International championship curling resumes when the World Mixed Doubles Championship 2022 is played at the Sous-Moulin Sports Centre in Geneva, Switzerland from 23–30 April 2022.
This will be the 14th edition of this championship, since the inaugural event was held in Vierumaki, Finland in 2008.
Altogether 20 teams representing their national Member Associations have qualified for the competition. Divided into two round-robin groups, the 20 teams are:
Group A: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Italy, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland
Group B: Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, England, Germany, Hungary, Scotland, Spain, Turkey and United States
Among these teams, in Group A:
- Italy — Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner — are the reigning Olympic champions
- Korea — represented by world bronze medallist women’s skip Kim Minji and Lee Kijeong
- Norway — represented by siblings Maia and Magnus Ramsfjell
- Sweden — Rasmus Wrana, Olympic champion and four-time world champion in the men’s competition, plays with his sister, Isabella
- Switzerland — on and off the ice partners, Alina Paetz and Sven Michel won this championship in 2011. Paetz is the fourth player for the current women’s world champions, and has altogether five world women’s titles. Michel has two world Mixed Doubles gold medals, the latest from 2018.
In Group B:
- Australia — represented by Tahli Gill and Dean Hewitt, who became their country’s first curling Olympians at the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing earlier this year
- Canada — represented by engaged couple Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant, who won silver medals in 2019
- Scotland — the defending champion nation, represented by Olympic champion women’s skip Eve Muirhead and Olympic silver medallist in the men’s field, Bobby Lammie
- Turkey — Dilsat Yildiz plays in her fifth championship along with newcomer Muhammed Zeki Ucan
- United States — 2018 Olympic men’s champion Matt Hamilton plays with his sister, Becca.
Round-robin play, which starts on Saturday 23 April and continues until Thursday 28 April, will determine the top three teams from each group, who will move onto the play-offs.
Both group leaders will qualify direct for the semi-finals, while the second and third teams from Group A will play the third and second teams from Group B in qualification games, with the winners also proceeding to the semi-finals.
Qualification games and semi-finals will take place on Friday 29 April. The bronze medal game and the gold medal final will be staged on Saturday 30 April.
At the foot of the round-robin rankings, the teams finishing at the bottom of each group will be relegated to next season’s World Mixed Doubles Qualification event.
Above that, there will be relegation games that will see the second-bottom team of Group A playing the third-bottom team of Group B, as well as the second-bottom team from Group B playing the third-bottom team from Group A.
The winners of these games will become the last two of 16 teams to qualify directly for next year’s championship, while the losers will move onto next season’s qualification event.
Mixed Doubles made its Olympic debut at the Games in 2018 in PyeongChang, South Korea.
Instead of playing in teams of four, mixed doubles curling is for teams of two players; one female and one male. No alternate player is allowed.
The game is played on the same sheets of ice as “traditional” curling, with some differences, including:
- Teams have only six stones each — instead of eight — and one of those stones, from each team, is prepositioned before each end starts.
- Player one delivers the first and last stones and player two plays the second, third and fourth stones. If they choose to, the two players may swap positions from one end to the next.
- Sweeping can be done by both team members.
- Each team receives 22 minutes of thinking time and games are fixed at 8 ends. If games are tied after 8 ends, extra end(s) will be played with three minutes of thinking time added for each extra end.
At the same time as the World Mixed Doubles Championship, the World Senior Curling Championships 2022 are being staged at the Sous-Moulin Sports Centre as well, featuring 13 senior women’s teams and 21 senior men’s teams.
Click here for more information on both events.
Engage with the World Curling Federation in the lead up to the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship 2022 on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Weibo and be searching the hashtags #WMDCC2022 #curling
