Melissa Soligo (born February 7, 1969, in

Trail, British Columbia Trail is a city in the western Kootenays region of the British Columbia Interior, Interior of British Columbia, Canada. It was named after the Dewdney Trail, which passed through the area. The town was first called Trail Creek or Trail Creek Lan ...

, Canada) is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

curler and curling

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of Athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

, currently living in

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Gre ...

. Soligo began curling at age 11. In her youth, she also played volleyball, basketball, field hockey and fastball. She is a and . She won a bronze medal at the

1992 Winter Olympics The 1992 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVI Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Albertville '92 (Franco-Provençal, Arpitan: ''Arbèrtvile '92''), were a winter multi-sport event held from 8 to 23 February 1992 in and aroun ...

when curling was a

demonstration sport A demonstration sport, or exhibition sport, is a sport which is played to promote it, rather than as part of standard medal competition. This occurs commonly during the Olympic Games but may also occur at other sporting events. Demonstration sport ...

. Her competitive curling career was cut short when she was struck by an intoxicated driver while she was walking. She then made the choice to switch to coaching. Early in her career she focused on coaching junior teams in Canada. In 2002 she began coaching the South Korean curling teams where under her leadership the men's team won the Pacific Curling Championship. She has also been the national team leader of Curling Canada's wheelchair curling program, the coach of BC's wheelchair curling team and is currently a national coach, mentor coach and High Performance Director at CurlBC.

Personal life

Soligo has a bachelor of education degree with a major in physical education and geography from the

University of Victoria The University of Victoria (UVic) is a public research university located in the municipalities of Oak Bay, British Columbia, Oak Bay and Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. Established in 1903 as Victoria College, British Columbia, Victoria Col ...

. Achieved her Level 5 Professional Coach Certification (one of only two in Canada who have this in curling).

Awards

* Joan Mead Builder Award: ("for her contributions to curling as a player, coach and High Performance Director at Curl BC") *British Columbia Curling Hall of Fame: 1996, together with all of the Julie Sutton 1991–1993 team.Hall of Fame Inductees - Curl BC
/ref>

Teams and events

Record as a coach of national teams

References

External links

*
Melissa Soligo – Curling Canada Stats Archive

Melissa Soligo , Curling Canada

Melissa Soligo , Coaching Association of Canada

Four Foot Curling Camps
(look at "Melissa Soligo")

{{DEFAULTSORT:Soligo, Melissa Living people 1969 births Sportspeople from Trail, British Columbia Curlers from Victoria, British Columbia Canadian women curlers Canadian women's curling champions Curlers at the 1992 Winter Olympics Olympic curlers for Canada Canadian curling coaches University of Victoria alumni 20th-century Canadian sportswomen