Curling 3/6/2024 1:30:00 PM Zaina Razek

Mattias Cheung: The road to success

"Oh, there's so many, can I boil it down to two?"

Mattias Cheung finds it hard to shuffle through his memories for his favourite in the sport he loves - curling. He narrowed it down to attending the FISU Games qualifier event in September of 2022, where he and his team competed against the top five schools in the country and came out on top of one of the most esteemed programs at the University of Alberta, or the excitement that filled him when he met national curling treasure, Jennifer Jones, one of the best female curlers of all time.

"Just to hear her talk about the sport and why she loves the sport was really great. It reminds me of why I love the sport," said Cheung.

Cheung is a third-year student at TMU majoring in Aerospace Engineering, and a member of the curling team. This student-athlete has his hands full, but that doesn't mean he can't enjoy the journey along the way.

Before coming to Toronto for school, Cheung grew up in small town in British Columbia. A native of Prince George, Cheung has found a love for both cities, one being very fast-paced and the other always being considered home.

Cheung's parents are both engineers, so he was already immersed in this world. "I worked for my mom's firm for a bit. A lot of work kind of out in the forest and you're so close to nature which I miss quite a bit sometimes," said Cheung.

Cheung is very close with his mom and she's always a phone call away. "She's always been supportive of everything and she always has something good to say if I'm ever frustrated or don't know what to do in a situation at all," he explained.

When Cheung was only in grade five, he was exposed to curling for the first time on a field trip.

"It was just before the 2014 Sochi Olympics and so we played, that was the first time I was ever on the ice."

It wasn't until grade eight that he dove into the sport and started competing.

"I played mixed doubles for a number of years back home in B.C. competitively so I went to two provincial events for that," he recalls.

Once he came to Toronto, he began playing for TMU in the 2021-22 season.

"I came to Toronto with my mom on a trip, and she was doing some work at UofT. I learned about their engineering science program and learned about aerospace engineering," said Cheung. He eventually settled on TMU for their aerospace engineering program.

Cheung found himself working with a team of four for the first time, and his teammates have been nothing but supportive, kind, and his best friends.

"We will all kind of hang out outside the rink and outside of practice, I think we have really good chemistry together."

He adds how important it is for curlers to get along with one another.

The team is currently on the ice four teams a week. Since their university season has come to an end, they play twice a week and practice the other two.

Cheung spends the rest of the time focusing on school and the gym. He splits his mornings between school and the gym and devotes his nights to curling.

"I think the gym, on top of being the gym, is a social place. I go there and I have a lot of friends that I hang out with," said Cheung.

Cheung has organized his class schedule to fit his busy day-to-day life. Aerospace engineering, a difficult program in itself, is where he always imagined he'd be. "Aerospace engineering kind of just jumped out at me as an option that was my number one pick."

The Bold recognize its top academic athletes each year. For the last two years, Cheung has been the recipient of the top scholar Claude LaJeunesse Award.

"The two things that I'm the most passionate about in life are curling and my schooling right now, and to be recognized for that is great," he added.

This student-athlete is thankful for the recognition and credits it all to the behind-the-scenes work.

"Engineering is putting a lot of time in that doesn't pay off for a lot of marks. You'll have a lab that's worth 5% of your final grade and that lab takes you 8 to 10 hours to complete," he explained.

Cheung has a busy schedule but with that, a big support system is a must. "Both my roommates are also in aerospace engineering in the same year as me," he said, adding that they're consistently hanging out and talking about school, while he spends his nights with the support of his team.

When it comes to curling, Cheung is here to remind us all of the struggles and effort needed to be successful. Curling competitions are usually laid out into a multi-day event that requires back-to-back games each day.

"A lot of the time your schedule isn't concrete going into the event so it'll be a triple knockout and you get your schedule as the event goes on," he explained.

Curling requires a lot of athleticism and being able to pace yourself as the day progresses. Cheung and his team are focused on preparing for their upcoming season in October.

"It's our off-season right now, so it's a lot of tuning up and technical fixes and technical tweaking. Just so that we're tuned up and everything is working how it should be come October next year when we hit the ice again," he adds.

The team didn't place in medal contention during the OUA championships this season and is training now to come out with different results next year.

"Curling is great and it's really easy to pick up, but I think people don't realize that to get to a competitive level ... it takes a lot of time on the ice."

Cheung has found a sense of community here at TMU, with his friends at the gym, in his program, and his teammates which he is ever so thankful for.

He is on track to complete his undergraduate degree within five years, making his course load a lot lighter with four per semester, saying it makes learning the content a lot more consistent and easier to understand.

"Every now and then there's a bit of a grind set that has to happen," he adds, but Cheung has found a rhythm that works.

"It's tough and you do have to balance it, but I wouldn't do it any other way, I'm really enjoying my time."

Cheung is proof of a student-athlete who can do it all. He divides his time between the rink, the gym, school, and seeing his friends. All in all, he has found a way to enjoy his time here at TMU, playing a sport that he continues to love and working in a program that brings him joy.

With two years left, the list of memorable moments is only getting longer for the committed Mattias Cheung who is on the road to success.

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Players Mentioned

Mattias Cheung: 3

Players Mentioned

Mattias Cheung
: 3