One weekend in 2022, Jill Hopkins was at her first wheelchair curling competition in Toronto with a group of other new wheelchair curlers. She’d only been playing the sport for a couple of months.
Hopkins and her team were between matches when she was approached by an unfamiliar face.
The person was Mick Lizmore, the head coach of Canada's National Wheelchair Curling Program.
Lizmore told Hopkins, an Associate Vice President in the Commercial Mortgage Group at TD, that she had the skill set to succeed in the sport. The coach asked Hopkins if she'd ever considered competing seriously.
Hopkins was stunned.
“I think you have the wrong person,” she said.
Spirits were high on Hopkins’ team that day, but they played terribly, Hopkins recalled. They’d lost every game they played — by a lot.
But the head coach wasn't mistaken.
Even though Hopkins was new to curling — the iconic Canadian sport where players glide 40-pound stones over ice towards a target — Lizmore said he felt Hopkins was the embodiment of three things that made for a great competitive curler: consistent rotation of the stone, upper body strength to throw the weight when necessary, and team spirit.
Four years later, Hopkins is not only competing at a national level — she’s also vying to compete at the World Championships. And maybe even the Paralympic Games in 2030.
Hopkins inched closer to making her dream a reality this year when she was tapped by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) to become the athlete analyst for wheelchair curling at the 2026 Paralympic Games, which took place in March.
“The sport has completely transformed my life,” she said. “If someone told me that one day curling would lead me to this kind of purpose, connection, and national involvement, I never would’ve believed it.”
‘Incredibly empowering:’ Finding passion in unexpected places
Once Hopkins made it her goal to compete in the 2030 Paralympic Games, she said everything shifted. With the help of the National Wheelchair Curling Program, her training, mindset, and preparation all became more intentional.
Hopkins grew up playing basketball, volleyball, golf, soccer, and track — sport had a massive influence on her life. But curling was never on her radar.
Hopkins was in a car accident more than 30 years ago and as a result, started her journey as a paraplegic. She needed to figure out her new life while using a wheelchair. She tried out different adaptive sports like paddling, basketball, and skiing. But none of them stuck.
When a friend mentioned his club had wheelchair curlers, Hopkins was keen to get on the ice.
“It was equal parts exciting and intimidating,” she said. “There’s always that moment of: Can I actually do this? But once I threw my first rock, I was hooked.”
The sport ticked several boxes for Hopkins. It’s analytical, focusing on the rock’s trajectory, rotation, sheet shape, and constant change in the ice conditions — all things the math-minded banking executive appreciates. On the ice, she plays the lead position.
“I realized this was a sport where experience, focus, and teamwork mattered just as much as ability — and that was incredibly empowering,” she said.
Since Hopkins joined the National Wheelchair Curling Program, she’s participated in several events and competitions. Her team will represent Ontario in the Canadian National Wheelchair Competition in April 2026 after winning the provincial championship in February. With many achievements already to their name, Hopkins and her teammates are only just getting started.
Wheelchair curling also broke down barriers for Hopkins because it’s practically indistinguishable from the able-bodied game. The rules are the same; wheelchair users just don’t sweep, a practice where players use brooms that increase the speed and change the trajectory of the stones.
“It’s very integrated,” Hopkins said. “You can take people in wheelchairs with able-bodied people and play.”
The sport has also been transformative for Hopkins’s self-confidence, including through work with a mental performance coach from the national program.
“I'm a worrier by nature,” she said. “Now I understand that there’s a place for everything, including the tools I have, like being emotional, analytical, and self-aware.”
An instant community
When Hopkins took up curling, she found something much deeper than the analytical nature or inclusivity of the sport: a community.
“I’ve been in a wheelchair for over 30 years,” she said. “But I hadn't really built a community of friends in wheelchairs until now.”
Hopkins was instantly welcomed by other players, including current Paralympic athletes, who gave her the support to grow in the sport.
“Playing a sport alongside other athletes who have similar goals in mind, that help build you up, want you to be successful, and support you unconditionally — it’s not always the norm," she said.
Sometimes in sport, players can think of each other as the competition. But Hopkins’s experience in the curling community has been the opposite.
“They make you better with every single interaction and hold you to a standard because they believe in you," she said. "I don't know what I would do without this group of people who are helping me to reach my goals."
Like when Hopkins shared a car with able-bodied curler, retired two-time Olympian, and the National Team’s communications lead, Lisa Weagle, to a competition in Moose Jaw, Sask. Weagle introduced Hopkins to the Sandra Schmirler Foundation, a charity dedicated to helping premature or critically ill infants. Hopkins is now a volunteer Board of Directors member.
While it’s hard for Hopkins to imagine attaining the same level as the people she looks up to, she hopes to one day be the same kind of role model for others.
"Being back into competitions and bringing sport back into my life is incredibly meaningful. In parasport, it means showing what's possible and helping create space for others to see themselves there, too," she said.
Staying open to new pursuits
Before discovering the sport, Hopkins had searched her entire life for the kind of passion she found in curling. Now that she has it, she hopes everyone can have the same kind of life-changing experience for themselves.
For those still searching, Hopkins said it’s never too late.
“You’ve just got to go and do it,” she said. “Take risks. Surround yourself with good people who might ask you to do something fun — and do it.”
While the hope for Hopkins is that her journey will one day take her to the Paralympics, the dream isn't only about sport.
“It’s inspiring,” she said. “It’s about wearing the maple leaf with pride and showing that Canadian athletes — including athletes with disabilities — can be fierce.”
It would also be an opportunity to uplift everyone who has supported and encouraged her along the way, including Hopkins’s teammates, coaches, friends, family and her biggest fans: her three nephews.
"You never get there alone," she said. "It's a big dream, but it's one worth chasing.”