The 2023

World Men's Curling Championship 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 an ...

(branded as the 2023 BKT Tires & OK Tire World Men's Curling Championship for sponsorship reasons) was held from April 1 to 9 at TD Place in

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. Ottawa was selected as the host site in June 2022. It had originally been planned for the city to host the event in 2021, but the event was moved to the "

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

bubble" due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. This was the first time Ottawa hosted the men's Worlds. The format for the Championship featured a thirteen team round robin. The top six teams qualified for the playoff round where the top two teams received a bye while the remaining four played the first round. The event was expected to attract approximately 70,000 fans, which was ultimately exceeded. The

Aberdeen Pavilion The Aberdeen Pavilion (''Pavillon Aberdeen'' in French) is an exhibition hall in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Overlooking the Rideau Canal, it is located in Lansdowne Park, Ottawa's historic fairgrounds. For many years, the building was known as t ...

acted as the "patch" for the event, the site where fans gathered during the event. The tournament marked the final major event for ice technician Dave Merklinger.

Summary

Team Turkey, who were making their debut at the event were no-shows at the opening ceremonies, making an "inauspicious" start to the event. The team would later blame a miscommunication for their absence, believing that the ceremonies were to be held on April 2. The 1993 World Men's Curling Championship winning Canadian team (

Russ Howard Russell W. "Russ" Howard, CM, ONL (born February 19, 1956, in Midland, Ontario) is a Canadian curler and Olympic champion, based in Regina, Saskatchewan, but originally from Midland, Ontario. He lived in Moncton, New Brunswick, from 2000 t ...

Glenn Howard Glenn William Howard (born July 17, 1962) is a retired Canadian curler who is one of the most decorated curlers of all time. He has won four world championships, four Briers and 17 Ontario provincial championships, including a record eight s ...

Wayne Middaugh Robert Wayne Middaugh (born September 20, 1967) is a Canadian curler. Born in Brampton, Ontario, Middaugh resides in Victoria Harbour, Ontario. He is the only player to have won the Canadian Men's Curling Championship (known as the Brier) at th ...

and

Peter Corner Peter J. Corner2017 Brier Media Guide: Previous Rosters (born May 20, 1968 in Brampton, Ontario) is a Canadian curler from Burlington, Ontario. Career Corner was a member of the 1993 "dream team" of his cousin Wayne Middaugh and the brothers o ...

) were honoured in the opening ceremonies. An ice storm hit Ottawa on April 5, knocking out power in various parts of the city, but not at TD Place. Despite the weather, crowds remained "decent". Rocks were re-textured prior to matches on the day, and Canada skip

Brad Gushue Bradley Raymond Gushue, ONL ( ; born June 16, 1980) is a Canadian curler from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. Gushue, along with teammates Russ Howard, Mark Nichols, Jamie Korab and Mike Adam, represented Canada in curling at the 2006 ...

indicated that the venue was cooler in the morning, but the ice held up. The most notable event on the 5th was in the draw 12 game between Sweden and Norway, where Swedish skip

Niklas Edin Johan Niklas Edin (born 6 July 1985) is a Swedish curler. 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 ( ...

made what many were calling one of the greatest or "craziest" shots in curling history, that has been dubbed a " shot heard around the curling world". Down by two in the tenth end, Edin had to throw a rock with an incredible amount of spin, making it curl enough to bump a guarded corner-frozen Norwegian stone at the perfect angle to avoid moving the Swedish rock it was frozen to, while also moving the Norwegian stone far enough to score two. A near-impossible shot, it could have only been made by throwing a "spinner," a rarely thrown shot in the sport. Usually a rock will rotate just a few times during its trajectory, but Edin's rock made over 53.5 rotations according to curling oddsmaker Matt Hall. Throwing a spinner is so rare, laughter could be heard at the arena when Edin released the rock. Edin was successful though, with his shooter rock being the second point, which was confirmed after a measurement. TSN commentator Russ Howard stated immediately after the bump: "That is the best shot I've ever seen in my life!" —

World Curling Federation World Curling, formerly the World Curling Federation (WCF) is the world governing body for curling accreditation, with offices in Perth, Scotland. It was formed out of the International Curling Federation (ICF), when the push for Olympic Winter ...

commentator

Tyler George Tyler George (born October 6, 1982) is an American curler from Duluth, Minnesota. He is a three-time U.S. Champion, 2016 World bronze medalist, and 2018 Olympic gold medalist. Since the 2018 Olympics, he has taken a break from playing competitiv ...

said "There's these moments in sports where sometimes the moment is bigger than the result of the game. I will remember that shot for as long as I live." Despite the shot, Team Sweden ended up losing the game in the extra end. Turkey won their first ever game at the Men's World Championship in their draw 15 match against New Zealand, defeating the Kiwis 8–5. They followed that up with a second win in draw 16, defeating South Korea 8–3. Following the round robin portion, the top six team made the playoffs. Switzerland earned the top seed with an 11–1 record, while Scotland earned the second seed with a 10–2 record. Both teams earned a bye to the semifinals. The third seed went to Norway (also 10–2), who played the six seeded Italians (8–4) in a qualification game, while the fourth seeded Canadians (9–3) played the number five ranked Swedes (also 9–3). The winners of the qualification games advanced to the semifinals. In the qualification games, Canada easily dispatched Sweden 9–1, ending their reign as four-time defending World champions, while Italy eliminated Norway, 8–4. Canada then went on to defeat the number one seeded Swiss in the semifinals 7–5, while Italy lost to Scotland 8–9 in an extra end. Italy nearly won the game in the 10th, as with 12 seconds left on their game clock, skip

