Playing the long game

On most days, Kenan Wipf is thinking one shot ahead.

It’s a habit the celebrated curler has built over years on the ice — reading angles, anticipating outcomes, adjusting for variables most people wouldn’t notice. 

A current Bachelor of Commerce student at the Haskayne School of Business, Wipf led the  University of Calgary Dinos as skip to the 2026 Canada West and 2026 U Sports national titles earlier this year. The accomplishments landed him a spot on the U Sports First Team All-Canadian, and a Canada West First Team All-Star for the 2025–26 season, including a spot to represent Canada at the 2027 FISU World University Games in Changchun, China

Most recently, he was recognized, alongside swimmer Alexanne Lepage, by Dinos Athletics as 2025–26 Athletes of the Year.

Yet for Wipf, the habits that have earned him success in competition don’t switch off when the broom is down. It’s also influenced how he’s shaping his path at Haskayne, and the way he is approaching his future in business.

We recently had the opportunity to sit down with Wipf to talk about what happens when “chess on ice” thinking meets a business career. Here’s what he shared:

On leadership and team dynamics …

“It comes down to a team culture of knowing it's OK to make a mistake. The last thing you want is someone burning a stone or throwing it through the house and walking away feeling like they’ve let their team down. It’s the same in the business world. It’s about making sure people are aligned on expectations, but supported when things don’t go perfectly.”

On strategic ‘ice reading’ …

"It's forecasting what you think is going to happen. While one move in curling might make your life easier in the short term, what about a couple shots later? In business, it's about finding different ways to make every decision work together as opposed to working individually and doing stuff that might help now but harm tomorrow.”

On precision and micro-adjustments …

“Having a target in mind is the biggest piece of that. Whether it’s a project or a goal or a vision, there’s a reason you have it –and it’s not to get 95 per cent of the way there. So, it’s about finding the intensity, the passion and clarity of the purpose to get through that last five per cent.”

On managing the 'House' ...

“In curling, we have this term called the ‘bail point.’ At some point in the game, you have a point where you have to decide whether to keep moving forward as is, or ‘sweep the shed’ – that is, clear the rocks before it gets out of hand. That’s very applicable to something like financial planning or organizational restructuring where people and businesses need to take the time to stop and re-evaluate whether this is where they want to be. And if it’s not, then they need to make a change.

“You only have a limited number of stones and you only have a limited number of things you can do before you reach the ‘end.’ It's constantly having those re-evaluation points.”

On data vs. intuition ...

“I think data gets you so far, especially in curling. Maybe 80 per cent. The last 20 is gut instinct, or what could be labelled as emotion. In business, it’s very similar. Sometimes the issues aren’t mathematical; you might have a supplier who’s good at what they do, but just hard to work with. So, maybe the decision is about reducing friction by finding someone who makes the whole system easier.”