Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones, also called rocks, across the ice curling sheet toward the house, a circular target marked on the ice. Each team has eight stones, with each player throwing two. The purpose is to accumulate the highest score for a game; points are scored for the stones resting closest to the centre of the house at the conclusion of each end, which is completed when both teams have thrown all of their stones once. A game usually consists of eight or ten ends.
Jennifer Judith Jones OM is a Canadian curler. She was the Olympic champion in curling as skip of the Canadian team at the 2014 Sochi Games. Jones is the first female skip to go through the Games undefeated. The only male skip to achieve this was fellow Canadian Kevin Martin in 2010. Jones and her team were the first Manitoba-based curling team to win an Olympic gold medal. They won the 2008 World Women's Curling Championship and were the last Canadian women's team to do so until Rachel Homan in 2017. She won a second world championship in 2018. Jones also represented Canada at the 2022 Winter Olympics, where her team placed fifth.
The Continental Cup is a curling tournament held annually between teams from North America against teams from the rest of the World. Each side is represented by six teams, which compete using a unique points system. The tournament is modeled after golf's Ryder Cup, but unlike the Ryder Cup, the Continental Cup has never been held outside of North America nor has it been a regular, biennial event. The inaugural Continental Cup was held in 2002 but was held only three times between 2005 and 2010. Since 2011, however, the Continental Cup has been an annual competition.
Johan Niklas Edin is a Swedish curler. He currently resides in Karlstad, which has been his curling home base since 2008. He holds several sport distinctions. He is the first and the only skip in World Curling Federation (WCF) history to win three Olympic medals – gold (2022), silver (2018), and bronze (2014) – and to skip men's curling teams to seven World Men's Curling Championship medals. He is also a seven-time European Curling Championship titleholder and won three silver medals in those championships. He is currently tied with Oskar Eriksson in first place on the WCF-recognized list of championship medals, with thirty-eight in total. He reached the playoffs in forty-five Grand Slam of Curling events and won the Pinty's Cup with his current teammates, Oskar Eriksson, Rasmus Wranå, and Christopher Sundgren. With the same lineup in 2022, Edin and his teammates also became the first and only men's curling team to win a fourth consecutive World Men's Curling Championship. Edin has played exclusively in the position of skip since 2007. The team bearing his name has been ranked on the World Curling Tour as high as No. 1, including for most of the 2017–18 season. As of the end of the 2021–22 Curling Season, Team Edin was ranked in the top three teams in the world.
The 2006 Continental Cup of Curling was a curling tournament held from November 23 to 26 in Chilliwack, British Columbia between six North American teams and six European teams. Europe defeated North America 229-171 after a series of North American losses in the skins games.
Rachel Catherine Homan is a Canadian international curler and the reigning women's world champion in 2024. Homan is a former Canadian junior champion, a four-time Canadian national champion, and two-time World Champion, all as a skip. She was also the skip of the Canadian women's curling team at the 2018 Winter Olympics.
Lesley Kaitlyn Lawes is a Canadian curler. Lawes was the long time third for the Jennifer Jones team that represented Canada at the 2014 Winter Olympics where they won the gold medal. They were the first women's team to go through the Olympics undefeated and the first Manitoba based curling team to win at the Olympics. Lawes curled with John Morris in the mixed doubles event at the 2018 Winter Olympics where they won gold. This win made her and Morris the first Canadian curlers to win two Olympic gold medals, and Lawes was the first to win gold in two consecutive Olympics.
Oskar Ingemar Eriksson is a Swedish curler from Karlstad. He currently plays third for the Niklas Edin rink. He is the first curler in history to win four Olympic medals – gold, silver, and two bronze – and the first to secure two Olympic medals in different curling disciplines in the same Olympic Games. He is also a seven-time World Men's Curling Champion, seven-time European Men's Curling Champion, and the first curler in history to win three gold medals in major international curling championships in a single calendar year – the World Men's Curling Championship, the European Curling Championship, and the World Mixed Doubles Championship. Having also won two World Mixed Doubles Championship medals, he is the first and the only curler to win eight World Curling Championship gold medals in the senior men's division and has won thirteen World Curling Championship medals overall in that division. He also holds the record for most gold medals in international competitions as recognized by the World Curling Federation. He is the only member of Team Sweden to have competed in all of the World Men's Curling Championships from 2011 to 2024. He won medals in all but two of these championships, as well as playing in multiple positions – as skip, third, second, and as an alternate. In 2022, Eriksson and his teammates also became the first men's team in history to win four consecutive World Men's Curling Championships. In 2024, Eriksson and Niklas Edin became the first and only two curlers in history to have seven career gold World Men's Curling Championship medals.
