My name is Elizabeth Matthews and I’m a general clerk at the Minneapolis Post Office.
When I’m not at work, you’ll probably find me curling — where players slide heavy stones toward a target and “brush” their path with brooms — or helping to arrange international sporting events for fellow deaf athletes.
I started curling in spring 2006 after watching the Winter Olympics. I thought it looked like fun. A friend and I decided to join a curling club.
I signed up for three leagues; only one was for deaf people. The other two were hearing teams.
A friend of mine learned that the International Committee of Sports for the Deaf wanted to create a new sport in the winter Deaflympics.
That next year, 2007, curling was introduced in the winter Deaflympics games. There were five men’s teams — Canada, USA, China, Switzerland and Finland — and four women’s — Canada, USA, Slovakia and Croatia.
I was so proud to win a silver medal, and teared up when I saw the U.S. flag up there. It stirred memories of my father, who was in the 1961 summer Deaflympics. He won a bronze in the hurdle. I was so happy I got the opportunity to follow in his footsteps.
I won another silver at the first World Deaf Curling Championships in 2009 in Winnipeg. By that time, there were six or seven men’s teams and five women’s teams competing.
I managed the logistics and planning for the fifth World Deaf Curling Championships in April. I also serve as secretary/treasurer of the U.S. Deaf Curling Organization and I’m a member of the USA Deaf Sports Federation’s winter national sports committee.
I also try my best to get more deaf women interested in the sport. There weren’t enough women competing to form a U.S. team for the April event, unfortunately.
And of course, I still curl.
Right now, I am preparing for mixed doubles with my partner for the 2027 Winter Deaflympics in Innsbruck, Austria. We have to make it through spring trials to get there!
“Off the Clock,” a column on Postal Service employees and their after-hours pursuits, appears regularly in Link.
