New electronic handles trialled at European Championships

In a significant move — particularly in an Olympic season — a new model of electronic handles, designed to detect and flag hogline violations, is being trialled at the Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships in Lohja, Finland.

Electronic handles are not new to curling, but the previous system was discontinued after the Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships 2021 in Lillehammer due to reliability and technical issues. The company behind the original system has now ceased trading.

This new system has been developed to be more robust and deliver absolute accuracy.

The project has been developed by World Curling’s Technical Commission, chaired by David Sik, who is in Lohja overseeing the trials.

“We did this to help with the rules,” Sik said.

“It is difficult for players and umpires to judge, so we wanted to get back to having electronic handles.”

The new electronic handles in action © World Curling / Stephen Fisher

How the project came together

Sik explained some background about the development process.

“We investigated and we got the Czech Technical University in Prague to give us some analysis of the problems that we had before and that we had to solve. This way, they knew what was not working before.”

With the initial groundwork done, the Czech Technicial University team came onboard as project partners.

“There were some other companies around, so we ran a tender where we compared what was available, especially costs, because this is expensive,” said Sik.

David Sik speaks at the Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships 2025 opening ceremony © World Curling / James Roberts

How the system works

As was the case with the old system, each stone’s handle is fitted with a touch sensor and a pair of lights with changing colours to indicate the system’s status:

Blue — armed and ready
Green — all clear
Red — a violation after the stone goes over the hogline sensor

This system gives players immediate feedback on each stone as it is being played.

Athlete feedback

Estonia’s Harri Lill is a member of World Curling’s Athlete Commission and before European competition began, he spent some time testing the stone in Lohja.

He said, “I’ve played with them now and I think these new handles are brilliant. They work really well — we tried all sorts of tricks to try to make them not work, and still they worked.”

“Really, I think they will help the athletes a lot, in the sense of making it very clear if people are over the hogline or not over the hogline. They will also help the umpires too, I think.”

Lill added, “Our athletes have voiced their wish for new handles for a while, and now it’s finally here — during the Olympic season as well, that’s very important. I think the athletes are happy.”

The electronic handles light up red when it passes the hogline sensor © World Curling / James Roberts

On-site technical expertise

Two experts from the Czech Technical University — Jacub Vanek and Martin Faltus — have been in attendance in Lohja.

Martin reported only one minor issue so far — activating the system in the first place.

“At least it is before they throw the stone that the player knows something is wrong,” he said.

He added, “It is important that we test the stones in competition. We need to test for robustness at competitions — it is very hard to replicate 200 big hits in the laboratory.”

Next steps

With the European trial on-going, David Sik outlined the next steps.

“We will be doing more testing here and at the Olympic Qualification Event.”

“Our Board feels that, if we can see that everything is working, we will continue onto the Olympic Games, but it depends on no failures and the system being robust.”

If successful, this innovation will mark a major technical advancement — one welcomed by athletes, officials, and fans alike.

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