Dow’s Delaney Strouse wins bronze at the world junior competition in Sweden
Delaney Strouse had never been to Sweden before last week. And she really made her first trip memorable.
Delaney Strouse and her twin brother Sam, both graduated from Dow High 2019, competed last week at the World Junior Curling Championships in Jönköping, Sweden – where Delaney’s team finished third and won a bronze medal.
“It will definitely take some time to sink in. I’m just so excited to finally be able to do that. We had been waiting for almost three years (due to the pandemic) to go to a world event, and now that I’ve done “It’s crazy to think about it,” said Delaney, who returned to Minneapolis, Minnesota on Thursday.
In the round robin game at the event, Delaney and her teammates went 5-4 to advance to the semifinals, initially with a 10-6 loss to Latvia, bounced back to beat Scotland 9-8 and Japan 9-8, for to then lose 7- 4 to the host Swedes. They then beat Switzerland 6-4 and Korea 10-9, lost 11-5 to Canada, shut out Denmark 13-0 and lost 7-3 to Norway before falling 7-3 to Japan in the semifinals.
On the men’s side, Sam and his teammates went 4-5 in round robin games and failed to advance and finished sixth overall. They opened with an 11-10 win over rival Canada, then lost 9-1 to Scotland, 10-4 to Korea, 8-6 to Switzerland, 8-3 to Germany and 8-5 to Norway but finished strong and beat Sweden 9 -8, Italy 11-6 and New Zealand 10-1.
“Our hopes were to win a medal, but since I had never been to a world junior event before, I had no idea what level of play we would face,” Delaney admitted. “I have played in many junior events in Canada and the United States, but I had never played in Europe or Asia, which is where many of the teams came from, so I did not know what to expect.
“Our goal was just to go in and keep our own, and I think we definitely exceeded our goal,” she added.
Delaney said it was “super cool to visit and compete in Sweden”.
“We could go into town and see, and we had a couple of days when we could go out with our family and have dinner, and it was super fun. We got to do some traveling and sightseeing afterwards, and it was cool to go somewhere else. than Canada or the United States, she said.
“… We went to a city that had a big lake next to it and really beautiful views, and it was amazing,” she added. And next to our hotel there was a large meadow and a beautiful lake. It was nice to go for walks every morning to start the day. ”
Asked about the key to winning a bronze medal at such an elite event, Delaney said it was all about teamwork.
“Many people there commented that our team dynamics and communication separate us,” she noted. “We are all best friends, and we get along really well, and so that communication comes naturally to us. There are some difficult things you have to overcome during a week’s competition, but because of our closeness we were able to overcome them easily.”
She added that she is proud of her brother and his team for starting and ending the event in high tones.
“I’m so proud of the boys. The men’s competition was super tight, and the pitch was really deep and competitive, and they had some great matches,” she said. “They had a slow start, but they beat Canada, and it’s always a great rivalry.”
Delaney and Sam, who both won the junior championships in curling in August last year and who both attend the University of Minnesota, will now take the summer off from studies and curling and return to school and competition this fall.
“We’ll be normal college kids for the next three months, and I’m really looking forward to that,” she said.
