World Women's Curling Championship

History

The first women's world championship in curling took place in 1979 in Perth, Scotland. Since then it has been held every year – for a long time together with the men's championship, now usually as a separate event. The organiser is World Curling.

Qualification

Places are allocated via continental championships. European teams qualify via the European championships. The host nation qualifies automatically, and further nations join via a qualification event.

Format

The women's world championship begins with a round in which all teams play each other. The best teams advance to the knockout round. Teams level on points are separated by head-to-head results or the average distance of their last stone draws. World Curling decides before each edition how many teams advance.

Favourites and successes

Canada is the record winner. Sweden, Switzerland and Scotland have also won several times. Switzerland shaped the 2020s: the team led by Silvana Tirinzoni won several world titles in a row. For Germany, Andrea Schöpp won the title with her teams in 1988 and 2010.

Significance

For players, the world championship is the most important competition alongside the Olympics. In the season before the Olympic Games, qualification points for the Games are also at stake.

Watching

Following the world championship means seeing curling at the highest level: precise draws, difficult takeouts and thrilling final ends. The skips' calls can be heard through microphones, which makes the game easy for spectators to follow.

Game length and tactics

Ten ends are played. Each team has a fixed thinking time to cover all decisions in a game and may take one timeout per game. The women's world championship is just as tactically demanding as the men's tournament. Many teams have played in the same line-up for years, which improves coordination and communication.

Venues

The women's world championship alternates between North America, Europe and Asia. Hosts are often in Canada, Switzerland, Sweden or South Korea. In Switzerland, the games are especially popular thanks to the success of the home teams.

Juniors

There is a separate junior world championship for players under 21. Many later world champions gained their first international experience there.

The Swiss run

Swiss women's teams have shaped the women's world championship like hardly any other nation in recent times. Binia Feltscher became world champion in 2014 and 2016, Alina Pätz in 2015. From 2019 came the team of Silvana Tirinzoni, in which Pätz threw the last stones, with several titles in a row. These successes have made curling even more popular in Switzerland.

Other defining teams

Sweden's Anette Norberg won several world titles and Olympic gold in 2006 and 2010. Canadian skips such as Jennifer Jones and Rachel Homan are among the best-known players in the world. Jones won Olympic gold unbeaten in 2014.

Germany and Austria

Germany won the women's world championship twice with Andrea Schöpp: in 1988 for West Germany and in 2010 for reunified Germany. Austria has yet to win a world championship medal. Both federations rely on youth programmes and the junior world championship to get closer to the top again.

Juniors as a talent factory

Many winners of the women's world championship previously stood on the podium at the junior world championship.

The junior world championship is held every year and is also organised by World Curling.