The 2021

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 2021 BKT Tires & OK Tire World Men's Curling Championship for sponsorship reasons) was held from April 2 to 11 at the Markin MacPhail Centre at

Canada Olympic Park Canada Olympic Park (COP), formerly known as Paskapoo Ski Hill, is a ski hill and multi-purpose training and competition facility located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, owned and operated by WinSport. It is currently used both for high performance ...

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 ...

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 ...

. The event was originally to be held 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 ...

, but 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 ...

, the championship was moved to Calgary. The event was held in a

bio-secure bubble A bio-secure bubble, also known as a bubble, or hub city, was a hosting arrangement for sporting events that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, under which events were held at a centralized site, often behind closed doors, with strict quarant ...

at Canada Olympic Park, which also hosted all major

Curling Canada 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 ...

championships leading up to the Worlds (including the

2021 Tim Hortons Brier The 2021 Tim Hortons Brier, Canada's national men's curling championship, was held from March 5 to 14 at the Markin MacPhail Centre at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, Alberta. In the final, Team Alberta, skip (curling), skipped by Brendan Bottch ...

, which determined Canada's entrant). All events were held

behind closed doors Behind Closed Doors may refer to: Film, television and radio Film * ''Behind Closed Doors'' (1929 film), an early talkie starring Virginia Valli * Behind Closed Doors (1961 film), ''Behind Closed Doors'' (1961 film), an Italian comedy film by Dino ...

with no spectators. The 2021 championship fielded the largest number of teams in the history of the event, with fourteen total.

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 ( ...

, skip of Team Sweden, and his third,

Oskar Eriksson Oskar Ingemar Eriksson (born 29 May 1991) 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 ...

, won a record fifth career World Championship. The team, which also consisted of

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 ...

and

Christoffer Sundgren Kjell Tommy Christoffer Sundgren (born 31 July 1989) is a Swedish curler. He currently plays lead for the Swedish national team, skipped by Niklas Edin. The World Curling Federation's historical records rank Sundgren as one of the most successf ...

, won a record third straight championship. They defeated Team Scotland, skipped by

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 ...

in the final, 10–5. With the game tied at 5 in the ninth end, Edin made a double take out with the last rock of the end to score five. Down by 5 with just one end to go, Team Scotland then conceded the game. Switzerland, skipped by

Peter de Cruz Peter Vincent de Cruz (born 4 January 1990) is a Swiss curler. He is an Olympic bronze medallist for Switzerland, having skipped his Swiss rink to a third place finish at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. While de Cruz is the skip of his ...

, won the bronze medal. The championship served as one of two qualification events for

curling Curling is a sport in which players slide #Curling stone, stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area that is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take t ...

at the

2022 Winter Olympics The 2022 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXIV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Beijing 2022 (2022), were an international winter multi-sport event held from 4 to 20 February 2022 in Beijing, China, and surrounding areas wit ...

in Beijing. The

National Olympic Committee A National Olympic Committee (NOC) is a national constituent of the worldwide Olympic movement. Subject to the controls of the International Olympic Committee, NOCs are responsible for organizing their people's participation in the Olympic Games ...

s representing the top six finishers at the tournament qualified directly to the Olympic tournament. In order of ranking, this included

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, the ROC, the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, and

. The remaining teams that had qualified for the 2020 or 2021 World Championships competed in the

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 ...

's Olympic Qualification Event in December 2021 for the remaining three spots.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

On April 9, the World Curling Federation announced that a positive COVID-19 test had been recorded by a player on a non-playoff team, and that the second qualification match between the United States and Switzerland would be therefore be postponed. The World Curling Federation postponed all games scheduled for April 10 due to additional positive tests involving a member of a playoff team. There were three initial positives from players on non-playoff teams who were tested as part of the exit protocols, and four close contacts were also identified. On April 11, following approval by

Alberta Health Services Alberta Health Services (AHS) is the single Health regions of Canada, health authority for the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta and the "largest integrated provincial health care system" in Canada. Headquartered ...

(AHS), the World Curling Federation announced that play would resume, with all remaining games being played throughout the day. One playoff team member who had been fully

vaccinated A vaccine is a biological Dosage form, preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious disease, infectious or cancer, malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verifi ...

initially tested positive, but later tested negative and was cleared to participate in the playoffs. Enhanced biosecurity protocols were mandated for the remainder of the tournament, including additional tests before and after each game, and requiring masks to be worn on-ice. Canadian broadcaster TSN pulled its camera crew for the U.S./Switzerland match, and announced that the game would not be televised due to unspecified "COVID-19 issues"; the game was still broadcast via the WCF host feed. On April 12, all four tests were deemed

false positive A false positive is an error in binary classification in which a test result incorrectly indicates the presence of a condition (such as a disease when the disease is not present), while a false negative is the opposite error, where the test resu ...

s following an extensive review by health authorities. Team USA third

Christopher Plys Christopher Plys (; born August 13, 1987) is an American curler from Duluth, Minnesota. He currently plays third on Team John Shuster. He is a World Junior Champion and four-time National Men's Champion. He was the alternate for the United St ...

announced on Twitter that he was the playoff-bound curler who had tested positive.

Qualification

The following nations qualified to participate in the 2021 World Men's Curling Championship: Pursuant to a December 2020 ruling by the

Court of Arbitration for Sport The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS; , TAS) is an international body established in 1984 to settle disputes related to sport through arbitration. Its headquarters are in Lausanne, Switzerland, and its courts are located in New York City, Sy ...

, Russia is prohibited from competing under its flag or any national symbols at any Olympic Games or world championships through December 16, 2022, and must compete neutrally. The World Curling Federation listed the Russian team as the abbreviation "RCF", for the Russian Curling Federation.

World Ranking

The World Curling Federation World Ranking tracks and lists the success of all Member Associations.

Teams

The teams are as follows:

WCF ranking

Year to date

order of merit ranking for each team prior to the event. Rankings based on the 2019–20 season.

Round-robin standings

''Final round-robin standings''

Round-robin results

All times listed in

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( UTC−06:00).

Draw 1

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

Draw 2

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

Draw 3

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

Draw 4

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

Draw 5

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

Draw 6

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

Draw 7

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

Draw 8

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

Draw 9

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

Draw 10

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

Draw 11

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

Draw 12

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

Draw 13

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

Draw 14

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

Draw 15

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

Draw 16

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

Draw 17

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

Draw 18

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

Draw 19

''Thursday, April 8, 9:00 am''

Draw 20

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

Draw 21

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

Draw 22

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

Draw 23

''Friday, April 9, 2:00 pm''

Playoffs

Qualification Game 1

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

Qualification Game 2

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

Semifinals

''Sunday, April 11, 4:00 pm''

Bronze medal game

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

Final

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

Statistics

Top 5 player percentages

''Final round robin percentages''

Perfect games

''Minimum 10 shots thrown''

Awards

The awards were as follows: Collie Campbell Memorial Award *

, Sweden

Notes

References

External links

* * {{World championships in 2021 World Men's Curling Championship

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 ...

Curling competitions in Calgary

World 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 ...