On a recent weekend in January, Sean O'Neill sat poised in a wheelchair on an ice rink in Falmouth, encouraging athletes who were trying out the game of curling.
"That was a beautiful throw," he told one young curler. "You're throwing some great rocks."
"Four years ago, I was sitting where you are," he told another. "Now I'm going to the Paralympics. So watch out."
A similar training event at the same venue — the Cape Cod Curling Club — introduced this 39-year-old lawyer to the sport.
Now he's hooked, and a star athlete. O'Neill is one of seven athletes getting ready to represent the United States in wheelchair curling at the Milano Cortina Paralympics, which begin Friday, March 6. More than 600 athletes with physical disabilities from around the world will compete in six sports: wheelchair curling, para biathlon, alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, ice hockey and snowboarding.
Weeks before opening day, O'Neill told GBH News that he was thrilled to join the team for the first time.
"It's really an honor. It is surreal to be going to the Paralympics and I couldn't be more excited, focused,'' he said, "trying to fine-tune our curling as a team to be the best we can be there."
Wheelchair curling is similar to able-bodied curling, sometimes called "chess on ice" — the players slide stones into what is called a "house" across the ice, aiming to get as close to the center of the target as possible, while blocking and bumping their opponents' stones.
The biggest difference is that there is no sweeping — where players use brooms to influence the path of the stone. Instead, wheelchair curlers throw using a delivery stick, which are up to eight feet long.
"We have to be that much more precise, more accurate with our shots because there's no sweeping to help to correct or to try and get some added distance," O'Neill said. "It's got to be good right when it releases from the stick."
He's tried a number of adaptive sports, including basketball, rock climbing, pickleball and rowing. But O'Neill said none stuck the way curling did.
"What has kept me so engaged and made me love the sport, I always say, is the combination of the physical and the mental — the strategic piece, and particularly the strategic angle, trying to think through an end, think through a shot, really plan out a game," he said.
Pete Annis, director of USA Curling's wheelchair program, said that strategic mind and precision is what makes O'Neill a great curler.
"His [O'Neill's] knowledge of the game and the strategy is his strong point,'' said Annis. "He's incredibly smart about how to call the game."
Annis was in Falmouth recently to help the team prepare for Italy. O'Neill, who lives down the road from the rink, is now one of four Paralympians who have trained with the Cape Cod Curling Club and competed in past games. Other curlers travelled from across the country to train with Team USA.
Already, more hopeful wheelchair curlers are looking at O'Neill as a role model. Taunton resident Mary MacDonald, who is 16, says she started curling five years ago, and also competes in adaptive track and powerlifting. She says she's getting more hooked on curling — and training alongside Paralympians is inspiring.
"I'd like to be a Paralympian," she said. "That would mean everything to me."
O'Neill will be competing in the team mixed event in Cortina, which includes male and female athletes. The team's first game is March 7.
Wheelchair curling is one of two Paralympic sports in which the United States has never won a medal. Annis said the national team has been in "a bit of a rut" in recent international competitions. He is optimistic that having four first-time Paralympians on the team, including O'Neill, will bring "new enthusiasm."
O'Neill says the team has their "work cut out for them." They are competing against the top-ranked Chinese team as well as skilled teams from Canada, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Norway.
The first Paralympics were held in Rome in 1960, and the first winter games in Sweden in 1976. And interest in adaptive sports is growing, which O'Neill credits to more broadcast coverage and social media.
The competition will be available to watch on NBC and Peacock with the same level of commentary and analysis as the Olympics. In 2024, the Paris Paralympics set records for viewership.
"I think they [NBC and U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee] have and continue to come a long way to achieving more parity between the Olympics and the Paralympics," O'Neill said. "It's been really gratifying to see Paralympic sports being put on the same level as Olympic sports — as they should be."
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