Joël Retornaz Joël Thierry Retornaz (born 30 September 1983 in Chêne-Bougeries, Genève, Switzerland) is an Italian curler from Cembra. He was the skip of the Italian men's Olympic curling team in 2006, 2018, and 2022. Retornaz gained sudden renown in It ...

nearly made a long split to score three, but one of their rocks landed a few millimetres from the house, which was confirmed after a measurement. With their semifinal losses, Italy and Switzerland faced off for the bronze medal. In their match, Switzerland dominated. After leading 3–0 after three, the Swiss stole even more points, including a three-ender in the fifth after Italian skip Joël Retornaz took out his own stone. Italy finally scored in the sixth end, getting a deuce, but Switzerland scored three again in the seventh. Switzerland ended up winning the game 11–3. In the final, Scotland easily defeated Canada 9–3. The

Bruce Mouat Bruce Mouat (; born 27 August 1994 in Edinburgh) 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 two world championship titles in and , four European championsh ...

rink, representing Scotland won their first World title, and the first since

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

for their nation. It also completed the medal set for the Mouat team, which won a silver in

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

and a bronze in

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

. The team struck first blood in the second end scoring a deuce, after Mouat made a double take out. This was followed by a steal of two in the third, when Canada skip

was heavy on a draw against three Scottish counters. This gave the Scots an early 4–0 lead, taking the partisan Canadian crowd out of the game. Scotland kept the pressure on in the fourth, forcing Gushue to hit for a single point. Another costly mistake by Gushue came in the fifth when he was heavy on a tap attempt, which was followed up by a Mouat draw for two to lead 6–1. Canada finally got a two-ender in the sixth, when Scotland played the end safe, with Mouat opting for an easier hit instead of a double. After a blanked seventh, Gushue made another mistake when he was not able to remove a Scottish stone from the house, allowing Mouat to make a hit for three. With the score now 9–3 for Scotland, Canada conceded the game, handing the World Championship to Mouat and company. The Scottish team were in near-perfect form, with all four members curling in the 90s, with their percentage as a team at 96. In total, 5,604 fans attended the final, bringing the total attendance for the week to 75,960.

Qualification

Thirteen curling federations qualified to participate in the 2023 World Men's Curling Championship. This is the first World Men's Championship appearance for Turkey, being represented by skip Uğurcan Karagöz.

Selection of national teams

Teams

The teams were as follows:

WCF ranking

Year to date

order of merit ranking for each team prior to the event.

Round robin standings

''Final Round Robin Standings''

Round robin results

All draw times are listed in

Eastern Time The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, and the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico. * Eastern Standard Time (EST) is five hours behi ...

( UTC−04:00).

Draw 1

''Saturday, April 1, 2:00 pm''

Draw 2

''Saturday, April 1, 7:00 pm''

Draw 3

''Sunday, April 2, 9:00 am''

Draw 4

''Sunday, April 2, 2:00 pm''

Draw 5

''Sunday, April 2, 7:00 pm''

Draw 6

''Monday, April 3, 9:00 am''

Draw 7

''Monday, April 3, 2:00 pm''

Draw 8

''Monday, April 3, 7:00 pm''

Draw 9

''Tuesday, April 4, 9:00 am''

Draw 10

''Tuesday, April 4, 2:00 pm''

Draw 11

''Tuesday, April 4, 7:00 pm''

Draw 12

''Wednesday, April 5, 9:00 am''

Draw 13

''Wednesday, April 5, 2:00 pm''

Draw 14

''Wednesday, April 5, 7:00 pm''

Draw 15

''Thursday, April 6, 9:00 am''

Draw 16

''Thursday, April 6, 2:00 pm''

Draw 17

''Thursday, April 6, 7:00 pm''

Draw 18

''Friday, April 7, 9:00 am''

Draw 19

''Friday, April 7, 2:00 pm''

Draw 20

''Friday, April 7, 7:00 pm''

Playoffs

Qualification Games

''Saturday, April 8, 2:00 pm''

Semifinals

''Saturday, April 8, 7:00 pm''

Bronze medal game

''Sunday, April 9, 11:00 am''

Final

''Sunday, April 9, 4:00 pm''

Statistics

Player percentages

''Final Round Robin Percentages''

Perfect games

''Minimum 10 shots thrown''

Awards

The awards and all-star team are as follows: All-Star Team *Skip:

, Canada *Third:

Yannick Schwaller Yannick Schwaller (born 31 March 1995 in Solothurn) is a Swiss curler from Recherswil. He currently skips his own team out of Geneva. Career Juniors Schwaller skipped the Swiss junior men's team at three straight World Junior Curling Champi ...

, Switzerland (Skip) *Second:

Rasmus Wranå Rasmus Bele Åke Wranå (born 15 November 1994) is a Swedish curler from Karlstad. He currently plays second for the Sweden national team, skipped by Niklas Edin. With his teammates Edin, Oskar Eriksson, and Christoffer Sundgren, Wranå became ...

, Sweden *Lead: Geoff Walker, Canada Collie Campbell Memorial Award * Anton Hood, New Zealand

Final standings

Based on this year's final standings, the

2023 European Curling Championships The 2023 Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships took place in May and November 2023, to qualify European curling teams for the 2024 World Curling Championships. The A and B division competitions were held from November 18 to 25, with the ...

will serve as 13th qualification spot at next year's

Broadcasters

Some of the official broadcasters of the event are as follows:

References

Notes

External links

Official site
{{World championships in 2023 Curling competitions in Ottawa World Men's Curling Championship April 2023 sports events in Canada

2023 in Canadian curling International curling competitions hosted by Canada 2023 in Ottawa