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 (West Germany), Scotland, the United States, Norway and China have all won at least one championship.
The World Curling Championships began in 1959 as the Scotch Cup. The Scotch Cup was created by Toronto public relations executive and former sports journalist Stanley D. Houston on behalf of the Scotch Whisky Association, a client of Houston's agency Public Relations Services Limited, which was looking to generate increased North American exposure for its products.[citation needed] The first three Cups were contested between men's teams from Scotland and Canada. The United States joined the Scotch Cup in 1961, and Sweden also joined the next year. Canada won the first six world titles, of which the legendary rink skipped by Ernie Richardson earned four. The United States was the first country to break Canada's streak, winning their first world title in 1965. By 1967, Norway, Switzerland, France, and Germany were added to the Scotch Cup, and Scotland won their first title, while Canada finished without a medal for the first time. The tournament was renamed the Air Canada Silver Broom the year after that, and Canada strung together five consecutive world titles starting in that year.
In 1973, the competing field was expanded to ten teams, and Italy and Denmark were introduced to the world stage. Sweden, Switzerland, and Norway won their first titles in the following years, and Canada continued to win medals of all colours. In 1979, the first edition of the women's World Curling Championships was held. The championships were held separately from the men's championships for the first ten years. During this time, Switzerland, Canada, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany won world titles.
Bronze medals were not awarded until 1985 for the women's tournament and 1986 for the men's tournament. Between 1989 and 1994, the bronze medal was shared by the semifinals losers.
Beginning in 1989, the men's and women's championships were held together. Norway won their first world women's title. In 1995, Ford Canada and the World Curling Federation reached an agreement to make Ford the sponsor of the World Curling Championships. Japan, the first nation from Asia to compete in the worlds, made their debut in 1990 at the women's championship, and later in 2000 at the men's championship. South Korea and China followed suit in the 2000s. Scotland won their first women's title in 2002, and the United States won their first women's title the next year.
In 2005, the men's and women's championships were separated, and an agreement was made between the World Curling Federation and the Canadian Curling Association that Canada would host one of the tournaments annually each year, all of which are title sponsored by Ford of Canada. Canada began a streak of top two finishes in the men's tournament, and China won their first world title in the women's tournament in 2009.
In 2008, a world championship for mixed doubles curling was created. Switzerland won the first world mixed doubles title, and proceeded to win four of the first five titles. Russia and Hungary won their first world curling titles in the mixed doubles championship, and New Zealand, France, Austria, and the Czech Republic won their first world curling medals.
In 2019, the World Qualification Event was introduced, to qualify the final two teams in the men's and women's championships.[2] A mixed doubles qualification event will also be added in the 2019–20 curling season, qualifying the final four teams of the twenty-team mixed doubles championship.[3]
In 2020, the men's, women's and mixed doubles championships were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[4][5][6]
Tournament names
The World Curling Championships have been known by a number of different names over the years.
2005–2017: World Women's Curling Championship (odd years)
2006–2018: Ford World Women's Curling Championship (even years)
2019–present: LGT World Women's Curling Championship (odd years)
2022–present: BKT Tires & OK Tire World Women's Curling Championship (even years)
Competition format
The first two world championships, held as competitions between Scotland and Canada, were held as five-game series between the two nations. Upon the addition of the United States in 1961, the format was changed to a double round robin preliminary round with a three-team knockout round at the conclusion of the round robin. The knockout round was removed for the next two championships. With the addition of more teams, a single round robin preliminary round with a four-team knockout round was implemented in 1971. The championships occurring from 1968 to 1970 included three-team knockout rounds instead of four-team knockout rounds. The knockout round format was adjusted from single-elimination to the Page playoff system in 2005.
In the championships held from 1971 to 1985, third place was awarded to either the team that lost in the semifinal of a three-team knockout round or the higher-seeded team among the losing teams of a four-team knockout round. A bronze medal game was added to the knockout round in 1986, but bronze medal games were not held from 1989 to 1994, during which bronze medals were awarded to the teams that lost in the semifinals.
Until 2017 format of the world championships used a twelve team round-robin preliminary round, after which the top four teams advance to a knockout round held using the Page playoff system.
