The World Curling Championships are the annual

world championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

s for

curling 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 slidi ...

, organized by the

World Curling Federation 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 Sport status was made. ...

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

for

wheelchair curling Wheelchair curling is an adaptation of curling for athletes with a disability affecting their lower limbs or gait. Wheelchair curling is governed by the World Curling Federation, and is one of the sports in the Winter Paralympic Games. Overview ...

. 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 West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

), Scotland, the United States, Norway and China have all won at least one championship.

History

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. 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 Air Canada is the flag carrier and the largest airline of Canada by the size and passengers carried. Air Canada maintains its headquarters in the borough of Saint-Laurent, Montreal, Quebec. The airline, founded in 1937, provides scheduled an ...

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

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 Curling Canada (formerly the Canadian Curling Association (CCA)) is a sanctioning body for the sport of Curling in Canada. It is associated with more than a dozen provincial and territorial curling associations across the country, and organizes ...

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 2015, a world championship for

mixed curling This is a glossary of terms in curling. #s During a game, sweepers might call out numbers. These numbers indicate how far the sweepers think the rock in play will travel. This system is relatively new to the game and is often attributed to the ...

was created, replacing the European Mixed Curling Championship and supplanting the European Mixed and Canadian Mixed curling championships as the highest level of mixed curling in the world. In 2019, the World Qualification Event was introduced, to qualify the final two teams in the men's and women's championships. A mixed doubles qualification event will also be added in the

2019–20 curling season The 2019–20 curling season began in June 2019 and was scheduled to end in May 2020. However, the coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 20 ...

, qualifying the final four teams of the twenty-team mixed doubles championship. In 2020, the men's, women's and mixed doubles championships were cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

Tournament names

The World Curling Championships have been known by a number of different names over the years. Men *1959–1967: Scotch Cup *1968–1985:

Silver Broom *1986–1988: IOC President's Cup (Hexagon) *1989–1990: WCF Championships *1991–1992:

Canada Safeway Safeway (also referred to as Canada Safeway) is a Canadian supermarket chain of 135 full service supermarket stores mostly operating in the western provinces in Canada. It was established in 1929 as a subsidiary of the American Safeway Inc., be ...

World Curling Championship *1993–1994: WCF Championships *1995–2004:

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

World Curling Championship *2005–2017:

World Men's Curling Championship (odd years) *2006–2018: World Men's Curling Championship (even years) *2019: Pioneer Hi-Bred World Men's Curling Championship *2020: LGT World Men's Curling Championship *2021: BKT Tires & OK Tire World Men's Curling Championship Women *1979–1981: Royal Bank of Scotland World Curling Championships *1982: World Curling Championships *1983:

Pioneer Life Pioneer commonly refers to a settler who migrates to previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land. In the United States pioneer commonly refers to an American pioneer, a person in American history who migrated west to join in settling and d ...

World Curling Championships *1984: World Curling Championships *1985: H&M World Curling Championships *1986–1990: World Curling Championships *1991–1992:

World Curling Championships *1993–1994: World Curling Championships *1995–2004:

World Curling Championships *2005–2017: World Women's Curling Championship (odd years) *2006–2018:

World Women's Curling Championship (even years) *2019: LGT World Women's Curling Championship

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 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

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 The Page playoff system is a playoff format used primarily in softball and curling at the championship level, the Indian Premier League and Pakistan Super League cricket tournaments. Teams are seeded using a round-robin tournament and the top f ...

in 2005. In the championships held from 1971 to

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

, 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. This includes two teams from the Americas zone, eight from the European zone (via the

European Curling Championships The European Curling Championships are annual curling tournaments held in Europe between various European nations. The European Curling Championships are usually held in early to mid December. The tournament also acts as a qualifier for the Wor ...

) and three from the Asia-Pacific zone (via the

Pacific-Asia Curling Championships The Pacific-Asia Curling Championships (formerly the Pacific Curling Championships) are an annual curling tournament, held every year in November or December. The top team receives a berth to the World Curling Championships, while the second-plac ...

). 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. 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.

Championships

Men

Women

Mixed

Mixed doubles

Wheelchair mixed team

Wheelchair mixed doubles

National championships

Men

Tim Hortons Brier The Tim Hortons Brier, or simply (and more commonly) the Brier (''french: Le Brier''), is the annual Canadian men's curling championship, sanctioned by Curling Canada. The current event name refers to its main sponsor, the Tim Hortons coffee and ...

* United States Men's Curling Championship * Scottish Men's Curling Championship * French Men's Curling Championship * Russian Curling Championships * Italian Curling Championship *

Finnish Men's Curling Championship The Finnish Men's Curling Championship is the national championship of men's curling in Finland. It has been held annually since 1983. From 1983 until 1998 it was known as the Finnish Cup. Since 1999 the Finnish championship team has been determined ...

Danish Men's Curling Championship The Danish Men's Curling Championship is the national championship of men's curling in Denmark. It has been held annually since 1971. List of champions {, class="wikitable" border="1" , - ! Year ! Skip ! Club , - , 1971 , , Mogens Olsen , , F ...

* Swiss Men's Curling Championship *

New Zealand Men's Curling Championship The New Zealand Men's Curling Championship is the national championship of men's curling in New Zealand. It has been held annually since 2005. From 1994 to 2004 the national champions were the winners of the Wendorf Rock, and the event was open to ...

* Swedish Men's Curling Championship *

Japan Curling Championships The Japan Curling Championships ('' ja, 日本カーリング選手権'') are the annual Japanese men's and women's curling championships, organized by the Japan Curling Association (JCA). The winners get to represent Japan at the men's and wome ...

* Latvian Men's Curling Championship * Norwegian Men's Curling Championship *

Estonian Men's Curling Championship The Estonian Men's Curling Championship ( et, Eesti kurlingu meeste meistrivõistlused) is the national championship of men's curling teams in Estonia. It has been held annually since the 2004–2005 season, and is organized by the Estonian Curling ...

* Czech Men's Curling Championship *

Korean Curling Championships The Korean Curling Championships (branded as the KB Financial Group, KB Financial Korean Curling Championships from 2012 to 2022) are the annual Korean men's and women's curling championships, organized by the Korean Curling Federation (KCF). The ...

Women

Scotties Tournament of Hearts The Scotties Tournament of Hearts (''french: Le Tournoi des Cœurs Scotties''; commonly referred to as the Scotties) is the annual Canadian women's curling championship, sanctioned by Curling Canada, formerly called the Canadian Curling Associat ...

* United States Women's Curling Championship * Scottish Women's Curling Championship * French Women's Curling Championship * Russian Curling Championships * Italian Curling Championship *

Finnish Women's Curling Championship The Finnish Women's Curling Championship is the national championship of women's curling in Finland. It has been held annually since 1994. From 1994 until 1998 it was known as the Finnish Cup. Since 1999 the Finnish championship team has been determ ...

Danish Women's Curling Championship The Danish Women's Curling Championship is the national championship of women's curling in Denmark. It has been held annually since 1979. List of champions External links DM Damer , Hvidovre Curling Club{in lang, da See also * Danish Men's Cu ...

* Swiss Women's Curling Championship * Swedish Women's Curling Championship *

* Latvian Women's Curling Championship *

Estonian Women's Curling Championship The Estonian Women's Curling Championship ( et, Eesti kurlingu naiste meistrivõistlused) is the national championship of women's curling teams in Estonia. It has been held annually since the 2004–2005 season, and is organized by the Estonian Cu ...

* Czech Women's Curling Championship *

References

External links

* {{Main world championships World Curling Federation

Curling 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 slidi ...

* Recurring sporting events established in 1959