13th World Curling Congress concludes with Board Elections

The 2024 World Curling Congress took place in Montreal, Canada between 5 and 8 September.

Member Association delegates, and external specialists spent three days of open meetings sharing a programme of workshops, presentations and Q&A sessions covering a wide range of topics.

Congress concluded with the Annual General Assembly, held on Sunday 8 September. Several formal business items were considered and voted on by the Members at the Assembly.

World Curling Board Elections

Four Board positions were up for election with 13 candidates involved in the process.

Following the voting by the Member Associations, Kim Forge from Australia and Morten Soegaard from Norway were elected to the position of Vice President for an initial four-year term.

Jill Officer from Canada and David Sik from Czechia were then elected to the position of Director for an initial four-year term.

Thank you for your service

Three of the most experienced members of the World Curling Board have now stepped back following the 2024 Annual General Assembly.

With almost 40 years’ combined service, Vice Presidents Graham Prouse (Canada) and Hugh Millikin (Australia), along with Director Toyo Ogawa (Japan), have all reached the maximum length of service allowed by the Constitution, and were obliged to step aside.

All three reflected on their experience with World Curling ahead of the Annual General Assembly. Read more about their experiences here. Their services to the curling community were warmly acknowledged by the delegates.

Hall of Fame Induction – Les Harrison

Former President Les Harrison was presented with the Freytag Award and inducted into the World Curling Hall of Fame by current President Beau Welling.

The Hall of Fame is the highest non-playing honour that World Curling can bestow. Les is one of five new inductees inducted into the Hall of Fame this year. He was the only person inducted in the category of “builder” – two others were “curlers”: Sonja Gaudet and the late Thomas Ulsrud. Pal Trulsen and Jalle Jungnell were inducted into the combined “Curler and Builder” category.

The other inductees will be honoured at events throughout the coming season.

Speaking at the Congress, Les said, “this is unbelievable. I was really taken aback when they called me and told me what was going to happen.”

He also explained some irony behind his award, saying, “it’s kind of special because back in the day when I was on the Board, I brought up that curling needed a Hall of Fame and they said ‘no’. Then, a few years later I heard that they had a Hall of Fame…it’s wonderful.”

2023–2024 Annual Review

Ahead of the Annual General Assembly, World Curling released the 2023–2024 edition of the Annual Review. The digital version of the document is available to download here.

Anti-Doping Changes

During the Annual Assembly, the Member Associations voted to change the rules around anti-doping violations in competition.

Previously, if one person in the team failed a doping test then the team would still retain its position on a podium, qualification position or any ranking points or prize money they achieve.

The new change states that if one player in a team is found guilty of an anti-doping rule violation, then the team rather than just the individual is subject to the competition sanctions indicated depending on the precise nature of the offence.

Associate Membership Category

A new Associate Membership category has been introduced to allow organisations such as those affiliated to World Curling to take part in our activities in a more coherent way.

Associate Membership is open to organisations representing groups of curlers in a country that may not be able to be represented by a Conditional, Provisional or Full Member.

Athlete Chair Voting Change

The Athlete Commission Chair has now been given voting rights on the Board in line with the IOC’s Best Practice. The current Commission Chair who will receive these voting rights Is Tyler George, Olympic gold medallist from the United States.

Member Association

Congratulations are due to the Winter Sports Federation of Pakistan for progressing from Conditional to Provisional membership of World Curling.

14th World Curling Congress

At the close of the Annual General Assembly, it was confirmed that the 14th World Curling Congress will be held in the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia from 5 to 8 September 2025.

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