14 November 2022
The Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships set to begin in Oestersund
The Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships 2022 will be staged in Oestersund, Sweden, from Saturday 18–26 November.
Oestersund has previously hosted six World Curling events: the World Junior Curling Championships in 1999, 2008 and 2012; the World Junior-B Championships in 2017; and the World Mixed Doubles Championship and World Senior Championships in 2018.
Altogether ten teams will compete in the women’s A-Division and another ten women’s teams will make up the B-Division. In the men’s competition, ten teams will compete in the A-Division, and 16 teams, divided into two groups, will make up the men’s B-Division.
The women’s and men’s A-Division will be staged in the Oestersund Arena, a modern and accessible building, opened in December 2013. The B-Division will take place at the Oestersund Curling Hall.
Oestersund – home to over fifty thousand people – is located in Jamtland, in the middle of Sweden. The city is recognised as one of Sweden’s best organisers of sports events.
This will be the 47th European championships to be held, and it is once again supported by long-term sponsor Le Gruyère AOP, for the 20th time.
In total, 26 Member Associations will be represented at these championships.
The ten A-Division women’s teams are: Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland and Türkiye.
- Scotland are the defending champions, and are represented by a new-look team, skipped by Rebecca Morrison.
- Sweden are the silver medallists, but with a lineup change this year, Sofia Mabergs will play third while Johanna Heldin will play vice-skip and lead.
- Switzerland, with a new front end, are the current world champions.
- Germany took European bronze last season, and they are skipped by Daniela Jentsch, who will be playing in her ninth European championship.
- Italy, sixth last year, are skipped by Olympic Mixed Doubles gold medallist Stefania Constantini.
- Norway, Latvia and Hungary are all promoted from last season’s B-Division.
The ten B-Division women’s teams are: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, England, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.
- Czech Republic and Estonia were demoted from last season’s A-Division.
- Belgium, Spain and Finland were promoted from last season’s C-Division event, held in Kaunas, Lithuania in May 2022.
The ten A-Division men’s teams are: Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Norway, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Türkiye.
- Scotland are defending champions and Olympic silver medallists, skipped by Bruce Mouat.
- Sweden are European silver medallists and reigning Olympic champions. They will be skipped by usual vice-skip third player Oskar Eriksson, as regular skip Niklas Edin recovers from his knee surgery.
- Italy are current European bronze medallists, skipped by Joel Retornaz, who is making his 14th appearance at this event.
- Switzerland is a new-look team, skipped by Yannick Schwaller.
- Spain are skipped by Sergio Vez, who is making his A-Division debut.
- Spain and Türkiye have been promoted from last year’s B-Division.
The 16 B-Division men’s teams are:
Group A: England, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Lithuania, Slovakia, Ukraine and Wales
Group B: Austria, Belgium, France, Hungary, Latvia, Netherlands, Portugal and Slovenia
- Finland and Netherlands were demoted from last season’s A-Division
- Ireland, Ukraine, Portugal and Lithuania (in qualification order) were promoted from last season’s C-Division.
In the A-Division round-robin play commences on Friday evening 18 November and will continue until Thursday morning 24 November. In both the men’s and women’s events, the top four teams will progress to the semi-finals.
Both women’s semi-finals and one of the men’s semi-finals will take place on 24 November, while the other men’s semi-final will be on the morning of Friday 25 November.
For the semi-finals of both genders, the teams ranked first on the round-robin table will play the fourth-ranked teams, while the second and third-ranked teams will face each other.
Both the women’s and men’s bronze medal game will be staged on Friday 25 November. Both gold medal finals will take place on Saturday 26 November.
The European championships also act as qualifiers for the world championships held later in the season. The LGT World Women’s Curling Championship 2023 will be staged in Sandviken, Sweden, from 18–26 March 2023, while the BKT Tires & OK Tire World Men’s Curling Championship 2023 will take place in Ottawa, Canada from 1–9 April 2023.
As hosts of the women’s world championship, Sweden qualifies automatically for one of eight slots available from this event, leaving the other A-Division teams to battle it out for the remaining vacant places.
In the men’s field, the top-placed eight teams will qualify directly for the world championship.
In addition, in both women’s and men’s competitions, the bottom two teams from the A-Division will be relegated to next season’s B-Division, while two teams from the B-Division will be promoted to next season’s A-Division.
The bottom two teams from the B-Divisions will be demoted to the C-Division.
The broadcast schedule of the championships will be available soon.
Engage with the World Curling Federation in the lead up to Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships 2022 on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Weibo and by searching the hashtags #ECC2022 #curling