The 2011 World Financial Group Continental Cup of Curling was held January 13–16 at the Servus Credit Union Place in St. Albert, Alberta.
The World Curling Championships are the annual world championships for curling, organized by the World Curling Federation and contested by national championship teams. There are men's, women's and mixed doubles championships, as well as men's and women's versions of junior and senior championships. There is also a world championship for wheelchair curling. The men's championship started in 1959, while the women's started in 1979. The mixed doubles championship was started in 2008. Since 2005, the men's and women's championships have been held in different venues, with Canada hosting one of the two championships every year: the men's championship in odd years, and the women's championship in even years. Canada has dominated both the men's and women's championships since their inception, although Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Scotland, the United States, Norway and China have all won at least one championship.
The 2012 World Financial Group Continental Cup of Curling was held from Thursday, January 12 to Sunday, January 15 at the Langley Events Centre in Langley, British Columbia. Just like in the previous year's event, the Continental Cup featured team events, mixed doubles events, singles competitions, and skins competitions, and the brunt of the points were won in the skins competitions. TSN broadcast the event, as it has in previous years.
The 2013 World Financial Group Continental Cup of Curling was held from January 10 to 13 at the South Okanagan Events Centre in Penticton, British Columbia. The Continental Cup, based on the Ryder Cup of golf, pitted teams from North America against teams from the rest of the World. The tournament featured team events, mixed doubles events, singles competitions, and skins competitions, and the brunt of available points was awarded in the skins competitions. TSN broadcast the event, as it had in previous years.
Rebecca Lynn Hamilton is an American curler from McFarland, Wisconsin. She is a five-time national women's champion, three-time national mixed doubles champion, two-time national junior champion, and a two-time Olympian. At the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, she competed in mixed doubles curling with her brother, Matt, along with playing with the women's curling team. She was again on the women's curling team during the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
The 2014 Continental Cup of Curling was held from January 16 to 19 at the Orleans Arena in Paradise, Nevada, a suburb of Las Vegas. This edition of the Continental Cup of Curling, sponsored by World Financial Group, was the first held outside of Canada. The Continental Cup, based on the Ryder Cup of golf, pits teams from North America against teams from the rest of the World. The tournament featured team events, mixed doubles events, singles competitions, and skins competitions, and the brunt of available points was awarded in the skins competitions. TSN broadcast the event, as it has in previous years.
The 2015 World Financial Group Continental Cup of Curling was held from January 8 to 11 at the Markin MacPhail Centre International Arena in Calgary, Alberta. The Continental Cup featured team events, mixed doubles events, singles competitions, and skins competitions, and the brunt of the points were in the skins competitions. TSN broadcast the event, as it has in previous years.
The 2016 World Financial Group Continental Cup of Curling was held from January 14 to 17 at the Orleans Arena in Paradise, Nevada. This marked the second edition of the Continental Cup to be held outside of Canada. The Continental Cup featured team events, mixed doubles events, and skins competitions, with most points available in the skins competitions. TSN broadcast the event, as it had in previous years.
The 2017 World Financial Group Continental Cup of Curling was held from January 12 to 15 at the Orleans Arena in Paradise, Nevada. This marked the third edition of the Continental Cup held outside of Canada. The Continental Cup featured team events, mixed doubles events, and skins competitions, and the brunt of the points was in the skins competitions. TSN broadcast the event, as it had in previous years.
The 2018 World Financial Group Continental Cup of Curling was held from January 11 to 14 at the Sports Centre at Western Fair District in London, Ontario. The Continental Cup featured team events, mixed doubles events, and skins competitions, and the brunt of the points was in the skins competitions. TSN broadcast the event, as it has in previous years.
The 2019 World Financial Group Continental Cup was held from January 17 to 20 at the Orleans Arena in Paradise, Nevada. This was the fourth time the event is being held in Paradise and the fourth time outside Canada. The event featured new team scramble competitions, with players from different traditional teams competing together, along with the mixed doubles, team, and skins competitions seen in previous years.
Doubles curling is a variation of the sport of curling with only two players on each team. Mixed doubles is the most common format of doubles curling, where the term 'mixed' specifies that each team is composed of one man and one woman. The term mixed is also used to describe a specific format of 4-person team curling where the team consists of two men and two women and the throwing order alternates genders, see mixed team.