Starting in 2018 there are 13 teams playing round-robin preliminary round with top six advancing to a single-elimination knockout with top two receiving bye to the semifinals.[7] This includes two teams from the Americas zone, eight from the European zone (via the European Curling Championships) and three from the Asia-Pacific zone (via the Pacific-Asia Curling Championships). For 2019, the number of teams from the Asia-Pacific zone will be reduced by one, and there will also be one less team from the zone of the bottom-placed team at the 2018 championships.[8] The two slots will be allocated to teams from the new World Qualification Event. The qualification event will have eight teams: the host country, one team from the Americas, two from Pacific-Asia, and four from Europe.
The Royal Caledonian Curling Club (RCCC), branded as Scottish Curling is a curling club in Edinburgh, Scotland. It developed the first official rules for the sport, and is the governing body of curling in Scotland. The RCCC was founded on 25 July 1838 in Edinburgh, and granted its royal charter by Queen Victoria in 1843, after she had witnessed a demonstration of the sport played on the polished ballroom floor of Scone Palace the previous year.
Wheelchair curling at the 2006 Winter Paralympics was played at the Pinerolo Palaghiaccio, in Pinerolo, 30 km southwest of Turin. Wheelchair curling was making its first appearance at the Paralympic Games and took the form of a mixed team event, open to athletes with a physical disability in the lower part of the body that required the everyday use of a wheelchair.
The World Senior Curling Championships is an annual curling tournament featuring curlers from around the world who are at least 50 years old. Matches at the World Senior Championships are played in 8 ends played instead of the 10 played in most international events.
The United States Men's Curling Championship is the annual men's national curling championship for the United States. It is run by the United States Curling Association (USCA) and typically held in conjunction with the Women's Championship. The champion is eligible to represent the United States at the World Men's Curling Championships if they also rank in the top 75 teams over the last two seasons in the World Curling Tour Order of Merit or have earned 40 points in the Order of Merit year-to-date rankings.
The World Mixed Doubles Curling Championships are annual curling tournaments featuring the world's best teams of mixed doubles curlers.
Anna Ellinor Hasselborg is a Swedish curler who is the 2018 Olympic Champion in women's curling and a former World Junior Champion skip. In November 2019, she became the first curler in history to reign as the simultaneous holder of the European Curling Championship gold medal, the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship gold medal, and the Olympic gold medal.
Alina Pätz is a Swiss curler. She currently throws fourth stones on Team Silvana Tirinzoni. She is a six-time world champion and was the alternate player for the Mirjam Ott rink, which represented Switzerland at the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Agnes Ellinor Knochenhauer is a Swedish curler from Stockholm. She currently plays second on Team Anna Hasselborg. With Hasselborg, Knochenhauer has won two Olympic medals, gold at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang and bronze at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. She also won a silver medal at the 2014 Games in Sochi as alternate for the Margaretha Sigfridsson rink.
A total of 10 teams in each tournament qualified for a quota of 100 athletes in curling at the 2018 Winter Olympics. A further 8 mixed doubles pairs qualified for a total of 16 athletes. Therefore, a total of 116 athletes qualified in total to compete in the curling competitions.
Bruce Mouat is a Scottish curler from Stirling. He currently skips his own team out of the Gogar Park Curling Club. Mouat has led his team to a world championship gold medal in 2023, four European championship titles and six Grand Slam titles. He also earned a silver medal in the men's team event of the 2022 Winter Olympics and is a former World Mixed Doubles (2021), Winter Universiade (2017) and World Junior (2016) champion.
Stefania Constantini is an Italian curler from Cortina d'Ampezzo. She currently skips the Italian National Women's Curling Team. She has played in five World Championships, and six European Championships. She won a silver medal at the 2023 European Curling Championships, a bronze medal at the 2017 European Curling Championships and a gold medal in mixed doubles at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
A total of 10 teams in each tournament will qualify for a quota of 100 athletes in curling at the 2022 Winter Olympics. A further 10 mixed doubles pairs will qualify for a total of 20 athletes. Therefore, a total of 120 athletes can qualify in total to compete in the curling competitions.
Romano Keller-Meier is a Swiss curler from Ehrendingen. He currently plays second on Team Michael Brunner.
The 2020–21 curling season began in August 2020 and ended in May 2021.
The 2021 World Women's Curling Championship was held 30 April to 9 May at the Markin MacPhail Centre at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, Alberta.
The 2021 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship was held from May 17 to 23 in Aberdeen, Scotland.
Marta Lo Deserto is an Italian curler from Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. She is currently the alternate on the Italian National Women's Curling Team, skipped by Stefania Constantini.
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Sweden (men) 
Canada (women) 
Norway (mixed wheelchair) 
South Korea (mixed doubles wheelchair)
