From curling for fun with friends to coaching Olympic athletes, Isis Oliveira has come a long way in 15 years, somewhat reminiscent of the Jamaican bobsledders. Co-founder and organizer of the local Brazilian Curling Club (BCC), she has worked tirelessly to build a Brazilian curling community in B.C. – celebrating a sport she sees as accessible, adaptable and most of all, fun.

“Curling is a community, not just Brazilian curling, but curling in general,” she says. “It’s a really social sport…you play a game, and then you go upstairs to have a drink with the team that you just played against.”

A curling fever

Oliveira first encountered the sport during the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. Having already moved to Canada, she was vacationing in Brazil when she saw a curling match on national television. Intrigued by the “weird sport,” she recalls feeling extremely curious – along with the rest of the country.

“In Brazil in 2010, curling became a fever,” she recalls. “Sometimes they don’t even know the rules, but everyone knows the sweeping sport on ice.”

Back in Vancouver, Oliveira convinced a group of her female friends to try the sweeping sport. It was love at first sweep. She especially liked curling’s social aspect, including how players shake hands at the beginning of game. Another appeal of curling is its forgiveness of newcomer mistakes.

“You cannot [play] properly, but you can throw rocks, and you can sweep, and you can play a game [from] the first time you go,” she explains. “We were all falling, but we were playing a game, and it was so much fun.”

While her group continued curling together whenever they could, it wasn’t until 2014 when another Brazilian newcomer and curling fan posted on Facebook looking for other curlers – a message that eventually led to the formation of BCC. Since 2014, the club has expanded, hiring coaches, providing lessons and organizing leagues. The BCC has also partnered with the Brazilian Ice Sports Federation, which recently contracted Oliveira as a junior development manager in Vancouver.

“It was a recognition,” she adds, noting that the Ice Sports Federation has visited them twice. “They do believe that in Vancouver we have the potential of creating really good athletes and representing Brazil the best way we can.”

Sweeping upwards

One of Oliveira’s most memorable moments was when her team, representing Brazil, won a game against Germany at the 2024 Winter Youth Olympics in Gangwon, South Korea. As their coach, she is particularly proud of the team’s belief in themselves –
despite facing tough competition from athletes who had been training at a young age.

“We won one game, only one, but we won one against Germany where kids were playing since they were 5 years old,” she adds, noting their team only had two years to train. “When we won that game, we jumped, and we were in all the media in Brazil.”

The coach notes that all members of this olympic team still play and train in Vancouver to represent Brazil at other international competitions. Oliveira herself is currently working towards her level 3 certification through Canada’s coaching association. For her, the joy of coaching is seeing children and teenagers enjoying themselves on the ice.

“The kids have school, they have friends, they have other sports, they have a busy life,” she adds. “When you…add 1, 2, 3, 4 days at the curling club, they need to like it.”

Among other initiatives, she hopes the club receives more development sponsorships and financial support for trips to international competitions. While the BCC receives some funding from the Brazilian Ice Sports Federation, the Real’s exchange rate with western currency often means less money than anticipated.

“What we would like is to have more athletes, to have more competitive athletes, to keep seeing Brazil improve every year, getting better in the award world,” the coach says.

Besides competition, the BCC’s curling programs continue to shape the local curling world within and beyond the Brazilian community. Partnering with New Westminster’s Royal City Curling Club, they offer children and youth curling programs taught by Brazilian and Canadian coaches. The BCC also runs an adult league where participants can curl and receive coaching – a benefit that has made the league popular even amongst the non-Brazilian Canadian community.

“It’s so social, it’s so friendly; it’s a tight community, and we work together for the same goal,” she adds. “We like the sport, and we like to see other people improving and coming to the ice.”

For more information, see www.braziliancurlingclub.com