Maschmeyer excels as an athlete, advocate

BRUDERHEIM, Alberta, Canada - Holly (Jamieson) Maschmeyer '21 shines as a curling Deaflympic athlete and teacher consultant for the Deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) in Alberta.

With no record of hearing loss in her family besides old age, Maschmeyer was diagnosed with hearing loss from a very young age. While she could get by in what she calls "the hearing world," she learned Sign Exact English (SEE) - signs that match the English language word for word - to help establish effective communication when her hearing loss dropped from moderate to severe at age 7.

Nonetheless, she had a fulfilling childhood playing a lot of sports and having lots of friends.

Originally, Maschmeyer did not know what career to choose, but everything came together during her undergrad year.

"I spent the majority of my life unsure what I wanted to do for a career," she said. "It was when I was enrolled at the University of Alberta and learned ASL that I realized that my self-advocacy as a hard-of-hearing individual could also be made into a greater impact with the understanding of deaf and Deaf individuals while sharing a unique perspective from someone who is part of 'both worlds' and give back to the population by supporting children who are DHH."

Maschmeyer has a degree in psychology with a minor in linguistics from the University of Alberta.

"I earned ASL as part of a language requirement of my degree and then met Deaf curlers and immersed myself within Deaf culture for the first time at the age of 20," she said.

She then pursued a Master of Science in Special Education at Minot State, graduating in 2021. Maschmeyer works as an educational consultant for DHH students in Canada. She says the most important things to learn are advocacy and self-identity.

"Children need to learn how to advocate for themselves. And they need to be empowered in doing so as well as be fully informed," Maschmeyer said. "Too many children are in denial or unaware of how much they may be missing or be lacking the skills to advocate for themselves."

In addition, Maschmeyer points out parents should be more involved and informed when it comes to hearing aids.

"Parents historically want their kids to fit in and they pick plain hearing devices that blend in with their hair to make it easier to hide or children try to pretend that they hear just like everyone else, without realizing that they don't know what they don't hear. It's okay to miss things and it's okay to ask for repetition or ask for accommodations," she said.

When she is not helping her students, she is an award-winning curling athlete.

"After trying so many sports, curling was the one that stuck," Maschmeyer said. "I enjoyed the sport, and the team size consists of only four people - which maybe was an unconscious perk as less teammates means less crosstalk or voices to understand when spending time together."

Maschmeyer, who wears two hearing aids, expressed some of the challenges she encounters in the ice.

"The arena is not the most acoustically friendly listening environment as it's full of hard surfaces," she said. "It's a large area and has lots of reverberations. Echo and overlap of other teams on the ice make it hard to detect who is yelling/talking on your own team."

Regardless, the team found a way to accommodate communication cues in the arena.

"Hand signals were a huge tool to combat this, as well as having teammates who were in closer proximity to me, to repeat themselves or what the skip was saying," Maschmeyer said.

Her curling trajectory has brought her many joys and highlighted her talent as an athlete.

"I won gold at the 2015 World Junior Curling Championships in Tallinn, Estonia, which really felt like the epitome of achievement for all my hard work, especially as a student-athlete at the University of Alberta," Maschmeyer said.

Moreover, she won silver in the World Deaf Curling Championships in Banff, Alberta, in 2022, and another silver in 2025 in Minneapolis.

Maschmeyer is preparing to travel overseas to compete in the 2027 Deaflympics in Innsbruck, Austria. At the same time, she reflects upon her past experiences.

"I placed fifth in the 2019 Italy Deaflympics and had to withdraw from participating at the 2023 Erzurum, Turkey Deaflympics due to political unrest," she said. "My team and I are very motivated to train and represent Canada to our fullest abilities and hopefully bring home the gold medal."

This will entail her second official participation in the Deaflympics.

"From experiencing only one Deaflympic Games, I know that it's a unique experience and I cannot wait to be fully present, meet new people, support other Canadian athletes in alternative sport disciplines, and spend time not just competing but also soaking in the larger team Canada and enjoying the experience," she said.

It goes without saying that Maschmeyer is proud to represent her country and to continue shaping her career and relationships.

"It's been really cool to be able to represent Canada at the international level so many times, and it just validates that passion, hard work, commitment, and dedication can pay off," she said. "It's also worth it when you are surrounded by teammates who you support and they support you.

"Being part of a greater Team Canada feels like everyone is backing you and supporting you to chase your dreams. I can only hope to facilitate that feeling for others as well, and hope that my journey can act as a mentorship for others or as a role model."