The Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships 2021 will be held in Lillehammer, Norway between 20–27 November 2021.
This will be the fourth time Norway has hosted the European Championships — after the 2020 events scheduled to take place in Lillehammer were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous editions of the championships were held in Oslo in 1977; Lillehammer in 1990; and Stavanger in 2013.
In recent years, international curling returned to Norway with the Youth Olympic Games 2016 curling events taking place in Lillehammer, while the 2019 editions of the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship and World Senior Curling Championships were held in Stavanger.
World Curling Federation President, Kate Caithness said: “We are delighted to be returning the Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships to Lillehammer in 2021 after the disappointment of cancelling the championships in 2020.
“The European Championships remain one of the biggest events of the season for our athletes and our broadcast partners, and we are positive the Norwegian Curling Federation and Lillehammer Curling Club will rise to the occasion to produce a first-class event.”
The Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships 2021 A-Division women’s and men’s competitions will be held in the Haakons Hall. This was built as the venue for the ice hockey finals during the Olympic Winter Games in 1994. It is Norway’s biggest venue for indoor sports with a spectator capacity of 10,000 people.
The B-Division women’s and men’s competitions will be held in the nearby Lillehammer Youth Hall. This is a modern venue which was built and used for ice hockey during the Youth Olympic Games in 2016.
President of the Norwegian Curling Association, Morten Søgård, said: “The Norwegian Curling Association are very happy to have been chosen to host the Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships 2021. We were disappointed when the 2020 championships were cancelled due to the pandemic and we are grateful that we have been given this opportunity to welcome the European curling family to Lillehammer for a safe and great event in November 2021.”
The Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships are for women’s and men’s teams from the World Curling Federation’s European zone. These championships qualify teams for the World Curling Championships and World Qualification Event.
To engage with the World Curling Federation in the build-up to the Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships 2021 on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Weibo, using the hashtags when posting: #ECC2021 #OurHouse
