The Men's World Curling Championships begin on Saturday in Moose Jaw, Canada. A few facts about it.
29.03.2025, 05:01
29.03.2025, 08:07
SDA
World Championship participations of Schwaller and Co.
Pablo Lachat-Couchepin, Sven Michel, skip Yannick Schwaller and Benoît Schwarz-van Berkel, who have formed a team since the 2022/23 season, are representing Switzerland at the World Championships for the third time. At their joint World Championship debut in 2023, the quartet took the bronze medal behind Scotland and Canada. Last year's home World Championships in Schaffhausen was a disappointment with a 7th place finish. So far, Switzerland has won 21 world championship medals in the men's event - three gold, six silver and twelve bronze. The last Swiss World Championship title was 33 years ago.
Swiss season balance
Despite the intensive reappraisal of last year's World Championship disappointment, the Swiss missed out on a third consecutive European Championship medal last November in Lohja after silver in 2022 and bronze in 2023. The semi-final against Scotland was lost 8:10 after an extra end, after which the Geneva team also lost to Norway (4:7) in the bronze medal match. In the season's four Grand Slam tournaments, to which the 16 best teams in the world rankings are invited, the Swiss made it to the semi-finals once, failed to reach the quarter-finals twice and were eliminated once after the group matches. They are ranked 4th in the world.
Prominent support
The Swiss team has added Canadian Glen Howard to its coaching staff. The 62-year-old has a wealth of experience and has won the curling world championship no fewer than four times, most recently in 2012. It remains to be seen whether the collaboration will continue after the World Championships; there is an option to extend it. According to Howard, he wants to help the team reach its full potential.
The favorites
Scotland are the top favorites. The team led by skip Bruce Mouat won three of the four Grand Slam tournaments this season and took silver at the European Championships. Defending champions Sweden are also always a force to be reckoned with, despite their recent poor results. Swedish skip Niklas Edin is the best curler in history. The 39-year-old was Olympic champion in 2022 and is a seven-time world and European champion. He has triumphed at five of the last six world championships. The record world champion is Canada, which has won gold 36 times in the 65 world championship tournaments to date. However, the last title win was eight years ago. The team led by skiff Brad Jacobs is trying to put an end to this drought.
The format
The 13 teams will play each other once in the preliminary round. The Swiss will face Norway, Austria, USA, Japan, China, Sweden, Scotland, Germany, Italy, Canada, Czech Republic and South Korea in turn. The first two teams after the round robin will go straight through to the semi-finals, while the nations in 3rd to 6th place will determine the other two semi-finalists (3 vs. 6 and 4 vs. 5).
Olympic qualification
The World Championships are also about qualifying places for the Winter Olympics next February in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo. Seven nations can secure one of these, host nation Italy is seeded. The results of last year's World Championships will also be taken into account. As the Swiss only came 7th there, the Olympic ticket is anything but a foregone conclusion for them. The remaining two places will be awarded at a separate qualifying tournament in December 2025.
Moose Jaw
Although this is the 27th time a men's curling world championship has been held in Canada, this is the first time that Moose Jaw in the province of Saskatchewan has hosted the event. A women's world championship has already been held there, in 1983, when Switzerland won the gold medal with Cristina Wirz (now Lestander), Barbara Meier (now Sieber-Thommen), Barbara Meyer (now Gurini) and skip Erika Müller. A good omen for Schwaller and Co.
