26 February 2024
Gangneung ready to welcome two wheelchair curling world championships
The SD Biosensor World Wheelchair Curling Championship 2024 will take place at the Gangneung Curling Centre in Korea from 2 to 9 March, to be followed by the mixed doubles event from 11 to 16 March.
This will be the 17th edition of the team competition and the third edition of the mixed doubles event.
Team competition
Teams
The participating 12 teams are hosts Korea, Canada, China, Czechia, Estonia, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Scotland, Slovakia, Sweden and United States.
China are the reigning champions, who won last year in Richmond, Canada, as well as on home ice in Beijing in 2021.
All members of the Chinese team are world champions, except for alternate Peng Bing, who will debut on World Curling ice at this event.
Skip Wang Haitao is the most decorated of them: he has two Paralympic gold medals and three world titles to his name. Lead Yan Zhuo is also a Paralympic champion and two-time world champion.
Canada took silver medals in Richmond last year. With one change in their line-up, Chrissy Molnar coming in as alternate, the rink attempts to reach the podium in Gangneung as well. Skip Mark Ideson and third Ina Forrest have beautiful memories from the Gangneung Curling Centre as they won Paralympic bronze there in 2018.
Forrest is one of the most successful wheelchair curlers in history, as she has two Paralympic gold medals (2010, 2014) and two bronze medals (2018, 2022), and collected third world titles as well. Ideson is also a Paralympic champion, a two-time Paralympic bronze medallist and world champion from 2013.
Scotland won bronze medals at last year’s world championship, and with one change in their line-up, they are aiming at the podium this year as well.
Slovakia, Estonia and Italy qualified for the event by finishing on the podium at the World Wheelchair-B Curling Championship in November 2023.
Schedule
Round-robin play starts on Saturday 2 March and continues until Thursday 7 March.
The top six teams after the round robin advance to the play-off stage.
The teams ranked first and second get a bye to the semi-finals. The third-ranked team will play the sixth-ranked team in one qualification game, while the fourth-ranked team will meet the fifth-ranked team in the other qualification game. Both qualification games will take place on Friday 8 March at 14:00.
The winners of these games complete the semi-final field. The semi-finals will be played on Friday 8 March at 19:00.
The winners of the semi-finals will play for gold medals and the world title, while the losers of these games will meet for the bronze medals. Both medal games will take place on Saturday 9 March at 11:00.
Click here for the full playing schedule.
Mixed doubles competition
Teams
Altogether 21 teams representing their national Member Associations will compete at the event. Divided into three round-robin groups of seven, the teams are:
Group A: Estonia, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Scotland, Slovakia and Türkiye
Group B: Canada, England, Finland, Italy, Slovenia, Switzerland and United States
Group C: China, Denmark, Spain, Hungary, Japan, Korea and Sweden.
Latvia are the reigning champions. Polina Rozkova and Agris Lasmans took gold last year after a dreadful start to their event. Originally, Aleksandrs Dimbovskis was to play with Rozkova, but got injured in the last minute. Lasmans chipped in and the duo went all the way to win the final in an extra end over United States.
United States will have a new team this year. Oyuna Uranchimeg and Matt Thums are experienced players in the team competition, they will be members in this year’s mixed team as well. However, this will be their debut on World Curling ice in mixed doubles.
Canada’s Dennis Thiessen and Collinda Joseph took bronze medals last year in Richmond and they will aim for a medal this year as well.
Dennis Thiessen is a Paralympic champion (2014), two-time Paralympic bronze medallist (2018 and 2022) and world champion (2013) in the team event, while Collinda Joseph is also a Paralympic bronze medallist (2022) in the four-player competition.
Schedule
Round-robin play starts on Monday 11 March and continues until Thursday 14 March.
The top two teams in each group plus the two third-ranked teams with the better Draw Shot Challenge qualify for the quarter-finals and will be ranked one to eight. The quarter-finals will be held on Friday 15 March at 10:00. The winners of these games will play in the semi-finals at 17:00 on the same day.
The winners of the semi-finals will play in the gold medal game, the losers of the semi-finals will meet in the bronze medal game. Both medal games will take place on Saturday 16 March at 10:00.
Click here for the full playing schedule.
All times are KST (Korean Standard Time) which is Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) +8 hours.
Engage with the World Curling Federation in the lead up to the World Wheelchair Curling Championship and World Wheelchair Mixed Doubles Curling Championship 2024 on TikTok, Twitter/X, Instagram, Facebook, and Weibo and by searching the hashtags #WWhCC #WWhMDCC and #wheelchaircurling
