BELFAST – America’s steel wheel curlers are going for international gold.

The six-member team of wheelchair curlers playing out of the Belfast Curling Club is gearing up to represent the United States at the World Curling Federation Wheelchair Curling Championships in Switzerland. The team began its formal practices at Halloween and will be primed for opponents when the first stone is curled next month.

The inaugural world curling competition will take place Jan. 21-26 in Sursee, Switzerland, when the Maine-based U.S. team squares off against teams from Canada, Denmark, Scotland, Sweden, Bulgaria, Germany, Italy and host country Switzerland.

“It’s a regularly sanctioned world championship,” said team organizer Wes Smith. “This is the first world championship and this is the first time America has fielded a team. We’re still learning the game. The group of people we have, we’re all equal. The skills we have are improving at the same level of speed.”

Team USA members picked up their red, white and blue uniforms during Saturday’s practice.

“This is really exciting,” team member Mary Dutch said. “We’ve really been working hard and we’re all looking forward to the challenge.”

The six-member team is made up of three men and three women. All, except Douglas Sewell, who contracted polio as a child, began using wheelchairs as adults either through accidents or illness.

Along with Belfast resident Dutch, 42, Glenburn resident Smith, 61, and Orono resident Sewell, 53, the other members of Team USA are Samuel Woodward, 57, Surry; Loren Greenlaw, 42, Hallowell; and Danell Libby, 33, Gray. Jeff Dutch, a former competitor in the U.S. Men’s National Championships and husband of Mary Dutch is the team’s coach.

Smith, an independent living specialist with Alpha One of Brewer, got involved with curling last year through the group’s Rink Link program.

Alpha One is a nationally recognized organization directed by people with disabilities. The Rink Link program was designed to create opportunities for the disabled to participate in ice sports. Smith took part in a curling clinic at the Belfast club last winter and jumped at the chance to field a team when he learned that the World Curling Federation had sanctioned the wheelchair competition for 2002.

Curling may look easy but it is a difficult sport, requiring both brawn and brain. The game is played by two teams of four players each, by sliding a heavy disk toward a target circle at the other end of a rink. Players may sweep the ice just ahead of the moving disk to remove ice particles.

The sport gets its name from the curving path of the sliding stone.

Strategy is key, but being able to slide a 42-pound stone down a 146-foot-long sheet of ice can be difficult for participants, let alone those who use wheelchairs.

Wheelchair participants do not have the luxury of having a moving start and sliding their bodies forward to gain momentum as they curl the “stone.” They must remain stationary, their chairs cocked at an angle, and curl the stone using a push pole. It requires tremendous upper body strength and stamina. Even then, the chair has a tendency to slide backward on the ice when the stone is launched, affecting both its velocity and direction.

Mary Dutch curled the traditional way until 1979, shortly after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Although she took part in club activities and watched her husband curl, Dutch had not been back on the ice until this fall.

“Twenty-three years ago was the last time I was on the ice. I was eight months’ pregnant and it was right after I was diagnosed with MS and I thought I would never curl again,” she said. “I’ve always been a spectator. What a wonderful gift to be a doer instead of a viewer. When I got back on, what a rush that was.”

Team members said they could not have managed without the commitment of the Belfast Curling Club. The club had to build ramps and reconfigure its facilities to accommodate the wheelchair curlers.

All fall, each member of Team USA has been playing with able-bodied curlers to hone their skills for the championship. In addition, coach Dutch and Belfast Curling Club members Bob and Marietta Ramsdell put in long hours working with individual team members and as a group.

“Everyone has been great. They’ve really helped us learn the game,” Smith said. “This is one of the few sports where we’re equal, where somebody in a chair can perform as well as anyone else.”

Although Alpha One is helping to underwrite the expenses for the team, Smith appealed to the public for assistance. The trip to Switzerland will cost around $15,000, and one of the team’s expected sponsors had to drop out at the last minute. Smith noted that all contributions are tax-deductible.

For information and for those wanting to support Team USA, contact Alpha One, 41 Acme Road, Brewer 04412 or call (800) 300-6016.