Canadian Women Take Gold At Ice Stock Championship

May 07, 2025

Submitted by Karl Hammer

Canada’s women’s ice stock team came home with a gold medal at World Ice Stock Championships in Kapfenberg, Austria. The first place finish in Group B promotes them to top flight Group A at the next world championships in 2029. It was a nail biter of a finish as Canada and Finland were tied on points and scoring difference coming into the last game.

In the final end Canada needed to score two and they scored four to secure gold.

Canada’s women also had other great results. Rebecca Smith advanced to the final 16 head-to-head individual target competition where she was narrowly beaten by the world’s fourth ranked player from Italy. In the distance throwing competition, the women finished an incredible fourth place behind world powers Austria, Germany and Italy.

The result was due to a consistent team effort that had Sophia Antoine, Rebecca Smith, Jennifer Mayrl, and Ashley Snow finish 13th, 16th, 18th and 19th overall.

“In every championship over the last 10 years, our Canadian women’s team has become more and more competitive. While we are still a niche sport, these results are an indication of the membership growth that has been occurring and the commitment we have to high performance” said Jennifer Mayrl, President of the Canadian Ice-Stock Federation. “We are incredibly proud of our athletes and coaches. They not only showed off their abilities against a strong field but they were incredible ambassadors
for our country.”

Canada sent another large team – 15 athletes and coaches – to compete in team and individual competitions. Canada’s men’s team was playing in Group A against the world’s top teams and finished ranked 10th of 20 participating countries.