BKT World Men’s Curling Championship set for action in Moose Jaw, Canada

World Curling’s competition action moves to Canada for the first time this year, when the BKT World Men’s Curling Championship 2025 gets underway on Saturday 29 March at the Temple Gardens Centre, Moose Jaw.

As well as being the most prestigious annual men’s team competition, this year’s championship is the last chance for direct qualification to the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games.

Points accumulated from results in both last season’s world championship and this year’s event will determine the seven available direct slots in the Olympic Winter Games line-up (with Italy, who automatically qualify as hosts). Any team participating that does not qualify directly is entitled to take part in the Olympic Qualifying Event 2025 in December, in Kelowna, Canada or the Pre-Qualifying Event depending on final Olympic Qualification Points earned.

Teams

Altogether, 13 teams representing Member Associations from across the globe will compete. To take part in this event, teams qualified through the Pan Continental Curling Championships 2024 or the Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships 2024.

The qualifiers from the Pan Continental Curling Championships 2024 are (in finishing order): China, Japan, United States, Canada (hosts) and Korea.

The qualifiers from the Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships 2024 are (in finishing order): Germany, Scotland, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, Italy, Austria, Czechia.

Among these teams:

Austria, skipped by Mathias Genner, will make their first world championship appearance since 2002.

Canada are skipped by 2014 Olympic champion Brad Jacobs. This rink is a new combination, involving highly experienced and decorated players.

China are led by skip Xiaoming Xu, who led this team to gold at the Pan Continental Curling Championships 2024. China returns to the world championship stage for the first time since 2021.

Czechia’s skip Lukas Klima will make his fourth appearance with this team, looking to improve on their best ranking — ninth last year and in 2022.

Germany are skipped by Marc Muskatewitz, who is making a seventh appearance at the world championship. This young German team are current European champions and finished fifth at last year’s world championship.

Italy are assured an Olympic Winter Games place as hosts. Skip Joel Retornaz will lead last year’s bronze medallists as he makes his own eleventh appearance.

Japan are skipped by Riku Yanagisawa and his team return for a second appearance, having finished seventh in the World Men’s Curling Championship 2023.

Korea will make their first appearance at this level under skip Hyojun Kim, who played third in the rink that finished fifth place at last year’s Pan Continental Curling Championships.

Norway are skipped by Magnus Ramsfjell, who will make his fifth appearance at this event. This team won bronze at the Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships 2024.

Scotland are skipped by Bruce Mouat, who will make his sixth world championships appearance. This team are current Olympic Winter Games silver medallists and 2023 world champions.

Sweden, the current Olympic and world champions, are skipped by Niklas Edin, who will make his fourteenth appearance at this event and will be looking to add to his seven previous gold medals.

Switzerland are lead by Yannick Schwaller who will be making his fourth appearance as he leads the 2003 silver medallists.

United States are skipped by former world mixed doubles champion Korey Dropkin, who makes a third appearance at this event, having finished fourth in 2022.

Team Italy at the LGT World Men’s Curling Championship 2024 © World Curling / Celine Stucki

Format and schedule

This is the first World Curling championship to be staged in Moose Jaw, the fourth-largest city in Saskatchewan, with a population of just over 33,000 people.

In the competition, the teams will face each other in twenty sessions of round-robin play from Saturday 29 March – Friday 4 April. Qualification games and semi-finals will take place on Saturday 5 April, with the medal games to conclude the championship on Sunday 6 April.

How to watch

All games will be available to watch live on the Curling Channel, with select feature games. Please note, there may be restrictions due to broadcast partner agreements.

Find all information about what Curling Channel passes are available and how to purchase here.

Follow live scores and results here.

Join the World Curling community! 