The international curling spotlight turns to Sweden on Saturday 18 March, when the LGT World Women’s Curling Championship 2023 gets underway in Sandviken’s Göransson Arena, located in Gävleborg county, about 190 kilometres north of Stockholm.
This will be the 45th world women’s championship to be staged, with the first held in Perth, Scotland in 1979.
This will be the fourth event of this kind in Sweden. Gavle hosted the championship in 2004, Vasteras in 1990 and Jonkoping in 1985.
While Sweden is no stranger to hosting World Curling Federation events, this is a first visit to Sandviken’s 10,000-seater facility which opened in 2009.
Altogether 13 of the top women’s teams will be representing their national Member Associations at this event.
The teams qualified through two different routes for this championship — through their performances in the Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships, held in November 2022 in Oestersund, Sweden, and at the inaugural Pan Continental Curling Championships, staged in Calgary, Canada earlier in November 2022.
From Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships Denmark, Switzerland, Scotland, Italy, Sweden, Türkiye, Germany and Norway secured their world championship spot, in qualification order.
From the Pan Continental Championships Japan, Korea, Canada, United States and New Zealand qualified for the world championship, in qualification order.
Meet the teams:
Canada: skipped by Kerri Einarson, this team is making a third world championship appearance. They finished fifth in 2021 in Calgary and took bronze in 2022, in Prince George, Canada.
Denmark: skipped by Madeleine Dupont, who will be making her 14th world championship appearance. This team finished fifth in 2021 and sixth in 2022. More recently, they took gold medals at the Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships 2022.
Germany: skipped by Daniela Jentsch, who is making her ninth appearance, this team finished ninth in the last three world championships.
Italy: this team is skipped by Olympic mixed doubles gold medallist from 2022, Stefania Constantini. They finished tenth at the world championship last year and fourth at last year’s Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships.
Japan: skipped by Fujisawa Satsuki, this team took Olympic silver in 2022, to follow up on their Olympic bronze medals in 2018.
Korea: skipped by Ha Seungyoun, who is making her debut at this level. They took silver medals at the inaugural Pan Continental Curling Championships in 2022.
New Zealand: skip Jessica Smith leads this team to their nation’s first women’s appearance at world championship level.
Norway: skipped by Marianne Roervik, this team finished eighth at last year’s world championship. Their fourth player, Kristin Skaslien, is a two-time Olympic mixed doubles medallist.
Scotland: skipped by Rebecca Morrison — for Covid-related medical reasons, this team was forced to withdraw from last year’s world championship, their only appearance so far at this level. They took European bronze last November.
Sweden: skipped by Anna Hasselborg, who is making a sixth world championship appearance, this team of Olympic champions will be hoping to improve on the silver medals they won in 2018 and 2019, and last season’s fourth-place finish.
Switzerland: are the defending champions under skip Silvana Tirinzoni, who is looking for her fourth world title having taken gold in 2019, 2021 and last year.
Türkiye: skipped by Dilsat Yildiz, this team finished 11th last year, when Türkiye made their world championship debut.
United States: skipped by Tabitha Peterson, this team is a new combination of experienced world championship and Olympic performers. Three members of this team — skip Peterson, her sister Tara and Becca Hamilton, took world bronze in 2021.
Playing schedule and format
Starting on Saturday 18 March, there will be 20 sessions of round-robin play, concluding on Friday 24 March.
This will determine the top six-ranked teams. The teams ranked first and second will proceed directly to the semi-finals. For teams ranked third to sixth, qualification games will take place on Saturday 25 March at 10:00 (3v6 and 4v5).
The semi-finals will take place on 25 March at 16:00.
The bronze medal game and then the gold medal final will be staged on Sunday 26 March, at 10:00 and at 15:00, respectively.
For the full playing schedule, click here.
World Curling TV will be broadcasting games on the Curling Channel. The broadcast schedule for the event will be available soon.
All times are CET (Central European Time) which is Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) +1 hour, except for 26 March, when times are CEST (Central European Summer Time) which is Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) +2 hours.
Engage with the World Curling Federation in the lead up to the LGT World Women’s Curling Championship 2023 on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Weibo and by searching the hashtags #WWCC2023 #curling
