New Zealand’s curling team, with nowhere to go, find a home at a Canadian retirement village

Group of four men in their 20s and 30s struggled to find accommodation in Calgary while training for the 2026 Winter Olympics until an unlikely solution was offered

Eva Corlett in Wellington
Fri 17 Nov 2023 14.00 EST

When the clock strikes 2pm on Friday at the Chartwell Colonel Belcher retirement residence in Calgary, Alberta, something unusual happens. As the octogenarians gather to enjoy beer and wine during happy hour, they are joined by the youthful faces of New Zealand’s men’s curling team. About 12,000km from home and unable to find a place to stay when they arrived in Canada, the men were offered an apartment at Belcher and have been happily settling in to the rhythms of their unlikely new home ever since.

The national team – Brett Sargon, 31, Ben Smith, 24, Hunter Walker, 21, and skipper Anton Hood, 23 – moved to Canada in early September, to strengthen their training and better their chances in the 2024 World Men’s Curling Championship in Switzerland – for which they have just qualified – and making the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics. It is an ambitious goal: the last time New Zealand’s team made it to the Olympics was in 2006.

But when they arrived in Canada on their largely self-funded trip, they encountered a frustrating problem: rental options were scarce and expensive.

“It’s been quite a journey,” Sargon says. “We were really struggling to find accommodation. Everywhere we looked everyone wanted one-year rent and the rent was extortionately priced.”

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