about/history/). Curling is a popular sport in Minnesota (due to our cold temps and thousands of lakes), and the oldest club was founded in St. Paul in 1885 (stpaulcurlingclub.org/index.php/about/club-history). Yet many Minnesotans knew little about the sport until that day in 2018 when John Shuster and his team won a gold medal.

Let’s answer some common questions about curling (worldcurling.org/about/history/):

What is that thing they are throwing? It’s called a stone, is made of granite, and weighs 45 pounds.
Are they sweeping the ice? Yes.
With brooms? Yep.
Why? The swift downward motion of the broom warms the ice, extending the distance the stone can go. Sweeping can also change the direction of the stone.
What is the team talking about after the throw? Teammates are shouting which direction to sweep and how hard to sweep the ice so that their stone reaches its target.
What is the point? Each team throws eight stones alternatively. They are trying to get their stones closer to the center of the “house” than the other team. Somewhat like horseshoes, the closest stone(s) that lands in the house and closest to the center win(s). If the team has four stones closer than any of its opponents’ stone, they win four points. If no stones are in the house, it’s called a blank (no one scores).
How long does a tournament last? The tournament (made up of several games) is called a bonspiel (shortened to “spiel” by athletes and fans), and a competitive bonspiel lasts around three hours.
Is that actually a sport? Yes! It takes a ton of strength to throw and sweep.

Meet Olympic Hopeful, Abbie Page

Abbie is a sophomore at Minnesota State University – Mankato, studying psychology. She plans to be a sports psychologist after graduate school. Abbie has been an active member of FCA through high school and now into college. Abbie says, “I loved FCA growing up and how that was a link to athletics. A lot of people underestimate how much sports and faith are linked.”

FCA helps Abbie get through the challenges of college and curling. She says, “In FCA, you choose to be there, and I’ve noticed people are more than willing to open up about their struggles with sports, academics, family members, and spiritually. You get deeper. It’s almost like a therapy session to tell your peers how you feel. Then you add the scripture and lesson and you get to learn more about God and how to relate that to your life.”

Abbie has been curling since first grade. She plays the second position, throwing the third and fourth stones, and sweeping six. It is not considered a popular position to play, but it is her favorite position because of the sweeping she gets to do. “As soon as the stone leaves the person’s hand, it is in the sweeper’s control. I’ve always been really good at sweeping. When I’m sweeping – yes, I get out of breath and I get very tense – I love that I’m in control. When I’m pushing down the broom into the ice, I can feel that it’s moving the stone further. That’s something I absolutely love."

Competitive Curling

Those who want to make the Women’s High Performance (HP) team and continue competitive curling after age 21 have historically had to make the Junior High Performance team. Abbie has applied for the junior HP team three times but hasn’t made the team even though she has been told by numerous coaches that she fit the criteria. Unfortunately, she has learned that, like most sports, there are a lot of politics involved.

While not making the team could have devastated her chances of ever making it to the Olympics, she has hope that she could still attain the dream. Abbie says, “Shuster’s team was different. He’s been to the Olympics four times [and won gold in 2018]. The year before they went, his team applied to be one of the three men’s teams to go to the Olympics but was denied because the team didn’t look the part. He . . . kicked it into full gear and managed to beat all teams for Olympic trials and make it to Olympics. So, it’s very hard to get to Olympics if not part of the HP team but not impossible.”

Up for the Challenge Because of her Faith

Abbie is up to the challenge. Throughout her twenty years, she has learned how to face challenges head on. She worked through a speech impediment as a child and a bout with absent seizures. She was also bullied from third through tenth grades. These challenges caused a lot of pain in her life. Then she lost a dear uncle to cancer her freshman year in high school. It devasted her and made her question her faith.

But then something changed. Abbie says, “I saw his notebook a couple months after he died. He started a journal after he got cancer, and he would daily write a scripture and what he thought about it. One day it was strictly him praying for other people. He prayed for family and friends who would be impacted by his death. It was a rude awakening for me. If my uncle who was dying of cancer could put other people first, then I shouldn’t question God’s plan for this situation.”

Abbie chose to use her pain for good because she finally saw God’s hand in the challenges. Persevering through the pain has helped her persevere through the politics and drama in the competitive curling world but has also gave her a deep desire to help others. Even with her deep disappointment around not making the HP team, God showed her that He was using that disappointment for good in an exchange she had with a girl named Liza who came over from Russia to curl.

Using her Pain to Help Others

“Liza had wanted to do curling for the US but found out she couldn’t [due to residency requirements]. When she was told she couldn’t play for five years, she was completely destroyed because she had worked so hard. In that moment, I was able to share with her that I understood because of all I had tried to do. Now that I get to look back, I think God put me through all that to be able to lift her up. I’ve noticed in my journey with God that there are a lot of hardships and things I don’t understand when I’m going through it but later recognize how God uses it. I can use my pain for good. That moment with Liza, I won’t ever forget because I got to use something that was super painful and emotional for me for good. She told me later that it meant the world to her.”